Pediatrician says I’m nursing my 4 week old too often - not sure what to do

[phillips]

@christopher000 Fire your doctor.
Feed that baby.
End of story.

 

[jcsites]

@christopher000 Umm when my baby was that little he was on the boob like constantly.

 

[gracepixie]

@christopher000 My paediatrician said the same thing when I told him baby was feeding very frequently around week 6. He said to feed every 3 hours. I told this to my LC and she said that their recommendations are going to be different and she advised to feed as often as the baby needs. I ended up feeding my baby on demand as my LC advised - yes, it was a more difficult route but now at 15 weeks baby is growing well, sleeping longer stretches, supply is great, etc!

 

[lonelynlost87]

@christopher000 Uh. It felt like my girl was cluster feeding every single day for the first 10-11 weeks. She's 12 weeks now and only just seems to be more interested in play than reading

 

[nature74]

@christopher000 Get a new pediatrician or just ignore the advice. Your baby is fine. You nurse on demand, give her her needs. My babies were over 90% , they're just good eaters and my oldest is three now doing fine and my youngest will be one, I'm still nursing him. He spaced out feedings on his own, when your baby is ready to space out feedings, she'll do it. Babies are smart and we should just let them take the lead instead of trying to control their schedules like robots !

 

[qwertykb]

@christopher000 Plain and simple- ignore this drs piece of advice if you are comfortable nursing at the frequency you currently are. Drs can be very knowledgeable but they don't know everything and they certainly don't know your baby. There is nothing wrong with comfort nursing. Trust your gut mama!

 

[bfaithful922]

@christopher000 What's wrong with comforting a baby? As adults we use food, touch, warmth and cannabinoids for comfort. Breastmilk has all of those. That's why babies want it. That's also why pacifiers were invented. To replace the breast. If you can. Do it. It's healthy for you both. Besides baby's get thirsty too. There are many reasons a baby would nurse aside from hunger

 

[alexsanders]

@christopher000 My ped told me to feed on demand. Either she wants it cuz she hungry or wants it cuz she wants comfort, either way I am meeting a need for a healthy happy baby.

 

[tickingclocker]

@christopher000 Not a doctor but both my babies gained crazy amounts of weight their first month because they were always at the breast. The did not sustain that rate as they got older, but my Ped just said keep feeding whenever they want! He said fat babies are healthy babies.

 

[sarahdosher]

@christopher000 My second had very fast weight gain early on and nursed a lot. Both the pediatrician and the lactation consultant thought it was great, warned that her weight gain would probably be slow later on (it was,) and said to nurse on demand. Nursing on demand if possible is standard advice for quite a bit older babies.

If it is working for you, I think you should keep doing it. If the frequent nursing is a problem than you can try other things, but it doesn't sound like it is a problem for you.

Also, I don't think your pediatrician is very knowledgeable about breastfeeding. If you are uncomfortable with going against her advice, I'd ask if there was a medical concern had with comfort feeding or get a second opinion. Babies definitely do cluster feed after 4 weeks. It does settle down as they get older, but I think 6 weeks is a pretty common crazy cluster feeding time.