Comfort Suck

[spiraledpetals]

Help!

I have a 5 months old daughter. I still BF her entirely through the night. She sleeps at 7pm every night and before that I will give her 5 OZ of formula. She usually last until 12-1 (sometimes earlier then that) then I'll give her both side of my breast. After that feed, she wakes up once every 2 hours and I realised after 5am, she wakes up even more frequently (sometimes once eery half hour) just to comfort suck.

Is it because she's sleeping too early??

How can I make her quit wakin up so often?

The thing is, she has this weird feeding issue, she refuses to be bottled fed by anyone else besides me too. I'm so stuck and deprived of sleep!!!

 

[PinkDiamonds]

My son had a similar issue, just couldn't seem to sleep longer in the night. I just let it happen until one night I decided to drag the feed longer and let him cry. For example, if after 12 midnight feed he woke up again at 2am, I let him cry it out until 3-4am. After a few nights he was able to last longer without crying. Of course, u need to be comfortable with the idea to do it. Some moms will just continue to feed every 2 hours and the baby eventually outgrows this phase.

Your daughter probably only allows you to bottle feed her due to your smell. Perhaps you can let hubby hold onto one your worn t shirt with your smell and bottle feed her? It might take a few times but it worked for me.

 

[spiraledpetals]

My son had a similar issue, just couldn't seem to sleep longer in the night. I just let it happen until one night I decided to drag the feed longer and let him cry. For example, if after 12 midnight feed he woke up again at 2am, I let him cry it out until 3-4am. After a few nights he was able to last longer without crying. Of course, u need to be comfortable with the idea to do it. Some moms will just continue to feed every 2 hours and the baby eventually outgrows this phase.

Your daughter probably only allows you to bottle feed her due to your smell. Perhaps you can let hubby hold onto one your worn t shirt with your smell and bottle feed her? It might take a few times but it worked for me.

Thanks!! I'll try your method tonight!

 

[pmcheng]

Do they eventually outgrow this phase of comfort suckling? I'm facing the same situation and cry-it-out method probably a no-go for me cos my in-laws v heartache when baby wails..

 

[spiraledpetals]

Do they eventually outgrow this phase of comfort suckling? I'm facing the same situation and cry-it-out method probably a no-go for me cos my in-laws v heartache when baby wails..

I understand how you feel I think they probably do grow out of it eventually but I don't think I can take it anymore, it's so draining. Maybe you can explain to them beforehand?

 

[daisysung]

I am in the same situation too =(

I used the bottle for my first child because we were worried he was not eating enough. So he was not attached to my breast and was able to use a pacifier.

Now, with my 2nd child, I let her latch on to maintain my breastmilk supply. She is more colicky than my first child and seems like her only comfort is my breast! She refuses the pacifier and my husband will try to comfort her for sometime, but eventually we will be so tired of her wailings (and wake up the elder bro from his nap/sleep) that I will let her latch on. She also wakes up every hour from 4am to 7am.

I try feeding her with bottle, but the washing and pumping is also very tiring...Every time I go to supermarker, I am very tempted to buy milk powder for her.. =P

I am praying she will grow out of the comfort sucking when her colic is over. Will she grow out of it? When does colic normally ends? Anyone can teach me how to let baby latch on and yet get used to a pacifier? Save me..

 

[spiraledpetals]

I am in the same situation too =(

I used the bottle for my first child because we were worried he was not eating enough. So he was not attached to my breast and was able to use a pacifier.

Now, with my 2nd child, I let her latch on to maintain my breastmilk supply. She is more colicky than my first child and seems like her only comfort is my breast! She refuses the pacifier and my husband will try to comfort her for sometime, but eventually we will be so tired of her wailings (and wake up the elder bro from his nap/sleep) that I will let her latch on. She also wakes up every hour from 4am to 7am.

I try feeding her with bottle, but the washing and pumping is also very tiring...Every time I go to supermarker, I am very tempted to buy milk powder for her.. =P

I am praying she will grow out of the comfort sucking when her colic is over. Will she grow out of it? When does colic normally ends? Anyone can teach me how to let baby latch on and yet get used to a pacifier? Save me..

I'm partially feeding my daughter formula in the afternoon so what I do is I put Rid Wind (you can get it from Watsons.) into her milk when you feed her from the bottle, this is recommended by Dr Gong from kinder clinic and I swear by it! It works like magic! Her colic was gone within 3 days. And I always tap my fingers on her stomach, if it's VERY hollow it means there's a lot of wind but I asked my doctor he says there will definitely be some amount of wind in a baby's stomach it's just how much there is.

About the waking up at night.. I'm still trying to figure it out. But I think my problem is I let my daughter sleep too early 7pm, think she don't need so much sleep anymore. It's trial and error so don't worry take one step at a time ok! Cure her colic first!

 

[JuliaKT]

My daughter was sleeping well at night and she has her timing correct to breasfeed.. That is she uses to sleep at 11pm and only wakeup two times (3.30am and 6:00am) for breast feed. So I'm not so tired during the first month..

