Breast feeding Question for Midwifes or lactating consultants?
7 February 2010 7 Responses
A Parent asks, My wife and i have decuded to give our 16 week old son a 3rd breast before his big sleep. My wife doesn’t have three breasts but we thought a 3rd would help him sleep longer through the night.
Our routine is 1 breast then bath, baby massage and dress him (in which he acts up and doesn’t like the dressing gig) and feed him breast 2 followed back to breast 1.
Is this a good idea?
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Anything that works is a good idea. Keep doing it until it no longer works then try something else. At around 20 – 24 weeks you can start introducing baby foods.
its not a bad idea.. you cant ‘overdose’ on breast milk.. her breasts just wouldnt make enough milk if he wasnt supposed to have that much. he will stop when hes full.
not a professional here but i found just feeding him more throughout the day helped rather than just loads at night time. try and see what works for you guys. your 3rd breast plan might work.
like someone else said you cant oversdose on breastmilk, as long as your baby takes it he must need it but dont force him if he doesnt want to take the 3rd breast
Firstly I’m not a midwife or LC but am currently breastfeeding baby # 2.
You can certainly try the third breast and see how you go. Feeding one side, then the other, then starting the first side again is called “switch feeding” and can help to stimulate more milk. However, the reason that breastfed babies feed more often is because breast milk is digested faster and they get hungry sooner. Feeding him more before bed might not make a difference to his sleeping but it’s worth a try. Generally babies posset or throw up any excess milk they don’t need so you can’t really overfeed him.
Both of my babies started to sleep through at around 8 weeks so I can understand why at 16 weeks you really want this to happen. Good Luck.
That’s an excellent idea in theory, but your wife will end up exhausted.
What really helped here was for my husband to take over a couple of night feedings with his own breasts.
Baby objected a few times; he got nipped at first. But, as he said, “that’s why they call them nipples.”
You can consider storing your wife’s breasts in a little bar fridge in the bedroom, too; it makes those midnight feedings easier!
I think, if your wife is comfortable with it, it shouldn’t be a problem. I would suggest, if he sleeps longer than 3 hours, to have her pump the other breast before bed so she doesn’t become lopsided.
However, to be honest, it probably won’t help him sleep any longer. Breastmilk is very efficiently and quickly digested. At the most, you may get an extra few minutes but don’t expect hours.
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