Expert: ruth kraft - 10/7/2010

Question
Hello Ruth,
I am the proud stay-at-home mom of my 17 month old daughter.  We just found out we're expecting again and I have a question regarding breastfeeding.

With my first child breast feeding was a nightmare. I kid-you-not when I say her schedule was this:
she would nurse on one breast for 3 - yes three! - hours.  It took her so long to get through her meal that by the time she was done she was hungry again.  I would have a 20 min break and she'd be crying to be placed back onto the other breast, which I did. She did not sleep at night, and the pattern continued. I literally only got a 20 min break every three hours for months on end.  I checked the latch numerous times with specialists and she was fine - properly latched and sucking well.  I kept mentioning that it seemed a little odd as I know nobody who didn't at least get an hour here or there sometimes but my doctor assured me it was good.  well, my instinct still tells me that it was a little odd as every book I've ever read says babies may feed as frequently as 1 and a half hours and mom's may only get an hour or so break between feedings, but my baby was still nursing after 1 and a half hours! Even when she finally started a bottle she'd take usually two to three hours to finish it. I was going absolutely insane and the only way I could feed her was to be sitting down on the couch with her. With a just-turned-two year old in the house after my next baby is born there is NO WAY I can possibly feed around the clock with no more than a 20 min break every three hours. I mean I'm going to need to prepare my older child's meals and play with her and change her...I can't be couch ridden for THAT long again.  I'm looking for your opinion. I hope someone can tell me that feeding for three hours with only a 20 min break in between is NOT normal. I'm hoping someone can assure me it was a freak thing and it likely won't be as bad again. At the least I want to know how on earth to handle it if it does occur again. I was not a mother who ever got good at being able to carry my nursing baby with me - co-ordination and strength are not my strong suits!  Now, as it turned out in the end we found out she was allergic when she started swelling up and breaking out into rashes so the doctor put her on soy, but not before many months of anguish.  Could that allergy have had something to do with her taking so long or was she just a slow diner?

Answer
Hello! Having had a high needs child I completely understand what you are going through. Dr Sears has written a book called the fussy baby. It will be very insightful to you even now to understand that your child is normal. Is it common for this to happen ? No. but that doesn't mean it isn't normal. Normal is a very wide variety of things.  It is also not likely that it would happen again either.  

I am a little unclear when you stopped nursing last time. But if it was early ( less than 6 months ) then yes, a formula allergy could have made this issue much bigger than it needed to be. She may have been a slow diner but that is not all that uncommon. I think there was something else going on though. Try to get that dr. Sears book, google the words " high need baby" and see if that fit.

My suggestion, especially if you stopped nursing less than 6 month of age, or started anything but breastmilk before 6 months, to make sure this time to exclusively nurse. Allergies are a horrible thing for baby. If the baby was allergic to dairy , you may have been having dairy in your diet ( milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream etc ) and this could have made the baby fussy.  
Chances are, other than a milk allergy, which you have to watch milk in your diet, you will be better off breastfeeding to reduce the struggle you had last time. The chance it could be just as bad is small. Typically I see babies do the opposite of their sibling, except in the case of allergies. Then the same behavior may show.

I hope that helped!