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#1
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No Milk At Night
Hi,
I've been breastfeeding DS since he was born three months ago with no problems, but over the past week when it comes to the bedtime feed (around 9pm) it seems like I have no milk to give him in either breast. He sucks a bit then gets frustrated and either pulls off or - more often - keeps sucking while crying; he looks pretty angry and confused What could be causing this and more importantly how can I prevent it? Supply doesn't seem to be a problem at any other time during the day or night. ...oo00OO Sad Loopy OO00oo.. |
#2
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No Milk At Night
"LoopyNZ" wrote in message
... Hi, I've been breastfeeding DS since he was born three months ago with no problems, but over the past week when it comes to the bedtime feed (around 9pm) it seems like I have no milk to give him in either breast. He sucks a bit then gets frustrated and either pulls off or - more often - keeps sucking while crying; he looks pretty angry and confused What could be causing this and more importantly how can I prevent it? Supply doesn't seem to be a problem at any other time during the day or night. It's a typical time for a growth spurt! Just feed, feed, feed. This is normal behaviour for the age and the time of day. Supply is most plentiful in the morning, but has the highest fat content at night. In order to sleep for longer and increase his calorie intake, he's going to want to stay on there for longer in the evening. Try cuddling him in bed in a distraction-free environment with plenty of skin-to-skin contact. If nothing else is working, he may just be tired and need some sort of rocking to get to sleep. Whereabouts in NZ are you? La Leche League is really good over here. -- Amy Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02, & Ana born screaming 30/06/04 http://www.freewebs.com/carlos2002/ http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/ana%5Fj%5F2004/ My blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/querer-hijo-querer-hija/ |
#3
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No Milk At Night
Mum of Two wrote:
"LoopyNZ" wrote in message ... Hi, I've been breastfeeding DS since he was born three months ago with no problems, but over the past week when it comes to the bedtime feed (around 9pm) it seems like I have no milk to give him in either breast. He sucks a bit then gets frustrated and either pulls off or - more often - keeps sucking while crying; he looks pretty angry and confused What could be causing this and more importantly how can I prevent it? Supply doesn't seem to be a problem at any other time during the day or night. It's a typical time for a growth spurt! Just feed, feed, feed. This is normal behaviour for the age and the time of day. Supply is most plentiful in the morning, but has the highest fat content at night. In order to sleep for longer and increase his calorie intake, he's going to want to stay on there for longer in the evening. Try cuddling him in bed in a distraction-free environment with plenty of skin-to-skin contact. If nothing else is working, he may just be tired and need some sort of rocking to get to sleep. Whereabouts in NZ are you? La Leche League is really good over here. Thanks Amy I'm in Dunedin and I go to LLL fortnightly, and yep, they're great!! I might email the leader tomorrow, but he's been crying _tonight_ and I figured I'd get a quicker response on here. And boy was I right! He's actually tried again just now (after a half hour break) and seems to be getting something (much to his, my, and DH's relief!). ...oo00OO Relieved Loopy OOoo00.. |
#4
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No Milk At Night
LoopyNZ writes:
: Hi, : I've been breastfeeding DS since he was born three months ago with no : problems, but over the past week when it comes to the bedtime feed : (around 9pm) it seems like I have no milk to give him in either breast. : He sucks a bit then gets frustrated and either pulls off or - more : often - keeps sucking while crying; he looks pretty angry and confused : What could be causing this and more importantly how can I prevent it? : Supply doesn't seem to be a problem at any other time during the day or : night. : ..oo00OO Sad Loopy OO00oo.. If you want to jump start your supply a little, you might try fennel seed tea, fenugreek capsules, or oatmeal for breakfast. Larry |
#5
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No Milk At Night
"LoopyNZ" wrote in message ... Hi, I've been breastfeeding DS since he was born three months ago with no problems, but over the past week when it comes to the bedtime feed (around 9pm) it seems like I have no milk to give him in either breast. He sucks a bit then gets frustrated and either pulls off or - more often - keeps sucking while crying; he looks pretty angry and confused What could be causing this and more importantly how can I prevent it? Supply doesn't seem to be a problem at any other time during the day or night. ..oo00OO Sad Loopy OO00oo.. be sure to eat and drink plenty yourself |
#6
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No Milk At Night
Nina Pretty Ballerina wrote:
"LoopyNZ" wrote in message ... Hi, I've been breastfeeding DS since he was born three months ago with no problems, but over the past week when it comes to the bedtime feed (around 9pm) it seems like I have no milk to give him in either breast. He sucks a bit then gets frustrated and either pulls off or - more often - keeps sucking while crying; he looks pretty angry and confused What could be causing this and more importantly how can I prevent it? Supply doesn't seem to be a problem at any other time during the day or night. ..oo00OO Sad Loopy OO00oo.. be sure to eat and drink plenty yourself I've sure been EATING enough...at least! I've been trying to get plenty of water, but perhaps I'll try even harder on this front. Thanks! ...oo00OO Loopy OO00oo.. |
#7
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No Milk At Night
"LoopyNZ" wrote in message
