Newborn constantly wants boob

JamieDubs · December 2015

My 4 week old will settle when anyone holds him except me!! In the last week if I hold him he starts to forcefully root and nuzzle, even suck on my chest! I KNOW he's not hungry as I've just fed him! If I do give in, he sucks a few times and goes to sleep. My mom says don't feed more than every 2 hours - but he will just scream. How do I break this bad habit?

cbolton19 · December 2015

My 6 week old still does this. I let her. She is so little still and just looking for comfort. She'll fall asleep and rest well on my breast. I don't feel like a baby can be spoiled! Sorry if that doesn't help much, but your not the only one. I also feed her on demand. Somwtimea that means she eats more than every two hours.

kaylerjean · December 2015

I agree with PP, my LO is 6 weeks old and still nurses for comfort if she is extra fussy or having trouble falling asleep. I don't think you should worry about it becoming a habit, it releases good hormones in both of you and calms your baby!

tracij12 · December 2015

At that age I wouldn't consider it a bad habit. Babies often suck for comfort. Do you use a pacifier?

nimmunogirl · December 2015

Do you use a pacifier? My little one does the same thing, and ends up spitting up after sucking for comfort and being uncomfortable due to my over supply. The pacifier has been super helpful.

samisargent · December 2015

Sometimes babies can smell mom too. If you're holding him, he may smell you and think it's time to feed.

edavis926 · December 2015

Definitely try a pacifier if you plan on using one at all. He might not take it at first but give it a couple of tries. It's totally saved my sanity as I very much have a comfort sucker. I don't think they really form eating habits at this point. I try to go 2-3 hours between feedings but if I've tried everything else I'll feed her anytime. He might also be going through a growth spurt. We've been eating every hour during the day this week.

amberrmariee20 · December 2015

Sounds like baby could be cluster feeding. My son did this up until recently... He's now almost 7 weeks old !

AiramJ · December 2015

My son started this a few days ago. Especially at night, all he wants is boob. But once he is in, he sucks for a minute or two, before screaming and crying or falling asleep. When I then move him to sleep, he wakes up and wants back in the boob! I am scared of feeding now, because the first minute of him coming on is absolute agony and makes me want to cry and give up bf!

cbolton19 · December 2015

AiramJ said:
My son started this a few days ago. Especially at night, all he wants is boob. But once he is in, he sucks for a minute or two, before screaming and crying or falling asleep. When I then move him to sleep, he wakes up and wants back in the boob! I am scared of feeding now, because the first minute of him coming on is absolute agony and makes me want to cry and give up bf!

Have you tried calming him down with skin-to-skin contact before letting him latch? I've found that if I put my daughter right on the middle of my chest, skin-to-skin, then I can calm her down some before she latches. Otherwise she gets a weird latch and it will hurt. Sometimes she just gets so frantic for s boob that I have to hold off and calm her, especially if it is just for comfort sucking.

AiramJ · December 2015

In bed we always do skin to skin. I spoke to the midwife and she said the pain is normal, it's just him sucking in my nipple really hard and my nipple having to get used to it. This is certainly something no one told me about bf!

cbolton19 · December 2015

AiramJ said:
In bed we always do skin to skin. I spoke to the midwife and she said the pain is normal, it's just him sucking in my nipple really hard and my nipple having to get used to it. This is certainly something no one told me about bf!

Hmmm. That seems weird. It shouldn't hurt. I can tell when my daughter hasn't latched well because it hurts. Though, if your nipples are already a little raw then it will hurt a little. I got the Earth Mama Angel Baby nipple balm and it has helped a lot with the rawness.

kjacks6347 · December 2015

Sometimes a baby will need to eat more than every two hours. They don't always want to nurse just for food. Often times its for comfort. I feed on demand. I'm surprised that it's still hurting you. I would try using nipple cream more often. Baby could also be cluster feeding. If you aren't comfortable letting baby comfort feed I would try the pacifier. Good luck momma!