But lately, she became fussy and always finding for the breast milk the whole night.
I didn't know about comfort feeding till I went to clinic for Baby's 1 month checkup. And I asked the doctor that my girl like to suck the nipple the whole night and then vomit out milk since it becomes over feeding. THe doctor then told me it is the confort feeding and it might be due to my baby is gassy in the stomach or not feeling well.

So I try to massage her stomach before each feeding to pass out the gas and also before going to Bed at night...
NOw it has been 2 days that she sleeps well at night and Only wake up to drink milk at 3.30am and 6:00 am like before..

May be you should find out whether she has some discomfort anywhere so that she is looking for a comfort feed just like my daughter....ANd you can give her a warm bath before sleep or massage her with some oil to sooth her..

 

[pmcheng]

I think my son is a confirm comfort suck case - falls asleep v quickly after a few suckles. But sometimes he appears hungry cos he would fuss when letdown doesn't happen fast enough. I tried the cry-it-out method last nite and the boy screamed until choke on saliva. so I went back to letting him suckle to quickly calm down n sleep..

 

[3mum]

Oh.. I am facing the same problem... Sucking the whole day not even want to be on her cot, just want to suck even after feeding . I am not sure sucking for comfort can help increase supply... Any ideal? CL kept saying she drink drink enuf.. But I insist not adding formula as I want to tbf get and increase y supply . Anyone can advise?

 

[daisysung]

This was my experience yesterday.
10:30pm feed --> massage & poo & change diaper
1:30am feed --> massage & poo & change diaper
4:30am feed --> mama too lazy to massage so goes straight back to sleep
5:30am feed/suckle for comfort
6:00am feed/suckle for comfort --> massage & poo & change diaper
9:30am feed and bathe.

Most of the time, the discomfort is due to the gas and poo poo. Probably because breastmilk can be digest so easily so bf babies have more poo poo?

 

[felicity]

I hv this problem which makes me v upset whenever I carry her, she wanna suck.. And will cry for the breasts.. Once I hand over to anyone else she stops.. I v heartbroken cos just now I tried to carry her for half an hr she cries half an hr.. N I just fed her only, once passed to my mum she stopped n went to slp anyone encounter this? How? I wanna cuddle my own bb besides feeding time T_T

 

[Lana17]

I have this problem which makes me very upset whenever I carry her, she wanna suck.. And will cry for the breasts.. Once I hand over to anyone else she stops.. I very heartbroken cos just now I tried to carry her for half an hr she cries half an hr.. N I just fed her only, once passed to my mum she stopped n went to sleep anyone encounter this? How? I wanna cuddle my own baby besides feeding time T_T

Encountered this too before. What i did was, breastfeed mybaby,burp her and give her pacifi, talk/ play with her a bit, carry her to sleep and then put her down on her bed... works for me.. and also when she's awake, i will talk to her as much as possible, and she will response with her 'ahh.. grauu...':smile: and then, i will say ma ma bao bao, carry you ok? she will laugh and kick her legs.....

 

[lyra]

My baby did comfort sucking too and I was very happy he did because he was born a sleepy newborn and after that I had over supply problem and he doesn't want to suck coz of the fast milk flow choking him. Once he started to love to comfort suck, I felt really happy. I let him comfort suck until he's sleepy and he fell asleep fast at night. when he wakes up at night for milk or comfort sucking, its easy to nurse him back to sleep. I co-sleep with him, so when he stirs in his sleep, I turn around, let him suck milk, and then he falls back to sleep. No crying at all. If he's hungry, he'll suck harder and longer, if not, he'll just do a bit of comfort sucking.

The disadvantages of comfort sucking are:
1. Baby is really sticky to me and wants me to give him security and comfort whenever he's in unfamiliar situation or he feels insecure (but I'm ok with it coz I'm the main caregiver, full time mom and it feels good that baby wants me.)
2. Its hard to do sleep training coz comfort sucking to sleep is so hassle free that once you start sleep training and let baby cry it out, its very frustrating. If baby wakes up crying loudly for milk, then maybe there's a reason to sleep train but when co-sleep and let baby comfort suck to sleep, there's really not much need for it... which leads to point number 3.
3. Hard for mother NOT to sleep with baby. So hard for me to leave baby with other caregivers for a night or few nights and go for holiday. Tried it once and my dad says its difficult to make baby sleep without me around. But my friend did train her baby to sleep with mother in law successfully so perhaps you need to let baby get used to it slowly.

I think it depends on your situation and your babies' character. My situation is that comfort sucking is ok. My baby was never a cry-it-out baby. He'll cry until face red, and until the house shook and he won't self soothe. Besides, I read that crying it out activates stress hormones in babies and prolonged presence of this stress hormones in their body is harmful. It may seem like crying it out is working but there can be long term problems like inability to handle stress as young adults, and insecurity when they are kids, so I don't really trust cry-it-out method. Some mothers prefer it though coz their babies self soothe very fast and don't need to cry very long.

My experience is that if baby wants the breast, just let her suck. Sometimes especially during growth spurt, my baby wants to be at my breasts all the time but I just let him and he outgrows it. All babies outgrows it. He's now 10 months and he don't do comfort sucking very often. He's more interested in playing.