 Dr.
Jane Morton,
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School
of Medicine, is an expert on nursing premature infants as well
as a
member of the Breastfeeding.com medical advisory board. Dr.
Morton has answered many of your questions on getting started
breastfeeding and overcoming nursing obstacles.
Dr. Morton works one-on-one with new mothers at the
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University,
teaching moms how to breastfeed successfully. In 1997, Focus
Magazine named Dr. Morton one of the "Best Doctors in the
Bay Area," and she was again selected by her peers as one
of "Silicon Valley's Best Physicians" as reported in
The Sane Jose Magazine in 1999.
 My baby cries whenever I am not
nursing her!
| NAME: |
Joy |
| BABY'S NAME: |
K.D. |
| BABY'S AGE: |
10 weeks |
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!
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