Why does breast milk never satisfy/satiate my daughter?

Question

My daughter is six weeks old this week. I am very confused about being told to supplement with formula. On the one hand, I understand supplementing doesn't help my milk supply, but on the other hand, I just pumped three ounces in a single sitting. So my milk supply can't be low. But this amount NEVER satisfies my daughter. She never gets full. For the past three plus weeks now, she's had nursing marathons, nursing for an hour and a half of active sucking, yet she still fusses and wants more to eat and doesn't sleep. Give her 2 ounces of formula and she's resting peacefully! Can someone explain this? The school of thought that says I must only breastfeed at all times is losing here, because my fussy daughter is finally peaceful after 2 ounces of formula, despite weeks of breast milk that never seems to fill her up.

As for her weight, she's 7 lbs. 7 oz today. She was 6 lbs 1 oz when she was born July 4. She dropped to 5 lbs 9 oz when I left the hospital and 5 lbs 8 oz shortly thereafter. The doctor says her weight gain is adequate but she could have gained a few more ounces too.

She does have a good amount of wet and dirty diapers daily.

I am not force-feeding the formula. She is hungry and takes whatever milk she can get. Mine or a bottle. She has no nipple confusion issues.

She has used a paci, but she refuses it when she is hungry.

My daughter is not seeming happy with just breast milk. I've been through a few growth spurts, but this is been going on for weeks, not days. I definitely wouldn't say she is thriving. She isn't a happy baby doing all I've been doing....whether it's feeding on demand and letting her suck til she's done, or pumping, or both.

Answer 1

I am still breastfeeding at age 2 so I think I can count myself as safely pro breastfeeding. However, I question the folks who are adamant about never doing something. If it is working for you to supplement I think you probably should.
It does sound to me that she may be enjoying the sucking. When they marathon nurse they aren't really getting much by the end. Have you tried a paci?
On the other hand, if this is a fairly new pattern you may just be at one of those points when she needs more than you are providing. Pretty soon she will bully your body into producing more. It can be grueling during those bumps though.
Trust yourself. Talk to your docor. Good luck.
After looking at your later comments it makes me think a bit of colic. If she has been fussing or crying a lot over weeks it sounds like my second daughter. I continue to say though that if the bottle for a few ounces is solving the problems you should go for allow yourself to use it. .

Answer 2

I must admit, it must be terribly tempting to give her the formula and see her be so content, but it depends on how you view the two different types of feeding and how you wish to continue in the long run.

I realise now that i supplemented my first daughter with formula (which then quickly became exclusive formula feeding) because it is too easy for us, family and friends and even the medical advisors to view breastfeeding LIKE formula feeding and make decisions based on that and really they are nothing like each other.

Your daughter is sleeping well with formula in her tummy because it is denser and less natural and absorbed less easily. My first daughter is a fantastically healthy and happy 3 year old now, so i will not, and can not, knock raising a baby on formula, so if this pleases you and you feel your baby needs this, then continue with it. But if you are not happy, then you should, and can continue with exclusive breastfeeding because it is a very different case of affairs and she is still so young and so much will change.

Have you had a lactation consultant view your feeding and offer advice? it may be that the latch isn't as effective as it could be and she just isn't getting that much into her as you think - she may be doing a lot of comfort sucking. Breastfed babies tend to get more comfort out of feeding as of course there is the direct contact with you and your smell and feel etc that makes it more special to them so she may be enjoying that rather than the actual feeding at this stage. Nursing marathons are common at this early age.

Is your let-down quick enough? If it is slow she could be sucking gently and never getting more than a few drops. When you say she isn't full, are you sure it is that and not just a preference for being there rather than needing to?

I wouldn't pump and I wouldn't compare the amount you get with how she is feeding - a pump can never replicate your baby feeding in style or amount and all the advice I have ever had is to leave expressing until 6 - 8 weeks when your supply has settled down and your baby has got the hang of feeding.

