breast fed and on rice cereal how to keep my baby full? HELP!!?

Question

I started my baby on rice cereal like 2 weeks ago he is now 7 weeks old and is starting to want to eat more. He already eats 30mins on the breast at a time. At his night time feeding I pump and he eat cereal in his breast milk. But he is starting to love the cereal. And wants to eat more.Should I start him on baby foods between feedings or is it too early or am I supose to pump every feeding and put cereal in it. or should I start him on baby juice? His doctor doesn't know he's eating cereal at night and wants him to eat every 3 hours and if wants to eat in between get him a water bottle. But the water is no longer making him happy what to do? Please no answers about how good breast feeding is or feed him whenver he wants to eat . I need serious answers from people know know about breast feeding. Noone I know has ever breast fed.

with the cereal at night he goes for 7 hours without eating

Answer 1

no babies need to bottle feed to build up muscle. go to walmart and get a feeding bottle they do sell them and you can mix up the food and put it in that. dont try to spoon feed him that would not be good. another thing is try and make the food a bit thicker for him he will get fuller quicker. but definately get a feeder bottle.

Answer 2

STOP giving that baby cereal. NO water. NO juice. Cereal does not have enough calories and nutrients to meet the needs of a 7 week old baby. It fills him up for a short time, but ends up making him more hungry in the long run because he needs protein and fat from your milk in order to grow! Nurse him as often as he wants, that will get your supply of milk going well.

Find a new pediatrician. That doctor is giving you dangerously bad information. Babies should not be given water, and shoul ALWAYS be fed when they are hungry, not on a 3 hour schedule! Yes, that's right. I said "feed him whenever he wants to eat" because I AM an experienced breastfeeding mother, and this is the truth, whether it's what you want to hear or not :-)

At 7 weeks old your baby should be getting nothing but breastmilk. He needs to nurse every 2 hours or so. This is how your breasts are signaled to make more milk! After a little while, he may start wanting to eat less often, but during growth spurts he will NEED to eat often because his body is growing so fast. Cereal will not help. Water will not help. Juice will not help. He needs milk.

I realize it is hard to learn how breastfeeding works when you do not have a lot of support. Look for a local La Leche League group
http://www.llli.org
They can provide you with support and info. They are a group of experienced breastfeeding moms, so they know how to help!

I have breastfed 5 children. The youngest is 4 months old. I have learned these things from my own experience, and from being taught well by my own mother who breastfed me.

Answer 3

Your doctor doesn't know very much about breastfeeding. My baby is 14 weeks and is eating every 2 hours and sleeps for 5 hour stretches at night. And it is NORMAL! Babies SHOULD be fed on demand as often as they want. Babies should NEVER receive water until they are 6 months or older, nor should they ever receive juice or solid foods before that time.

Also keep in mind that some babies like to nurse for comfort. There is something called a non-nutritive suck that many babies do when they just want comfort. Not much comes out and babies feel comforted at the suckling.

Remember that babies don't know how to tell time. Most babies that young need to eat more often than every 3 hours, and shouldn't be forced to wait that long to eat.

Please talk to a board-certified lactation consultant (one with IBCLC after her name) about breastfeeding advice in the future, not a pediatritian. Peds only have minimal breastfeeding education, whereas IBCLC's have hundreds and hundreds of hours of education and are up to date on all the current recommendations and findings.

Another good option is a La Leche League Leader. They usually know as much as an IBCLC, if not more in some cases. Plus, they're free and a great support for new moms!

Answer 4

honey stop giving him cereal that is really bad for a baby that young. All that baby needs is breast milk and lots of it. He should eat about 15 to 20 on each breast at every feeding. He should be eating every 2-3 hours for another 2 or 3 weeks. Then he will space himself out. I breast fed my son (now 7) and currently breastfeeding my daughter. At 7 weeks they had plenty of breast milk. And it should be about every 3 hours. you will notice over the next couple of weeks that he spaces out the feedings and wants to breastfeed less. My daughter is 6 months old and she eats breast milk when she goes down for her three naps and bed. Sometimes she will breast feed when she comes and sits on my lap to play. I can promise that your baby will be happy with just breast milk. When he is 4 months you can start him back on the cereal and even fruits and veggies. Depending how your peds dr does things. Mine started woth fruit because you could add it to the cereal and gradually give more.

Good luck and please only breast feed your baby. I know that it is a pain in the butt sitting down and feeding him every 2-3 hours. Believe me most breast feeders will tell you that it takes a lot of patients. Good luck and congrats on your little boy.

Answer 5

Sweetie he is 7 weeks old way to young for baby food and juice.And 7 hours of sleep at a time for a 7 week old is damn good.He should be up every 4 hours at the most to eat.This is very important for his age.Cereal in the bottle won't hurt him.Although doctors do not recommend this unless they have acid reflux.If he is trying to eat more than every 3 hours,he may not be getting enough of the milk out,he could have allergies to it or he probably just thinks he is hungry when he is not.My 14mth old was eating every 2hours when he was this age because he was allergic to the milk and could'nt get much down at one time.But no baby should be eating every 2 hours.Talk to your doc about what may be going on w/him.

Answer 6

Are you sure you are producing enough breast milk? It seems a little early to be giving him cereal and solids (I waited until after 8 weeks). You might want to take him in to the doctor, if he is losing weight, the doctor might okay starting him on cereal or juice. My daughter breastfed a lot, but she never seemed to be starving, so I'm not an expert. If it was me, I'd check with your doctor before you add too many new things to his diet, be careful of juice it can make him have more bowel movements and lead to dehydration.

