My baby cries whenever I am not nursing her!
	What can I do for my colicky baby?
	My baby wants to eat all night long!

My baby cries whenever I am not nursing her!

 K.D. nurses constantly! I cannot say she is on an eating schedule on any kind.  If I'm not holding her and nursing her she is crying frantically.  She will not take a pacifier; they only make her more angry.  Her eating all the time would not be such a problem if I didn't have three other children in need of my attention.  Is this normal at this age?  I don't remember it being this way with my older two (my third child was bottle-fed). 





I would need to know a little more information to best help you out.  But let me make a few suggestions.  The first thing that I would want to eliminate is the possibility that K.D. is hungry even after she nurses.  She should be weighed to make sure that she is gaining approximately an ounce each day (the average breastfed baby gains 26 ounces by 30 days). Also, you might want to pump in the morning, and when K.D. gets fussy later in the day offer her bottled breastmilk.  If she takes it easily you may find that pumping after she feeds - at least several times each day in an effort to augment your milk production - is useful.

Scheduling a breastfeeding baby is an interesting topic.  Frankly, the only schedule that I would ever want my 10 week old to have would be one where she eats more during the daytime and sleeps more at night.  I would certainly not look at the clock, but would feed the baby based on her behavior.  For example, a typical one month old might give you a 4 hour then a 3 hour sleep at night; then she might feed every 2 1/2 - 3 hours in the morning, and every 1 1/2 - 2 hours in the afternoon.  As demanding as this can be, it is a common schedule.

Let me share another scenario that is common among mothers with more than one child, and offer some suggestions if this seems to apply to you.  Perhaps in trying to be the perfect mother, you are extending yourself to your other children, becoming distracted, and not having consistent let down reflexes before nursing.  This results in your baby being able to access only a fraction of the milk in your breast.  Many babies become quite wise by 10 weeks, and get frustrated at the breast after several minutes without the high-pressure system created by the let down reflex.  A baby's frustration, of course, does not make it easier for her mother to relax and have a let down reflex.

If this sounds like a possibility, I would suggest the following. First, I would not wait for K.D. to wake up and become "national emergency impatient and hungry".  Instead, as you notice her stirring from her sleep, lift her up and lie down next to her, barely holding her, and allow her to nuzzle up and begin nursing.  Have the room quiet (kid free) and maybe even a little dark.  This way, she'll be more patient with you.

Another suggestion would be to try to condition yourself with nursing.  Always have a glass of something tasty - nonalcoholic - to drink, a comfortable chair, feet up, and do as much to keep yourself relaxed as possible while you nurse.  Some mothers find it useful to breastfeed their babies while sitting in a nice, warm bathtub.

By the way, alcohol is a strong inhibitor of oxytocin, and this is dose-related.  So, be careful in this respect.

Finally, K.D. may be fussy because she is colicky.  Typically, breastfed, colicky babies have gained much more than the average baby.  They consume such large volumes of milk that their small intestine cannot digest all of the lactose, the sugar of breastmilk.  Instead, some of the sugar gets dumped into the large intestine, the normal bacterial flora ferments this sugar, and the by-product is gas and water.  These babies are typically very gassy - nothing a burp relieves - as it is the large intestine that is distended.  By three months of age, they usually develop the intestinal maturity that allows them to digest the constituents of breastmilk more completely.  Many of the most demanding, inconsolable babies with colic become the sweetest, easiest, three month olds.  This is hard to believe when you are in the middle of it!

Babies of your daughter's age (10 weeks) don't cry because they are spoiled or manipulative.  In fact, the Webster's definition of "to manipulate" is "to handle with art and skill."  This positive ability is something that we learn. At 10 weeks, K.D. has not yet figured this out.  So, I would trust her that she has a legitimate complaint!

What can I do for my colicky baby?

