Hungry or need to soothe?

Question

Exclusively breastfeeding, 5 weeks now. Babe has been a bit more fussy, easily consoled at the breast. Considering introducing a pacifier, but my probably dumb question is: how do I know if babe is truly hungry and cluster feeding or going through growth spurt vs just needing soothing and a paci will do?

Answer

If my little guy is hungry a pacifier won't soothe him for more than a minute or two once he realizes he's not getting anything from it. If he's just comfort nursing then it does.

Answer

My baby clusterfeeds almost every night. I wanted to wait until 6 weeks to give her a paci, but ended up giving it after 5 weeks. I am still afraid to interfere with clusterfeefing , so what I usually do is let her feed for quite a while , maybe 12 am and then start giving paci. Otherwise, she can feed for 5-7 hours nonstop 😣 This way my supply is still sufficient for her and my nipples are functioning, lol 😁

Answer

If they accept the paci, let them use it until they spit it out. If they spit it out than they are hungry and or cluster feeding. Sometimes it takes time for them to calm down in order to take the paci but if it takes more than 5 minutes to soothe them (rocking them with paci) than you know it’s time to eat. 
I also started using the pacifier from day one.

Answer

with my daughter she tends to be hungry about every three hours but if it’s a little earlier we try to give her the paci and if she’s hungry she’ll spit it out and if she wants comfort she’ll keep sucking it

Answer

I don’t know either but I’ve been roughly following the save my sleep book the past two days and seen a huge change in my babe!!

Answer

Good luck, my baby comfort feeds, and cluster feeds (I can tell when I see her throat gulping vs when it’s shallow and I don’t hear her swallowing) and I’ve tried every pacifier in stores and on amazon and she won’t take it, even when I try to do that reverse psychology trick where every suck you pull.. it worked for a little and then she just started pushing everything back out!

Answer

I introduced paci since day one. But if I don’t have it close to me then I put my finger like the knuckle and if she starts to suck then it’s cause she’s a little hungry. But she has a fast suck which means she’s hungry and slower one which means paci will soothe her. It’s weird to explain lol

Answer

I try everything before I feed him more so I don’t over feed him, first it’s let him finish the bottle if he continues to fussy I check or change his diaper, if that doesn’t help, I pick him up and burp him more if that doesn’t help, I give him the paci if he spits it out/goes after his hands or does the tongue clicking mouth movements then I know he wants more and I will make him a small amount.

Answer

I EBF and have an almost 6 week old. My experience is when he is fussy due to being hungry the paci won’t soothe him. He spits it right out. If he’s not hungry he takes it just fine. He has no confusion and we started it after just a few days being born.

Hungry or need to soothe?

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