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My LO (7 weeks) never finishes eating on her own...

kas80kas80 member
in Breastfeeding

Everything I read and what I hear others say indicates that you should feed until your LO is done and releases your nipple on their own.  Mine never does that.  Seriously, if I let her she'd just suck for hours and never stop so once she switches over from eating to a period of nonstop comfort sucking I while detach her. 

The problem is that it tends to wake her up if she was asleep and sometimes she'll start screaming as if she's still starving.  I know I don't have supply issues because we went to a lactation consultant who weighed her before and after and she downed 7oz in about 15 minutes.  Also, once I get her calmed back down and she falls asleep she'll stay asleep for hours so clearly her tummy isn't empty.  It's just a really draining process during the night.

Does anyone have any suggestions? 

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Re: My LO (7 weeks) never finishes eating on her own...

  • lburseylbursey member
    I don't have any suggestions but I could've written this post.  My LO has maybe fallen off my boob 5-6 times total since he was born.  He will stay there all day if I let him (which I did at the beginning which led to cracked nipples).  Anyways, he will usually wake up and cry for a minute but then quickly settle.  Especially if I offer a pacifier he will usually take it and fall asleep again.  Have you tried that??
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  • katlizabethkatlizabeth member
    My advice would be to figure out when she's done nursing (swallowing) and when she's asleep, get really good and unlatching her and shoving a pacifier in her mouth.  That's what I do when I need to!  (I know it may not be as easy as it sounds, but it works for me)
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  • AimeeL85AimeeL85 member

    You may already be doing this, but unlatch her by gently breaking the suction with your finger near the corner of her mouth.

    Another thing to try is after you unlatch her, put your finger against the bottom of her chin or below her lower lip to very gently hold her mouth closed and shhhh her and/or rock her. If she cries, give her the nipple back, but continue unlatching and doing this once she's no longer actively eating. Eventually she will learn to stay calm/asleep after she's unlatched, and will probably also start to unlatch on her own. I learned this from The No Cry Sleep Solution book and it worked great for us. Good luck!

    DS (7 years old) from FET in 2010
    DD (5 years old) from IUI in 2012
    TTC 3rd and final!: IUI #1 in progress!
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  • kas80kas80 member
    imageAimeeL85:

    You may already be doing this, but unlatch her by gently breaking the suction with your finger near the corner of her mouth.

    Another thing to try is after you unlatch her, put your finger against the bottom of her chin or below her lower lip to very gently hold her mouth closed and shhhh her and/or rock her. If she cries, give her the nipple back, but continue unlatching and doing this once she's no longer actively eating. Eventually she will learn to stay calm/asleep after she's unlatched, and will probably also start to unlatch on her own. I learned this from The No Cry Sleep Solution book and it worked great for us. Good luck!

    Thanks so much, that's exactly what I was looking for.  We'll start trying that.  I had tried the pacifier but half the time she won't let it in her mouth or spit it immediately back out while working herself up to screaming levels of crying- I think the attempt would wake her up more.

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  • AimeeL85AimeeL85 member

    Here's a website that describes it exactly, it's about halfway down the page, the Pantley's Gentle Removal Plan. It's to get your LO to not need the sucking in order to go to sleep which then reduces night wakings, but you're in a similar situation in that she needs the nipple in her mouth to stay asleep, so it should definitely work. It only took us a few nights for it to help!

    https://www.pregnancy.org/article/when-your-baby-wakes-frequently-feed-pantley-pull
    DS (7 years old) from FET in 2010
    DD (5 years old) from IUI in 2012
    TTC 3rd and final!: IUI #1 in progress!
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