Forums  •  Classifieds  •  Events  •  Directory

 
Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123
Like Tree4Likes

Breast-feeding Issue

  1. #17
    Sarah_Lotus is offline Registered User
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    66

    As the others have said as babies grow older most (but not all) shorten their feeding times, sometimes to just five minutes per feed. How long the baby feeds for doesn’t matter it is how he grows on those feeds that does.

    It sounds like you baby is doing great on the feeds he is having. 6.4kgs is a good weight for a 4 and a half month old. We are looking for his weight to be between 6.0 kgs and 8.7 kgs. (2006 WHO Growth Standards) But really it is difficult to say anything about a baby from a single weight we really want to look at growth, so need to know his birth weight, his lowest weight and what he’s been doing for the last few months.

    As others have said we are looking for a doubling of birth weight by 5 months and a tripling by 12 months although some babies manage this earlier. This was a change with the introduction of the new standard curves in 2006. In developed countries these curves made more babies at 12 months fall into the obese category and in developing countries it made more babies fall into the undernourished category.

    The longest I’ve ever heard of an exclusively breastfed baby going without stooling is 13 days. The mother of this baby told me that it was a lot to clean up when the stool eventually came! The important thing about the stool is the consistency not the frequency. If the stool is soft then it is no problem even if the baby only has one stool every two weeks. But if the stool is hard and dehydrated it is a problem even if the baby has one every day.

    A word of warning about giving a baby milk (expressed breast milk or formula) in a bottle after a feed. The baby will always take some – even if he is full. Imagine that you come to dinner at my home. You eat the main course and are full. Will you have some desert? And if you say, “No thanks, I’m full.” And I say, “But I make it especially for you and it’s your favourite.” Will you still say no? Because this is the message you are giving your baby by offering the bottle and so babies nearly always say yes – even though they don’t need it.

    If you have successfully breastfed for the last four months then you have enough milk for your baby and don’t need to start giving formula. Remember a one month old baby drinks the same amount in the day as a six month old baby. So if you had enough milk last month you’ll have enough milk this month too.

    It is very easy to know if you have enough milk. We are looking for the baby to have six wet nappies each day (24 hours) and weight gain over time. I would expect your baby to still have at least six feeds a day but eight to ten is more common.

    I would recommend attending La Leche League meetings. Here you will find other breastfeeding mothers and be able to get answers to all your questions. The English speaking schedule is at http://www.lllhk.org/Meetings.html and the Chinese speaking meetings at http://www.lllhk.org/ChineseMeetings.html. The web page, What is La Leche League, http://www.lllhk.org/WhatisLLL.html explains exactly what the society is all about and the article: Why LLL, http://www.lllhk.org/WhyLLL.html will explain why the meetings may be helpful.

    Best wises,
    SARAH

    Sarah Hung IBCLC
    www.lotuslactation.com

    miran, Lali07 and thanka2 like this.

  2. #18
    mavislohsp is offline Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    HK
    Posts
    126

    Hi Sarah and all mothers out there,

    Thank you so much for your reply, I really appreciated it. I felt so relief after reading all the advice above. My baby's born weight is 2.8kgs, which means he is doing absolutely fine! I fed him about 7 times a day, and he did wet about 5-6 nappies a day. I shall monitor him closely on his poo poo. The last time he pooed has leak all the way to the floor, but I am happy to clean the mess he created!

    Thanks Sarah, I shall try to attend the meeting, I am sure it will be very helpful for me. Thanks everyone! Have a great week!


  3. #19
    mavislohsp is offline Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    HK
    Posts
    126

    Hi, just to do some update. My lil one just pooed today, I.e 6 days from his last past motion. Hurray! Don't know is it because he did 'more' exercise yesterday :) he went for his little swim or rather floating session in the swimming pool yesterday.


  4. #20
    bonita is offline Registered User
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    mid-levels
    Posts
    176

    Don't top up with formula, you'll just over feed your baby. And don't compare the amount of expressed breast milk with formula your baby take because breast milk changes in composition according to your baby's need and formula can only increase in volume to accommodate that. Breast milk is super easy to digest so it's possible that all of it is digested by baby. If you are really worry about baby's constipation, massage baby's belly in clockwise motion, and give his legs some bicycle movement exercise when baby lays on his back.

    Lali07 likes this.

  5. #21
    mavislohsp is offline Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    HK
    Posts
    126

    Thanks Bonita,

    I am now back to 100% breast feeding my lil one :) and yes, lately i started bringing him to swimming pool to do a bit of 'swimming and this is really 'work' for him, he is now poo poo everyday since Monday! I think I will continue bring him to swim on every weekend.


Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123

Similar Threads

  1. How to stop breast feeding?
    By taysty in forum Feeding Baby
    Replies: 22
    Last Post: 04-12-2011, 05:51 PM
  2. Breast feeding and trying for #2
    By Natalie'sMom in forum Preconception
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 10-31-2008, 06:53 PM
  3. Breast Feeding
    By Canucker in forum Hong Kong Pregnancy Forum
    Replies: 23
    Last Post: 02-28-2007, 04:36 PM
  4. Breast feeding help please!!
    By noella in forum Feeding Baby
    Replies: 16
    Last Post: 04-30-2006, 01:02 AM
  5. Breast feeding =(
    By robbiesmoma in forum Hong Kong Pregnancy Forum
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 03-31-2006, 05:47 PM
Scroll to top