Bottomless pit! | Imamother

amother

Purple

Sun, Jun 26 2016, 11:21 am

Hi, it's the same poster that wrote that my baby eats 12 oz each AM after sleeping through the night. My baby eats about 5 times a day. The first feeding is a 12 oz bottle, the rest are nursing for about 15 minutes (the bottle takes him about 10 minutes to down, so I assume the rest of the feeds are about 12 oz as well.). My ped. says that when they are eating 28 oz a day, they need to start solids. He is most likely getting way more than that, prob closer to 48 oz! He will be five months next week. (He is already crawling well and sits alone, so advanced for his age.) I tried to give him rice cereal the past few days which he is really having trouble with, he does not seem ready to know how to swallow. Most of it ends up on his clothing and face and he probably only ingests a teaspoon or two. He just seems starving! Today he ate at 7:30 AM--nursing for 15 min. It could be I did not have 12 oz inside me because the last two days he had a bottle at that time. He slept from 9-10 and seemed very hungry. I gave him a bit of rice cereal. And then nursed him for 15 min. He still seems starving. I gave him 3 scoops of formula which he downed gratefully. Now it is 11 AM and he is happy.

I am just so fed up with this nursing business. I feel like if I gave bottles I would know, for example, he needs 8 oz every three hours or 12 oz every four hours. I have two other little children who need me and it is so time consuming to be spending the day with a hungry baby and trying to figure out what he needs while my other two need attention. If he were my only one, I could be more patient and deal with this...

My first one nursed with no problems until he was over a year. My second one had a tongue tie and by the time I figured out that it was the problem my milk dried up and had to wean him early. This baby also had a tongue but we fixed it at birth.

I also can't diet or lose any weight while nursing and I am somewhat resentful that I have to walk around feeling unattractive because of nursing.

Maybe I am selfish, but this feeding issue is really making me nuts. Suggestions?

busydev

Sun, Jun 26 2016, 2:28 pm

I wouldn't assume you have 12 oz in you. He could easily want more in the morning after a whole night but not drink close to that much per a feed the rest of the day. Milk comes out of a bottle differently then nursing. The best way to know is with a baby scale. Weigh him. Feed him. Weigh him right after again. The amount of oz he gains is what he just ate.

Could be that you didn't have 12 oz this am and he wants that much so was hungry cause of it. Solids at this age for a lot of kids is just a taste, getting used to foods etc not a full out meal yet. So if its mostly getting all over that makes sense.