My 4 week old son is a very hungry baby. He was 7lb 4oz at birth and at week 4 he was 10lb 3oz. I'm finding his demands to be nursed so much very demanding it seems like i'm doing it all the time. As much as every hour and i thought things should of calmed down a bit by now. I'm thinking of supplementing him with formula but i don't want to lose the ability to breast feed. Any thoughts or advice on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

First and foremost you need to call your hospitals Breastfeeding team and get their support. If you truely dont want to loose the breast feeding please dont suppliment. Your breasts produce by supply and demand. Babies go through growth spurts at about 3,6,12,14 weeks. They could also go through spurts at 2,4,6,8,10 weeks every two or three weeks. What happens is the baby needs more and nursing lets your body know it needs to supply more. If you suppliment that means your body will know baby doesnt need as much thus you wil not produce as much and you can also get clogs ducts there fore maybe getting mastitis. I nursed my last 3. 2nd till he was 5months, 3rd till she was 3months and 4th till she was about 6 weeks. the more I had the less I was able to do becuase the kids were running around. And even though people said o you can do it longer when you have other kids that didnt seem right to me when I was chasing kids that thought my nursing was a certificate to run a muck!

Call La Leche League if you do not have a Lactation consultant at your hospital. Or call the next towns hospital and tell them your situation. YOU NEED TO BE SUPPORTED IF YOU ARE REALLY GOING TO CONTINUE THIS. Coming in here is great but having people a phone call away is the best. Please make sure baby is ok through peditrician as well. 7lbs to 10 in 4 weeks is A LOT but hey growin babies grow grow grow! As long as peditrician says baby is fine you will have to keep up the growth spurts. If baby isnt colicky or using you as a pacifier then you'll get over this hurdle. If baby is using you for a pacifier then latch baby off.
What I mean is if baby cries to say hungry and you put him your breast and you see him getting cuddly and he latches on and immediatly closes his eyes to go night night.........:nono: Take him off and hold him with breasts put away. You will teach him that hungry is hungry and cuddling is cuddling. Please speak with lac consultant about this next thing i say though cuz not everyone is willing to do this. If he does what i said you might want to give him a pacifier to suck(that reflex is still there and will be for a while) he might just want the suck not the milk. But you willh have to know all of his cues to know this best. Learn it well so you know when he is really hungry or wants wanna as a pacifier. O i hope this helps.

Your son is most likely going through a growth spurt right now so it should get a little better in time. But yes, it is very demanding at first. Hang in there!

Also, I don't think 7 lbs. to 10 lbs. in 4 week is a lot. That is very normal. I believe they gain .5 oz. a day at this age?

You could also use a pacifier at times. Babies like to suck and it is a calming reflex for them. He might be more into sucking than actually eating when he is on the breast.

definately do NOT supplement at this age. right now your supply is still being established and like pp's have said it is all about supply and demand. it is more than likely that you dc is going through a growth spurt right now. it is completely normal. if you find yourself needing a break pump some milk and put it in a bottle for someone to give to your baby while you rest. it should pass in about a week or less. it is a great idea to get some local support and i second the idea of getting in touch with LLL. my dd was a big comfort nurser at that age so that could also be what is going on with your baby. if this is the case maybe you could invest in a sling or a wrap where your dc could hang out and nurse while you are able to get some stuff done hands free. i can't tell you how invaluable a wrap or a sling is! and i know it feels like you don't have enough milk to feed your baby but i can almost gaurantee (sp?) that you do. especially if he is gaining weight like he should it is a good indicator. also just make sure he is having plenty of wet diapers. you will get through this hard patch and it will get better. just think of the good that you are doing by feeding your dc nutricious breastmilk. i stuck through it and am still breastfeeding my ten month old and its so much better and i am happy that i stuck with it. if you need any more support just post. i hope you chose to stick with it! good luck!

thank you for your support i will be phoning the breasfeeding team at the hospital to see what i can do. These few weeks seem so long and he doesn't seem to be in any sort of routine is that normal? Is there anything i can do to help him establish one? thank you all x

I agree with Kel, probably a growth spurt. Newborns want to nurse all the time. It's normal. Feed him when he wants to. It will get easier with time. Supplementing with formula will lower your supply. It sounds like he is growing great. Keep up the good work!

Don't supplement. My son went from 7 lbs 1 oz at birth to 10 lbs 3 oz at four weeks to 13 lbs 6 oz at two months. The first few weeks were two or three growth spurts running into each other. At around 6 weeks it ironed itself out.

It felt like my Ds was attached 24/7 for the first few weeks. I remember writing a thread on here asking if this was the way it was always going to be and well it wasn't........thank goodness. Baby will get into a routine soon. I found with bf it was less of a routine because it was supply and demand but it does slow down. My ds is now 3 and 1/2 months we are in a good groove. He now eats when hungry and knows when to stop, he would eat too much before and spit all the time. The real bonus is at night he is pretty much sleeping all the way through now. :bouncing:

I also had good support with my midwife and the nurses at the hospital. I honelty don't think I would have made it without them.

Hang in there, it sounds like you are doing fine. Baby will settle in soon.
Sava