Nutritive and non nutritive sucking

[@llli*jah73]

As you will have seen from my other posts,I am struggling with OS and OALD. I am getting really confused about nutritive and non nutritive sucking. My baby wants to nurse to sleep, which is fine by me, but she cannot nurse without getting loads of milk, which then she gets really upset about! She seems to need to feed about every 2 and half to 3hrs, she will only really fall asleep nursing and will sleep on me for 45 mins max,which then means when she wants to sleep next (she wants to sleep after an hour and half of being awake) she isn't ready for a feed. She will only try and cope with my fast Flow when she is really hungry!so my problem is, she wants to nurse to sleep (soi presume that is no nutritive sucking)but still gets loads of milk which she is not ready for that soon after the last feed. I am wondering whether if you don't have OS/OALD your baby can nurse to sleep without feeding? I'm confused as to how this works? Don't know how I can time the feeds to be the same time as the sleeps as she needs to sleep more often than she wants to feed but will only nurse to sleep. Can someone tell me how it normally works, should a baby be able to nurse just for sleep and not for food? I can understand that a baby could have a feed and fall asleep at the end and do non nutritive sucking but can they do it from the beginning and not get milk? Any suggestions on how to sort out this muddle? Can you give me an idea of what other 5 month old babies do re feeding/sleeping? Don't know how I get my baby to have enough sleep in the day, how does everyone else do it? Thanks in advance for your ideas!

[@llli*lasbi.modeu]

Just follow your baby, she will guide you. I have OALD and OS. When she doesn't want that much milk, she learned how to pull her head away from my breast several times and then she decides she wants me to leave. She sucks her thumb instead. This is what my DD3 does, all babies are different. But I don't think there is a "normal", each set of mom and baby will eventually figure out what works.

What could help her deal with the OALD at nap time is to nurse her in advance, not in her bed but may be on a chair (in a way she won't assume is nap time yet) that way your breast won't be as full when you put her down.

In my case, I had OALD and OS with my 3 girls, they were all different, DD3 is the easiest but I,nursed to sleep all of them, by this age your baby will learn how to regulate your supply.

My suggestion, go with the flow let your baby guide you

[@llli*aprilsmagic]

I have OALD and OS and my three nursed babies all liked to nurse to sleep. I did a lot of block feeding instinctively; I just let them suck on the breast they had last eaten from. Lots of laying down nursing. But at 5 months, mine all liked the fast flow. I had figured out how to control it by the time I got to #3, and he was easy to nurse.

[@llli*jah73]

Well I have been blockfeeding for about a week, so I do put her back on the same side. It is difficult for me to tell whether she is hungry, tired, or hungry and tired. Whichever, it all seems to boil down to the same thing, she wants to nurse but doesn't like the flow. If she is really hungry, she will feed and sometimes if she is really tired, she will nurse but gets really upset because she doesn't want all of the milk. I'm not sure how long blockfeeding should take to see a difference, but so far things are no better, probably worse, she fed at 3.30am today, then 7.30am, then 9.30am(to sleep, didn't like getting milk but put up with it.) It is now 3.30pm and she hasn't fed since 9.30am, apart from about 10 sucks, she has just refused. Does block feeding always work? How do I know if it is working? I am doing approx 3x8 hour blocks in 24hrs. I was block feeding a few weeks ago, but slightly shorter blocks, I did it for 10 days and saw no improvement, so started feeding one side per feed and it was ok for a couple of days and then boobs just filled up quicker and quicker, so went back to block feeding but longer blocks as don't know what else to do. I am constantly so engorged, have to walk around house with boob out to drip or else I get mastitis. Baby just gets so upset coz she wants a relaxed feed and fall asleep, but she can't so she refuses completely, so I get even more engorged and am then due to swap sides for 8 hours and the side I have just fed on is still engorged and has to go poss 12 hours until fed on again. I am eating loads of peppermint and sage but nothing is helping. Not sure if block feeding is the right way to go. Any ideas? Please! :-(

[@llli*djs.mom]

How old is your baby?

[@llli*jah73]

She is 5 months old

[@llli*auderey]

I dont know about for you (sounds awful!) but do you think she'd take a paci for comfort sucking?

[@llli*djs.mom]

I am confused by what you are doing in terms of block feeding. So you are feeding 3 times off the same breast and that is causing your other breast to become engorged because you held back for 3 times. Is that what you are saying? And that after 2 weeks of said approach you saw no difference in the amount of milk or time in which milk was being made? Is that right?

[@llli*jah73]

Ok, so starting morning, I feed for example L side 8.30am ish, 10.30am ish, 1.30pm ish (if she wanted to feed more between 8am and 3pm it would be that same side. Then 4.30pm ish 6.30pm ish and 8pm ish on R ,again if wants to feed more between 3pm and 9.30pm,then that same side. Then 10.30pm ish and all through night and 6.30am ish L. Then it would start again but it would be R side 8.30am ish etc. feed times vary a lot sometimes and she is refusing loads. Other side to one I am feeding on gets full in about 2-3hrs and engorged about 4 hrs of not being fed on. No I am still engorged badly by the time I feed, still seems to be as much milk and she is coping less as it is bursting when she feeds, so she chokes even when not letting down. If I do one side per feed it prob fills up quicker but is not bursting so much. Doing the block feeding, the side she is not feeding on is bursting and doesn't seem to be getting less engorged, and the side she is feeding on is really full by the time she goes back on for 2nd time 3hrs later. Been doing this routine for a week with no improvement, did 2feeds per side for 10 days with no improvement. Thanks for replying. Any thoughts?

[@llli*djs.mom]

I would get it longer than 10 days and I would do shorter blocks and to avoid the engorgement issues. Do two feedings (or until that time frame) on same side and then change. What you are trying to achieve is a happy medium. 8:30, 10:30 on same side and any other feedings before 1:30. 1:30 and anything else before 4:30 on the same side (try to make sure it's at least two) and then all your night time feeds on the same side hoping that by the time you are doing the dream feeds it's a lighter less disruptive flow.