I gave my son a pacifier because he's going through colic and it seems the only thing he'll take.  He wants to suck but when I offer him the breast he starts to cry and wriggle up his belly.  This only happens during the night.  During the day I don't use the pacifier at all.  But I'm worried he might refuse the breast all together if I keep using the pacifier.  I just don't know what else to do for him at night, he takes the pacy just fine and usually falls asleep.  Sometimes he'll put the breast in his mouth and suck for a half a minute, but then he turns away and starts to cry.  Help, please tell me what to do.





Usually, I think that pacifiers are a bad idea.  In the first two weeks after birth, a pacifier takes away the only cue a baby can give to tell his mother that he needs more to eat. Pharmaceutical companies that produce formula used to give gift packages to new breastfeeding mothers in the hospital that included pacifiers.  There are very good studies to show how this interfered with lactogenesis (the development of copious milk production).  Studies in older babies also suggest that the regular use of pacifiers result in abbreviated breastfeeding experiences.

Having said this, I believe that what you are doing is probably just fine.  Colicky babies are legitimately uncomfortable, and babies this age seem to think that if they eat they will feel better.  Often, they will overeat and spit up (you are probably familiar with this).  The maneuvers that tend to keep these babies more comfortable, aside from over feeding them, include allowing them to suck on your finger, an empty breast, or as you are doing, a pacifier.  Other comforting measures include heat, pressure on the abdomen, and motion.  But you are using the pacifier only at night, and usually just to put your son to sleep.  I would suggest removing the pacifier when he is comfortably asleep, and see if you can get rid of it altogether after his colic passes, before or at least by the time he is three months old.

My baby wants to eat all night long!

Breastfeeding in the beginning started out great, feeding every 2 hours and healthy.  But, about a week ago I started supplementing formula at night.  It seemed as though he'd eat fine during the day but at night I'd be feeding all night and we'd both be frustrated.  It was like he wasn't getting full and I'd be up all night.  The very first night I supplemented he slept for 3 1/2 hours and now we both get sleep.  Was this wrong?  I really want to keep breastfeeding. I'm afraid I'll end up losing all my milk.  Plus, my right breast seems to be more full than my left.  Any suggestions?  Thanks so much.





Let me answer your last question first.  Most women are asymmetric.  Commonly, the larger breast is a better producer of milk, and frequently the baby begins to prefer the better producer.  So, don't let the fact that your right breast is fuller than your left breast worry you.

I understand how difficult it is to be "on call" every night with increasingly demanding sleep deprivation.  Being the mother of a six week old always seemed harder to me than any internship or residency night call schedule I ever had!

Let me see if I can give you some helpful suggestions for how to "manipulate," if you will, a six- week-old baby to sleep more during the night and eat more during the day.  First, this is a good age to begin expressing milk in the morning.  This fat, rich, morning milk could then be part of, or a complete, feeding in the late afternoon or early evening.  A breastfed baby who is offered his first bottle at two months frequently rejects it - sort of like putting a saddle on a pony.  But a 4-6-week-old baby like Quaid is typically very open-minded to the idea of a bottle, particularly if it is offered to him by someone other than the mother (human beings have their keenest sense of smell as newborns, and infants frequently will reject the breast of another mother, preferring the scent of their own mother).  Perhaps offering Quaid a bottle of expressed breastmilk each evening would be a fun interaction for Quaid and his father.

Second, frequent breastfeeding during the day, with short naps in the afternoon and early evening also are important.  Finally, right before you go to bed, try nursing your son in a nice, warm bathtub.  Babies tend to nurse very well in the tub, and they sleep well afterward.  Try the routine for three or four days and see if you can help him stretch out between feeding sessions at night.

Most mothers prefer to have a fairly flexible baby.  Beginning a bottle (ideally of breastmilk) at 4-6 weeks and offering it not less than 2-3 times each week and not more than once each day is pretty safe.  By this I mean that a baby of this age will not become confused by bottles and will still prefer the breast.




 

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