DSDavison · December 2015

My son did that too. Meet with a lactation consultant. We weighed before and after he nursed and learned his latch was off and he was burning a lot of calories nursing and not getting a lot of milk so was never full. It was also a comfort thing- I went back to work that week and he needed more of me. Things are much better now!

amberrmariee20 · December 2015

cbolton19 said:

AiramJ said:
In bed we always do skin to skin. I spoke to the midwife and she said the pain is normal, it's just him sucking in my nipple really hard and my nipple having to get used to it. This is certainly something no one told me about bf!
Hmmm. That seems weird. It shouldn't hurt. I can tell when my daughter hasn't latched well because it hurts. Though, if your nipples are already a little raw then it will hurt a little. I got the Earth Mama Angel Baby nipple balm and it has helped a lot with the rawness.

I would recommend seeing a LC and maybe evaluating baby for a tongue or lip tie. Sounds like baby's latch is too shallow.

cbolton19 · December 2015

amberrmariee20 said:

cbolton19 said:

AiramJ said:
In bed we always do skin to skin. I spoke to the midwife and she said the pain is normal, it's just him sucking in my nipple really hard and my nipple having to get used to it. This is certainly something no one told me about bf!
Hmmm. That seems weird. It shouldn't hurt. I can tell when my daughter hasn't latched well because it hurts. Though, if your nipples are already a little raw then it will hurt a little. I got the Earth Mama Angel Baby nipple balm and it has helped a lot with the rawness.
I would recommend seeing a LC and maybe evaluating baby for a tongue or lip tie. Sounds like baby's latch is too shallow.

She has a bit of a lip tie. I'm not sure how much it is affecting her latch because she can latch well sometimes. I think our biggest issue is that she is a sleepy/lazy eater. Sometimes she'll try to eat without opening her mouth. Nursing has been a bit of a learning curve for us. We started with the shield but thankfully we were able to wean off that quickly. She seems to be getting better too as she gets bigger.

LaurenBee24 · December 2015

cbolton19 said:

amberrmariee20 said:

cbolton19 said:

AiramJ said:
In bed we always do skin to skin. I spoke to the midwife and she said the pain is normal, it's just him sucking in my nipple really hard and my nipple having to get used to it. This is certainly something no one told me about bf!
Hmmm. That seems weird. It shouldn't hurt. I can tell when my daughter hasn't latched well because it hurts. Though, if your nipples are already a little raw then it will hurt a little. I got the Earth Mama Angel Baby nipple balm and it has helped a lot with the rawness.
I would recommend seeing a LC and maybe evaluating baby for a tongue or lip tie. Sounds like baby's latch is too shallow.
She has a bit of a lip tie. I'm not sure how much it is affecting her latch because she can latch well sometimes. I think our biggest issue is that she is a sleepy/lazy eater. Sometimes she'll try to eat without opening her mouth. Nursing has been a bit of a learning curve for us. We started with the shield but thankfully we were able to wean off that quickly. She seems to be getting better too as she gets bigger.

I thought that I had a sleepy eater until I had her tie corrected. She was just exhausted from trying to nurse with a tt. Now she is alert and active at the breast. We still have a shallow latch at times but it's much better. For me the pain didn't start until 3 weeks pp, but it shouldn't ever hurt so when it did we went to a lc.

cbolton19 · December 2015

LaurenBee24 said:

cbolton19 said:

amberrmariee20 said:

cbolton19 said:

AiramJ said:
In bed we always do skin to skin. I spoke to the midwife and she said the pain is normal, it's just him sucking in my nipple really hard and my nipple having to get used to it. This is certainly something no one told me about bf!
Hmmm. That seems weird. It shouldn't hurt. I can tell when my daughter hasn't latched well because it hurts. Though, if your nipples are already a little raw then it will hurt a little. I got the Earth Mama Angel Baby nipple balm and it has helped a lot with the rawness.
I would recommend seeing a LC and maybe evaluating baby for a tongue or lip tie. Sounds like baby's latch is too shallow.
She has a bit of a lip tie. I'm not sure how much it is affecting her latch because she can latch well sometimes. I think our biggest issue is that she is a sleepy/lazy eater. Sometimes she'll try to eat without opening her mouth. Nursing has been a bit of a learning curve for us. We started with the shield but thankfully we were able to wean off that quickly. She seems to be getting better too as she gets bigger.
I thought that I had a sleepy eater until I had her tie corrected. She was just exhausted from trying to nurse with a tt. Now she is alert and active at the breast. We still have a shallow latch at times but it's much better. For me the pain didn't start until 3 weeks pp, but it shouldn't ever hurt so when it did we went to a lc.

