Expert: ruth kraft - 3/26/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hello Ruth,
I have a 7 week old infant who is latching on well and sucking well for the first 10 minutes of a feeding, but then will fall asleep and any atempts to keep her awake or to wake her are not working.  I will remove her from my breast change her diaper, play with her, talk to her, sing, read, tickle, then put her back onto my breast, then within the next 5-10 minutes, she's asleep again.  This means that a feeding sometimes last up to 2 hours.  My milk supply seems to be ok because once she's "finished", i am still able to express milk.
She is gaining weight and she has the right amount of BMs and urinations, but I would like to reduce the time that it takes to feed her.  Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you,
Alexandra

ANSWER: If she is having 6-8 wet diapers a day, gaining and having regular dirty diapers too, then you dont need to spend so much time feeding. Most babies when latching well get the majority of their food in the first 4-7 minutes of nursing. So she might just be satisfied after that first 10 minutes. So I would suggest to just follow her lead. Nurse her when she is hungry and then let her sleep :) See if she continues to thrive. If she wakes up herself at least every 3-4 hours or so to nurse and seems to nurse well, then you and her are doing FABULOUS :) chances are she will eat more frequently, but at 7 weeks, she should self wake on her own. So just follow her lead and you will both do great :)

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your answer.  After she falls asleep for the first time, she'll wake and and cry or show signs of hunger which is why I put her back on my breast.  This pattern continues for up to 2 hours.  Are there any tricks to keeping her awake while she's feeding?

Thanks again!

Answer
Hello :)

Yes you can take her blanket off and then continue taking clothes off until she is down to her diaper to wake her up. You can change her diaper first and not dress her again until she has nursed well, then cloth her which can wake her up a bit more as well.  rub the bottoms of her feet, touch her chin and jawline to get her awake and nursing more. Anything to jostle her around and basically annoy her without being detrimental. Moving her around, making sure she is wide awake when feeding the first time. If this is only happening early morning or evening time, it could be cluster feeding which is normal for her age. Or she could be going through a growth spurt if this is new behaviour.

I hope those help :) They are the most common ones to get her moving :)