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Hi ladies,
My 19.5 week old is constantly sucking his hands or anything else and honestly I don't know anymore when he is hungry so I just offer him the breast when I think he should be eating!?! So this is interfering with feed on demand as I feel I am the one demanding lol!! Is this a phase or is this what happens when babies start to get older?
Cx
The reliable newborn hunger cues- rooting, hand-sucking, mouthing- generally disappear within a few months. Once those innate, instinctive cues diminish, you can either wait for your baby to give you super-obvious cues like crying, or you can offer the breast whenever you think baby may be hungry. The latter approach is preferable, since you are probably very capable of subconsciously picking up on your baby's subtler hunger cues, like increased fussiness, long before they turn into crying, which is a late cue for most babies.
:ita If baby isn't hungry, he won't eat. So never hurts to just offer!
cue-feeding can be on mom's cue OR baby's cue! in any case offering won't hurt anything, as PPs say.
I experienced the same thing! "What are you trying to tell me, child?!" And now that my DS is teething like mad, his hands are constantly in his mouth. However, based on his previous cues he was eating every 2-3 hours (usually every 2 hours during the day if he sleeps through the night or every 3 hours if he gets up a few times to eat at night), so I make sure to offer the breast in that timeframe. :)
When that happened with us I watched for fussiness or watched the clock to offer every 2 hours, whichever came first.