thumb sucking

[madhavi]

initally my child use to wake me up by crying at night to get her feed. but nowadays she is not doing that, instead of that she prefers thumb sucking and she is okay without feed for more than 6hrs also. if i take her and feed her voluntarily then she takes breast milk for 2 or 3mins only. what can be done for this?

[chaosKOSMOS]

You might want to try putting her on a feeding schedule. My 2nd DS did this same thing, and unless I initiated feedings, then he was happy as a clam sucking his thumb. It worked great for the night, because we didn't have to co-sleep, as he would just pop the thumb in his mouth when he woke up and soothed himself back to sleep. He didn't suck his thumb much during the day, but once I started weaning him, he went right for the thumb again. I felt bad because it seemed like he was using it to make up for me being too lazy to want to feed him :( LOL.

Grace

[crystal555rose]

I sounds like your baby may be starting to sleep through the night which is a reson to celebrate by getting more sleep! If baby is gaining weight fine and peeing/pooping, then all is well! Are you having a hard time feeding during the day?

Allow baby to guide feedings as long as there is no medical indications to do otherwise.

[PghMom]

How old is your baby? It may be just that she is spreading her feedings out. I actually called my doctor because my baby was sleeping 8 hours at night and I wondered if it was okay. The doctor laughed and told me to get my rest :) The baby was getting what she needed during the day. She also told me that some infants (older than 3 months) can go 4, 5, or more hours during the day before needing a feed. Around 4 + months, I think the average number of feeds per day is between 4 and 7. It's awesome that your baby is sucking her thumb and learning to self-soothe. She will let you know loud and clear when she needs to eat and will eat poorly or become fussy if you offer your breast too often/when she doesn't need it. You're such a good mommy to be paying attention to your baby's cues and her feeding schedule! Good luck.

[chaosKOSMOS]

She will let you know loud and clear when she needs to eat.

Just FYI, this isn't always true. My DS (the thumb sucker) didn't always let me know when he was hungry. He was perfectly happy sucking on his thumb most of the time. He sometimes wouldn't even realize he was hungry until I would put him on the breast. He did start expressing his hunger loudly at about 4 months, but he gained a little slower than what he was supposed to before that because I was assuming he would let me know when he needed to be fed. No cues no nothing.

But yeah, to the OP, baby will most likely refuse when baby isn't hungry, so I say offer, and if baby doesn't want it, don't stress :)

Grace