Also, at 6 weeks-ish, they usually have a growth spurt where they do sometimes nurse non-stop for a few days - it might be this.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Answer 3

My son fed ALL the time it seemed like. All babies will take a bottle if offered it because it is there, they suck and it just comes out easily. That is perfectly normal- my son will still take 4oz if offered after he is full from breastfeeding. Don't worry- just keep feeding her even if it seems like you live with her attatched to you. You can give a supplement here and there if you desire but always pump if you give a supplement because she will sleep longer. Breastmilk is a laxative and easily digestable thats why it doesn't last as long. Just make sure she is wetting 6-8 diapers a day so you know she is hydrated. Babies also like to do the breast thing for comfort- if she has stop actively sucking (listen for swallows) and had a good feeding of 10-20 min of swallowing on each side then she is probably full. You may either need to let her keep sucking for comfort or walk her, give a bath (if she likes them), or use a swing, sling, etc to keep her happy. Those were tricks I used. It will get better- believe me! Just stick with it.

Answer 4

All the links and quotes from breastfeeding.com and kellymom.com are awesome.... please see those!!

On a personal note, I too felt like I was spending 90%of my waking hours on nursing at this age. I agree that growth spurts are trying times. However, you'd be surprised at what will most likely happen in 2-3 weeks. It's common for the breastfeeding relationship to take a huge turn and for mommy it's a turn for the better. By 3 -4 months, my daughter was taking only ONE breast per session, and each session lasted a whole 10 minutes!! I did not give her solids until a week or so before her 6 months bday!!

It's not that there is something wrong w/ your quantity or quality of milk. It is that your milk growiing your baby, and your baby is growing a lot!

Hang in there... it gets easier VERY SOON :)

Answer 5

mystic_eye_cda and Stephanie C have given you some fantastic (and accurate) advice. The main reason formula seems to "fill her up" is that formula is harder to digest, and she has to work harder to digest it, so it takes more energy.

My daughter never had a drop of formula, and nursed for 30-45 minutes at a time every hour to hour and a half, for TWO MONTHS. Even when she stretched it out to two hours, she still nursed for a long time. SHe was a big comfort nurser, and needed every drop of that milk.

Remember that breastmilk is also VERY easily digested... it's what a baby's system is designed for. It digests more quickly than formula, so she needs to nurse more often than she would if she were on a bottle. Just remember that every bottle of formula you give her is a feeding you aren't signaling your breasts to make milk for.It sounds like she's been going through grow spurts.

Answer 6

You need face to face help. Call the hospital where you delivered and ask for the lactation consultants. Make sure to tell them how dedicated you are to breastfeeding. I hate to see any mother turn to formula because she didn't have enough support! It happens all the time, but if you're willing to work, you can breastfeed! It's totally worth it. You can also call La Leche League. Find a leader in your area and ask for help. These are wonderful women who want what is best for your baby. You can take several herbs that will stimulate milk production. An LC or LLL leader will help you figure out what to take, how to take it and how often. In the meantime, just keep pumping. Stay positive. I had to pump full-time in the beginning too. I never thought I would be able to breastfeed. I thought I would have to pump forever! With hard work, patience and persistence, I went on to breastfeed for 14 months. I am currently breastfeeding a 23 month old. You can do it too!

Answer 7

Firstly you should speak to a lactation consultant in person to make sure your daughter is latching and suckling well enough to get all the milk available. Obviously if she can't get at the milk it doesn't really matter how much you have.

You also need to consider that she isn't actively suckling for 1.5 hours, she is sucking for comfort. All babies have some need to suck -but some have a bigger need than others. While mother's are never pacifiers, pacifiers are in fact mommy substitutes that doesn't mean that they don't have a place in a FEW breastfeeding relationships.

The reason she falls asleep after a bottle of formula is more than likely not because she is full, but rather because the effort of swallowing the formula she didn't want in the first place caused an immense amount of stress and made her tired. She is used to the breast where she only gets the milk she wants, bottles drip and force her to swallow; and when she does swallow she just gets more milk faster. A breastfed baby doesn't instinctively know what to do with that (like fuss or turn their head away).

If your baby is gaining well on breastmilk alone, she is getting enough milk. What you then have to discover is whether there is another problem causing the fussiness.

http://breastfeed.com/resources/articles/expectation.htm
As a lactation consultant, I frequently hear moms say, "Well I tried to breastfeed my first child but they always wanted to eat, and my milk could never fill them up like formula did. They were always hungry." Get it? The formula makes them feel very full, but is that good for them? Not really. Formula is deficient in all immunological properties.

