12 feeds to 6 in 48 hours!!
I’m sharing these details of a recent home visit as I truly believe it may help other new Mums who may be struggling to understand what it is they are ‘supposed’ to be doing with their baby!
When I arrived, gorgeous little bubba was 7.5 weeks old, bottle fed with Kendamil cow’s milk and taking an average of between 30 and 60 ml every 1 to 2 hours round the clock.
I am well aware that the WHO recommendations are that you demand feed your baby, but in this instance it was definitely not working! The baby was displaying signs of being quite digestively uncomfortable with lots of smelly bottom wind and vomiting episodes increasing daily. She was also arching her back, going rigid and stiffening her legs, frowning much of the time and only contact sleeping for very short bursts of time, so was massively overtired too.
One major issue I discovered, was that she had quite a bad case of oral thrush with white spots and patches on the roof of her mouth and a heavy white coating on her tongue. I started her on a course of Nystatin, which was prescribed by the GP, which she will need a minimum 7 days, possibly 10 to 14 for the thrush to fully clear.
The baby also has a degree of acid reflux, which was only exacerbated by the constant drip feeding as the digestive system and gut was unable to properly digest the previous feed before more milk was being given. Following the ‘demand’ feeding advice, every time the baby started to cry, milk was given and hence they ended up in this 1 to 2 hour, round the clock, feeding pattern, which was exacerbating all the issues.
The baby was so over-tired that she would just fall asleep after a few mils of milk.
Her mouth was sore from the thrush which prevented her from taking a larger volume of feed and sucking for a longer period of time.
Her gut was so uncomfortable due to constantly digesting milk and she was showing signs of being mildly intolerant to cow’s milk.
[Cow’s milk protein is the most indigestible product known to the human body and whether there is a true allergy / intolerance or not, many small babies can really struggle to break down the complex proteins in cow’s milk. Equally, some babies have a natural inability to fully break down the sugars and/or carbohydrates in their milk and tend to have symptoms like bloating, flatulence, and painful tummy. This happens because babies don’t produce the enzymes to break down complex sugars until they are older, and often, it’s not even lactose or the milk they have a reaction to. Rather, they are not able to digest many of the other ingredients in milk. It might look like lactose intolerance on the outside, but really, it’s digestive immaturity.]
Taking all of this into consideration, I decided to switch her milk to the Kendamil goat formula as tot’s milk protein is much more easy to digest as opposed to the cow’s milk – remember, cows have four stomachs and little babies – and all humans, only have one!
With the thrush treatment started, the new formula in place, plus switching up from a size zero teat to a number one, I was able to start to stretch out the feeding schedule to my recommended 3 hourly plan – as detailed in my book ‘The Sensational Baby Sleep Plan’. Gradually the baby was able to take an increased volume of feed, averaging around 80/100mls as opposed to the previous 30/40. With a longer break in the feeding, I was able to increase her length of nap during the day and her night sleep stretched from being awake every hour or so to sleeping for 4 to 6 hour stretches!
So after my 48 hour visit, the baby was feeding every three hours during the 12 hours of daytime and then only waking once in the night around 1 to 2am for a feed and going back to sleep until morning! She was also smiling a lot and not frowning, many of the previous discomfort symptoms had stopped and she was almost a completely changed little bubba!
It’s still work in progress and there will be much to assess and monitor as the days pass, but for now she is much much happier – as is her mummy!
