Is it possible to speed up feeding?

My baby was born with a tongue tie, and I presumed this was why he took so long feeding - up to 1hour 30mins on breast & up to 1 hour on a bottle, often back to back. Cluster feeds are horrendous - 4 to 6 hours non-stop feeding, burping, nappy changing. His tongue tie was cut last Thurs 16th, things haven’t really changed, today he did 90ml in 10mins but other than this random occasion it’s much the same. It takes up so much of the day, what can I do?? FYI he’s 4 weeks old tomorrow and his weight gain is good - 7lb14 at birth, 7lb 11 at 5 days, 8lb at 10days, 8lb8 at 16days.

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Oh my God that must be draining! My sisters boy ate like that for a good while. No tongue tie, but she didn’t make a whole lot of milk. Might I suggest oatmeal every morning (over night oats with peanut butter are great), a hearty meat-filled dinner l, and a WHOOOOOE lot of patience. Your kiddo it still incredibly young, and will be growing fast so I don’t exactly know that it’ll be slowing down anytime soon

Thanks Talitha, glad to of heard of another baby doing the same! Oatmeal for me or the baby? Surely babe is to young, what difference is oatmeal going to make to me?

My baby was like this. I think it’s normal the first 6 weeks to establish your milk supply.

Oatmeal has certain nutrients that help stimulate milk production. Definitely drink lots of water with electrolytes (add lemon with some salt, or coconut water, or just get this electrolyte mix called Liquid IV).

My little one had tongue tie and it felt like she lived on my boob every day for a while even after it was cut. Are you doing tongue exercises post cut? I went to a breastfeeding support group to check her latch and was encouraged to keep her on the same boob for her normal length of feed time to make sure they are getting the 'full fat' milk which keeps them fuller for longer and then when they are done and delatch themselves offer the second boob to check they don't want any more. At about 6 weeks it got less and by 8 weeks I'd have an hour between feeds most of the time ☺️ I'd get so emotional and upset as I wanted dad to be involved but she was on me all evening! My HV suggested baby having a bottle of formula in the night and dad giving it to be involved but I just stuck to the breast feeding. All I can say is it will get easier and I now love breastfeeding!! In the meantime watch nice films, read and make sure you're drinking and eating plenty 😊 xx

Some babies do just take ages. A friends little one always took an hour to feed so they introduced a bottle - he took an hour to drink that too. Sorry that’s not any help but sometimes it is just down to the individual baby.

Mine use to be like that, he’s now 13 weeks and his feeds are so much shorter 😊

Thank you all, it’s so good to hear these stories, I’ve felt like the only one! Great advice and support! ❤️

@Laura what are the tongue exercises?? I haven’t of them.

Aw really we had an information sheet when we had it done with exercises to do 3 times a day to get her tongue moving better and to reduce the risk of it reattaching. When they're in a good mood put a clean finger in their mouth and 1. Run your finger along their bottom gum to get the tongue moving side to side, 2. Put your little finger in their mouth and gently play 'tug of war' with her tongue when she sucks it 3. Encourage them to poke their tongue out by pulling lightly down on their bottom lip Hope this helps! There may be some YouTube videos too to help? We did these for 2 weeks every day after her cut and she seemed to feed better 👍🏻

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