I then ask the mothers, "Before you changed to formula, was your baby gaining weight well and having plenty of wet diapers and bowel movements?"

"Oh, yes," they say. "That was going well." I have come to understand that the reason these moms quit is not that their baby is not growing well or that they did not have enough milk, but because they didn't want to feed as often as the baby needed to eat and felt that by switching to an artificial food, the baby would be "happier" and "more content." Their baby would behave more like TV babies. Their perception was that something was wrong because their babies ate often. Perhaps that feeling was reinforced by "helpful" friends or family members.


http://www.todaysparent.com/article.jsp?content=1266685
Anthropologist Kathy Dettwyler from Texas A&M University says that nursing a lot is typical of babies around the world. She cites a study done in 2000 that looked at the feeding behaviour of infants aged three to four months in three different communities: families from Washington, DC, the Ba’Aka hunter-gatherers and the Ngandu farmers, both of the Central African Republic. They found that the Ba’Aka babies nursed 4.02 times per hour, the Ngandu babies nursed 2.01 times per hour and the American babies nursed 1.6 times per hour. Certainly the American babies nursed less often than the two African groups, but they nursed more frequently than many new parents expect.

Touch Hunger
http://www.bflrc.com/ljs/breastfeeding/touchhgr.htm

Non-Nutritive Sucking
http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detsuck.html

The Human Pacifier
http://www.lalecheleague.org/NB/NBJanFeb02p14.html

"He Can't Be Hungry. He Just Ate!"
http://www.wiessinger.baka.com/bfing/howworks/hungry.html

So I Nursed Him Every 45 Minutes
http://www.lalecheleague.org/NB/Law45com.html

Answer 8

Breast milk digests so much faster than artificial baby milk, usually within 90 minutes of the beginning of the feeding. No wonder babies are always nursing!

That is why she sleeps after formula...it stays longer.

She is also a newborn...newborns do nothing but clusterfeed(at least mine did). She is growing throw major growth spurts and her nursing on demand will regulate your milk supply to fill her needs. (read weeks 2-6 here: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/normal/newborn-nursing.html )

Try block feeding
( http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/fast-letdown.html If baby is gaining weight well, then having baby nurse from only one breast per feeding can be helpful.
If baby finishes nursing on the first side and wants to continue nursing, just put baby back onto the first side.
If the second side becomes uncomfortable, express a little milk until you're more comfortable and then use cool compresses - aim for expressing less milk each time until you are comfortable without expressing milk.
Avoid extra breast stimulation, for example, unnecessary pumping, running the shower on your breasts for a long time or wearing breast shells.
Between feedings, try applying cool compresses to the breast (on for 30 minutes, off for at least an hour). This can discourage blood flow and milk production.
If nursing one side per feeding is not working after a week or so, try keeping baby to one side for a certain period of time before switching sides. This is called block nursing.
Start with 2-3 hours and increase in half-hour increments if needed.
Do not restrict nursing at all, but any time that baby needs to nurse simply keep putting baby back to the same side during that time period.
If the second side becomes uncomfortable, express a little milk until you're more comfortable and then use cool compresses - aim for expressing less milk each time until you are comfortable without expressing milk.
In more extreme cases, mom may need to experiment a bit with time periods over 4 hours to find the amount of time per breast that works best. )


, to get more fatty hind milk in her. Also try breast compressions( http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_about/all_about_compression.html ) to help get the milk faster.

Answer 9

It is a growth spurt Susan- the first 6 weeks are hardest- and it levels off after. Don't supplement with formula as your baby is getting enough- and the more you nurse, the better your milk supply. I swear, my baby was at the breast constantly for the first 6 weeks and it leveled off after.

Good luck and hang in- you are almost there!

Answer 10

Nursing her more often will help, or pumping more often if that is what you do. This will help increase your milk supply and give her more milk to satisfy her. Breast milk is digested more efficiently and quickly by the the baby making her hungry more frequently. Formula takes longer and is harder for the baby to digest keeping them full longer and sometimes causing upset stomachs till the right formula is found. My opinion, breast is best stick with it!