Baby seems hungry but doesn't feed - help!

[premama]

Hi,

I have a 6 week old and am having difficulties feeding/putting him to sleep at certain times of the day.

Usually, I will feed him for about 5-10 minutes and he will be content and go to sleep, lasting about 2-3 hours between feeds. However, at certain times of the day (late afternoon/evening), after I feed him, he will show signs that he is still hungry e.g. try and suck on his fingers. When I offer him my breasts, he will suck for about 1 minute and stop, but show signs that he is still hungry. He also makes a lot of grunting noises and seems really uncomfortable. I've tried burping him and massaging his tummy but nothing seems to help. If I put him down in his crib, he'll either cry or lie there awake, sucking his fingers/waving his arms. When he eventually falls asleep, he will wake up in 1 hour or so and the whole thing starts again.

He's been like this for several days now - for e.g. yesterday, I started feeding him at 9pm and he did not end up calming down/sleeping until 1am! Once he settled down though, he lasted 3 hours before his next feed.

Has anyone else experienced this? I am thinking that he might be going through a growth spurt....

He is gaining weight really well so I don't think he is not having enough milk.

I would be grateful for any comments. Thanks!

 

[Shenzhennifer]

Usually in the late afternoon/evening, after a tiring day for us, the milk supply goes down a bit. Also there is a 6 week growth spurt. So maybe he still wants milk, but your breasts haven`t totally caught up yet and so he pulls off, dissatisfied. Does he take a bottle? If so, maybe you can pump in the morning when your breasts are fuller and then top him up in the later afternoon/evening.
My son used to do this too when he was a newborn (but I never gave him a bottle, only my breast and breast and breast...).
But if you think his weight is good, then I would just continue what you`re doing. Growth spurts only last a few days (thankfully) anyway.
But it`s totally normal for him to want to feed again after 2-3 hours.

 

[joyofliving]

It seems your baby has gas, the symptoms of which usually develop around 4- 6 weeks towards the evening. Babies tend to be irritable, cluster feed or are unable to feed till they are full because of the discomfort caused by gas and have difficulty putting themselves the sleep often waking up every few hours.
Discuss this with his Paed on the next appointment or try giving him Infacol before every feed, make sure you burp him after every feed and bend his legs then gently rotate them in clockwise/ anti clockwise motion, massage his tummy to ease the discomfort/ pain.

 

[yonge]

I was going to say the same thing - growth spurt or gas. I was only going to recommend some ideas: try elevating baby slightly in the crib, using a bouncer or holding him over your shoulder and massaging his back along his spine to bring out any gas. Good luck!