Answer 7

I am a mother who breastfed 4 babies plus I am a daycare provider who has cared for many breastfed babies. 5 weeks old is much too young for your baby to be eating solids. In addition, it takes about 6 weeks for your baby and your body to adjust to the amount of breastmilk you need to produce to keep your baby satisfied. It is very common for newborns to seem like they are nursing around the clock and you always have him attached to your breast, but it is perfectly normal and to be expected. Pumping is not as efficient at emptying your breasts and increasing your milk flow as nursing is. I would suggest you stop giving him cereal, stop pumping for a few weeks and let him nurse as often and as long as he wants. As he gets a little older, he will nurse less often, but newborns will commonly eat every 1-3 hours while bottle-fed babies are 2-4 between feedings. Don't rush your baby into solids, it is a factor in developing food allergies plus his digestive system is not fully developed and breastmilk or formula is all he should be given for now. Current recommendations encourage babies to be 6 months old before introducing solids. Nutritionally breastmilk and formula meet a babies needs until about 6 months.

Answer 8

No cereal,water,juice,babyfood. Your baby is VERY young and will be having growths spurts and will want to eat alot,just feed him and he will even out and slow down.This is very common and normal,dont listen to that doctor.If you want breastfeeding to work long term i suggest you ditch everything else....even formula fed babies should not be getting that stuff yet and there moms dont have milk supply on the line.

Answer 9

"recently"? What do you propose "recently"? She purely one WEEK previous! besides...NO. you ought to no longer positioned rice cereal in her bottle. A. Rice cereal is a stable. stable ingredients are no longer given until eventually 4-6 months. B. you do no longer tension feed solids with a bottle. There seems to be no longer something incorrect together with her eating behavior. 3 oz. each and every a million-3 hours is truthfully commonly used. it is likewise commonly used for a one week previous to awaken in many situations for the duration of the night to devour.

Answer 10

NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!

No more cereal. No solids. No more water. No juice.

I'm sorry, but you need a new doctor who knows something about breastfeeding. Your doctor must be clueless about breastfeeding. A child this age SHOULD be feeding on cue and MIGHT still need to feed every 2 hours around the clock. Breastmilk digests in 90 minutes!

The American Academy of Pediatrics say that THE ONLY THING your child should be receiving at this age is breastmilk (or formula).

Giving water at this young age can be dangerous. It can lead to oral water intoxication. This is a dangerous condition. It fills up the stomache of a rapidly growing infant with empty calories. Your baby is working hard to double his birthweight by 6 months. He NEEDS the calories from breastmilk to do so.

Starting solids too early can not only harm your milk supply, it can lead to allergies, asthma, diabetes and obesity for your child. The AAP says NO solids before 4-6 months of age, including cereal. (Preferably 6 months!)

The following organizations recommend that all babies be exclusively breastfed (no cereal, juice or any other foods) for the first 6 months of life:

World Health Organization
UNICEF
US Department of Health & Human Services
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Dietetic Association
Australian National Health and Medical Research Council
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
Health Canada

At 7 weeks of age, you have just gone through the toughest part of breastfeeding. Once you make it through the first 6 weeks, things start getting easier. There were all those growth spurts so close together early on (around 7-10 days, 2-3 weeks, 4-6 weeks, 3 months) and that makes the early weeks tough.

When he nurses, does he take one or both sides? Let him stay on one side for as long as he wants and then offer him the other side. You can do breast compressions while nursing to help him get more hindmilk which will help fill him up.

You honestly don't want people to tell you "feed him whenever he wants to eat?" Because that's what the people who know about breastfeeding will tell you. When do YOU like to eat? On a strict schedule? Or when your body tells you that you are hungry?

Do you know why he is going so long at night without eating? Because he can't digest it!!! His little body is SHUTTING DOWN because it is working so hard to digest something that it is not ready for. See the link on delaying solids below and pay close attention to this information from the link, "It is well documented that prolonged exclusive breastfeeding results in a lower incidence of food allergies (see Allergy References and Risks of Artificial Feeding). From birth until somewhere between four and six months of age, babies possess what is often referred to as an "open gut." This means that the spaces between the cells of the small intestines will readily allow intact macromolecules, including whole proteins and pathogens, to pass directly into the bloodstream.This is great for your breastfed baby as it allows beneficial antibodies in breastmilk to pass more directly into baby's bloodstream, but it also means that large proteins from other foods (which may predispose baby to allergies) and disease-causing pathogens can pass right through, too. During baby's first 4-6 months, while the gut is still "open," antibodies (sIgA) from breastmilk coat baby's digestive tract and provide passive immunity, reducing the likelihood of illness and allergic reactions before gut closure occurs. Baby starts producing these antibodies on his own at around 6 months, and gut closure should have occurred by this time also." Is sleep so important to you that you would compromise your son's health over it?

I'm sorry, but a 7 week old really should be feeding more often than every 3 hours, should NOT be "held off" with bottles of water or solid foods which compromise his future health and SHOULD be fed when he indicates that he is hungry, just like you would want to be.

PLEASE find a La Leche League Leader or a Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) who lives near you who can provide you with one on one help in person. A LLL Leader will help you for FREE and may even be willing to come to your home to talk with you.

Answer 11

Hun, it sounds like you have got a healthy, hungry baby on your hands.
You don't keep a baby full for very long.
I know it is hard on you to have to feed him so often, but when he is a little older he will stretch out his feedings and wait longer.
But it won't happen over night.
He is too young for anything more than cereal.
Talk to your doctor if baby is just running you ragged.