... Nina Pretty Ballerina wrote: "LoopyNZ" wrote in message ... Hi, I've been breastfeeding DS since he was born three months ago with no problems, but over the past week when it comes to the bedtime feed (around 9pm) it seems like I have no milk to give him in either breast. He sucks a bit then gets frustrated and either pulls off or - more often - keeps sucking while crying; he looks pretty angry and confused What could be causing this and more importantly how can I prevent it? Supply doesn't seem to be a problem at any other time during the day or night. ..oo00OO Sad Loopy OO00oo.. be sure to eat and drink plenty yourself I've sure been EATING enough...at least! I've been trying to get plenty of water, but perhaps I'll try even harder on this front. Thanks! Considering how much a baby of that age drinks, 2.8L or so is a good amount to aim for. I probably only have a couple of litres or so over winter, but mine is 22 months old and eating a lot of other stuff now. Oh, and go easy on the caffiene :-) -- Amy Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02, & Ana born screaming 30/06/04 http://www.freewebs.com/carlos2002/ http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/ana%5Fj%5F2004/ My blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/querer-hijo-querer-hija/ |
#8
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No Milk At Night
It's good to avoid saying or thinking exaggerated
things like "no milk at night": in fact, a breastfeeding mother always has milk in her breasts, and each time the baby suckles he is probably getting some milk every time, even if it's less than he wants and even if you don't see any evidence such as dripping milk. I would also avoid jumping to the conclusion that his frustration is necessarily related to the amount of milk. Lots of babies tend to cry in the evening. I don't think anyone really knows why. There may be a combination of reasons. Maybe he's crying because his tummy hurts, and he tries to nurse to make himself feel better, but cries in frustration because it doesn't make the pain go away. It seems possible to me. And there may be other possibilities. However, babies do tend to nurse more during the day than at night, and often more during the late afternoon and evening than eariler in the day, so the amount of milk may be lower in the evening. (although never "no milk": the breasts produce milk at all times, especially during the time baby is nuirsing). Here are some suggestions for improving this situation if it's due to amount of milk. These are just ideas; please ignore any you don't want to use and just take any that you think may be useful in your particular situation. You can spend more time nursing during the night, waking baby to nurse if necessary. This will help increase your milk supply and make the supply and demand more constant over the 24 hours. You can pump or manually express some milk in the mornings or during the night, and either just store it, or feed it to baby in the evenings. If you use a cup, spoon, eyedropper or SNS to feed it to him it won't tend to cause nipple confusion, which can happen when babies learn to suckle from bottles. You can spend more time nursing him at all times of day, both in terms of how often you nurse, and for how long each time. When you're about to nurse in the late evening, you can help the milk stored deep in the breasts to come out by gently massaging the breasts before nursing, or going through some of he motions of manual expression, or putting hot or cold compresses on the breasts. (Maybe hot, then cold? Or hot works for some people and cold for others? Hot relaxes the breasts and makes the fat of breastmilk more liquidy so it can flow better; cold provides a stimulus which signals the breast to release milk. The supposed "growth spurts" may actually be hormonal changes in the mother. Women who are menstruating while breastfeeding sometimes find they have a little less milk on the days they're having their period. Women who are not menstruating because they are breastfeeding also go through hormonal changes: I think it's 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months after the baby is born, or something like that. Women practicing NFP sometimes see evidence of hormonal changes at those times. At these times, for a few days the mother seems to have less milk. It's fine -- you just nurse more often which stimulates the breasts to produce more milk. After a few days everything goes back to the way it was. If you try to pump milk for any reason and don't get much milk, or any milk, don't worry about it! Baby is usually far more efficient at getting milk out of the breast than a breast pump is. If you can get baby to nurse a lot at times of day when there is less milk in the breasts, I think that stimulates the breasts a lot to produce more milk, because baby suckles harder. You might be able to manage by nursing on only one breast for a few hours in the evening and reserving the other breast for that late feeding which is usually a problem. The next evening you could switch the roles of the two breasts. It's probably best not to leave one breast too long without nursing on it, but if baby nurses a few times an hour apart you can choose to use the same breast for more than one feeding. Leaving one breast too long could lead to plugged ducts. Or, just nurse on one breast only for the second-last feeding of the evening. You can try to get baby to nurse for a good long time: it will stimulate the breast to produce more milk for the next evening. If you rest a lot and have a nice afternoon nap it may help you produce milk. (You probably deserve it, anyway!) Again, these are just suggestions. Ignore them if they're not useful to you. LoopyNZ ) writes: Hi, I've been breastfeeding DS since he was born three months ago with no problems, but over the past week when it comes to the bedtime feed (around 9pm) it seems like I have no milk to give him in either breast. He sucks a bit then gets frustrated and either pulls off or - more often - keeps sucking while crying; he looks pretty angry and confused What could be causing this and more importantly how can I prevent it? Supply doesn't seem to be a problem at any other time during the day or night. ..oo00OO Sad Loopy OO00oo.. |
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