Is he feeding or comfort sucking????

Help needed!!!

When I finally get my boy latched on he will stay there forever, well I think it would be forever if I let him, I take him off either side after about 35 mins thinking surely you don't need any longer - but does he?

He is a sleepy feeder and I often take him off to burp him or just try and wake him a little then put him back on.

Any thoughts on this would be good, should Iet him stay on as long as he wants, or is he just comfort sucking???

Joel is like this, I can tell he is just playing around when he stops taking big long sucks and just has little ones, I give him another few minutes and then take him off. I didn't take him off at the begining and he made my nipples blister, crack and bleed from just comfort sucking.

When he swallows with the short sucks it's probably just that the comfort sucking is stimulating your milk so he has to do something with it but he's not really hungry. You can tell coz to start with he'll have a long, strong suck-swallow motion, then it will gradually change to shorter, shallower sucks with swallowing every 5+ sucks. That's a sign that he's done. Some comfort sucking can be a good thing, but you don't want to encourage it too much as it can be hard on your nipples. If you think he is just comfort sucking/nibbling, break the latch with your little finger and see what he does. If he is still genuinely feeding he'll root around look to latch again, if he's not he'll show no interest in latching or maybe even doze off.

Frustrating when that happens isn't it Emma? When JJ used to do that (he hasn't for a while now) I just wanted to scoop up the vomit and put it back. I didn't care about the mess, just all that wasted breastfeeding effort! I know you asked the other Emma but someone once said to me that if their body is relaxed then it's unlikely they've got much wind. So when JJ falls asleep at the boob I tend to just put him down like that. (If he wakes up again after about 10 minutes then I get him up and wind him pronto otherwise he does spill.)

Of course, lots of people will say you shouldn't let them fall asleep on the boob - sleep associations and all that - but while bubs is so little ignore them!

Good question, and good on you for being aware of this while your baby is so little.

I got some great advice on this - watch your baby's jaw carefully when he feeds - if the jaw is moving right back to his ear then he is feeding, but once the jaw starts to make smaller motions, then it is just comfort sucking.

He probably doesn't really need to feed for that long, and after my problems later on basically caused by feeding to sleep and not burping properly, my advice would be to take him off after the first 5 mins for a good burping session, then offer the same boob again until you notice that jaw motion slowing. Then have nice cuddles.

mmmm new baby cuddles (cluck cluck cluck)