Oh, that is good to know. We have a referral for a pediatric dentist. Maybe we will go have it looked at.

LaurenBee24 · December 2015

cbolton19 said:

LaurenBee24 said:

cbolton19 said:

amberrmariee20 said:

cbolton19 said:

AiramJ said:
In bed we always do skin to skin. I spoke to the midwife and she said the pain is normal, it's just him sucking in my nipple really hard and my nipple having to get used to it. This is certainly something no one told me about bf!
Hmmm. That seems weird. It shouldn't hurt. I can tell when my daughter hasn't latched well because it hurts. Though, if your nipples are already a little raw then it will hurt a little. I got the Earth Mama Angel Baby nipple balm and it has helped a lot with the rawness.
I would recommend seeing a LC and maybe evaluating baby for a tongue or lip tie. Sounds like baby's latch is too shallow.
She has a bit of a lip tie. I'm not sure how much it is affecting her latch because she can latch well sometimes. I think our biggest issue is that she is a sleepy/lazy eater. Sometimes she'll try to eat without opening her mouth. Nursing has been a bit of a learning curve for us. We started with the shield but thankfully we were able to wean off that quickly. She seems to be getting better too as she gets bigger.
I thought that I had a sleepy eater until I had her tie corrected. She was just exhausted from trying to nurse with a tt. Now she is alert and active at the breast. We still have a shallow latch at times but it's much better. For me the pain didn't start until 3 weeks pp, but it shouldn't ever hurt so when it did we went to a lc.
Oh, that is good to know. We have a referral for a pediatric dentist. Maybe we will go have it looked at.

We had Catherine's done at a pediatric dentist with a laser. It was under two minutes. She was a like cranky that night but fine after that. I'm so so glad we did it.

cbolton19 · December 2015

LaurenBee24 said:

cbolton19 said:

LaurenBee24 said:

cbolton19 said:

amberrmariee20 said:

cbolton19 said:

AiramJ said:
In bed we always do skin to skin. I spoke to the midwife and she said the pain is normal, it's just him sucking in my nipple really hard and my nipple having to get used to it. This is certainly something no one told me about bf!
Hmmm. That seems weird. It shouldn't hurt. I can tell when my daughter hasn't latched well because it hurts. Though, if your nipples are already a little raw then it will hurt a little. I got the Earth Mama Angel Baby nipple balm and it has helped a lot with the rawness.
I would recommend seeing a LC and maybe evaluating baby for a tongue or lip tie. Sounds like baby's latch is too shallow.
She has a bit of a lip tie. I'm not sure how much it is affecting her latch because she can latch well sometimes. I think our biggest issue is that she is a sleepy/lazy eater. Sometimes she'll try to eat without opening her mouth. Nursing has been a bit of a learning curve for us. We started with the shield but thankfully we were able to wean off that quickly. She seems to be getting better too as she gets bigger.
I thought that I had a sleepy eater until I had her tie corrected. She was just exhausted from trying to nurse with a tt. Now she is alert and active at the breast. We still have a shallow latch at times but it's much better. For me the pain didn't start until 3 weeks pp, but it shouldn't ever hurt so when it did we went to a lc.
Oh, that is good to know. We have a referral for a pediatric dentist. Maybe we will go have it looked at.
We had Catherine's done at a pediatric dentist with a laser. It was under two minutes. She was a like cranky that night but fine after that. I'm so so glad we did it.

Oh awesome! Thank you. I'm glad it went well. I was a little worried about it, though I've heard good things.

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