My baby now sleeps through the night from 8pm to 6 am. He feeds very frequently during the day. He has done so since he has started sleeping through the nights. He used to feed every three hours and now feeds every two hours or 1hour and 40minutes. He feeds for between
10 to 25 minutes. I am fully breastfeeding. If I try to make him wait a little he goes into fits of rage and it then takes a while to calm him down. When he has these angry episodes, is it all right for me to allow this or should I do everything for the baby to be contented?
I am also concerned that he is feeding too often for his age and weight and I am finding it very tiring. Should I make him wait even though it really upsets him? Or should I carry on?




A Thank you for your question. It is great that your baby is sleeping for eight hours at night and because of that it is understandable that he will need to make up the feeds during the day. His weight gain is also good. The following suggestions may help:

• He may be having a growth spurt at the moment which could account for the more frequent feeding. He is growing and will need extra milk and this pattern usually slows down once the milk supply is increased
• Check that he is latching on properly because if not he may not be getting enough milk and may not be getting to the hind milk
• When a baby is hungry he/she should be fed. It is always best to avoid confrontation. Baby’s who are annoyed can usually be distracted out of their rage but distraction will not work with a hungry baby.
• If you are feeling tired introduce him to a cup feed of expressed breast milk once during the day.

There are several cups available on the market, for example, the Soft Cup advanced feeder can also be useful when introducing cup feeding. Have a look on www.pedleybaby.co.uk or speak to your health visitor who may have samples of cups to show you. There is also the doidy cup which is shaped to help babies to drink form a cup, it is recommended from four months but some babies can manage to drink from it earlier that that and is available from Boots. Adiri breast bottle nurser which is designed to be more like breastfeeding and is ideal for switching breast/bottle feeding is another option.
When introducing something new to a baby it is best to approach it with a positive attitude. Make sure that you are not rushed and your baby is not in a frantic hungry state.

Health visitor

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