Cluster Feeding: Is This Normal?
You know what’s really scary? The first few months of breastfeeding. It’s fragmented moments of high stress and pain– all while being sleep deprived and desperately needing concealer or better yet, a hot shower. As Ali Wong described in her new special, our tender babies attack our nipples liken when the bear from The Revenant violently rips through Leonardo DiCaprio (we feel you, Leo!) And yet, when we think things have normalize, our babies throws us another curve ball. Enter Cluster Feeding.
Cluster feeding, also called bunch feeding, is when babies space feeding closer together at certain times of the day and go longer between feedings at other times. Cluster feeding often coincides with your baby’s fussy time. Baby will nurse a few minutes, pull off, fuss/cry, nurse a few minutes, pull off, fuss/cry… on and on… for hours.
Cluster Feeding and Fussy Evenings • Kellymom.com
https://kellymom.com/parenting/parenting-faq/fussy-evening/
Once my baby began to finally latch, he started to develop an erratic eating schedule (dun dun dun). To the point where my entire day was breastfeeding on loop. Wilder would feed for five minutes and then pass out. I’d try anything and everything to get a very drowsy baby awake to continue feeding. He would be uninterested until I tried to do anything else, and then he’d want to eat again. His feedings would take almost an hour, just to get his fill. Then a short hour later, we’d have to do the whole process over again. A short google search later, I shrugged it off and thought, “Ah Ha! It’s must be cluster feeding.”
His routine of eating was exhausting but worth it, because we had just overcome a huge hurdle just to get him to breastfeed. If I hadn’t had the euphoria from finally getting him to latch, I would have given up.
After a few long weeks of this, I started to get worried. More than anything I wondered if, in his short intervals of feeding, he was getting enough to eat. I decided to visit a lactation consultant that was recommended to me by a friend.
Since we were going on three weeks of constant around the clock cluster feeding, something else was going on.
At our session, Jennifer watched us as we fed. She said his positioning, latch and weight gain looked good. Except his “cluster feeding” was not normal. Since we were going on three weeks of constant around the clock cluster feeding, something else was going on. During our 1.5 hour session, he managed to eat barely 3 oz over several small feedings. This meant whenever he ate for five minutes, he was definitely not getting enough.
Jennifer discovered that he had a slight tongue tie towards the back of his tongue. One that was minor and had gone undetected at our regular pediatrician visits. Luckily, it wouldn’t cause any major problems with speech or his dental hygiene if left alone. Still, it was causing him to exert extra energy to feed since his tongue wasn’t moving as freely as it should. She recommended consider seeking a ENT for a second opinion or waiting till he got a little older to see if his tongue would get stronger. However, she couldn’t guarantee that it would change or improve the situation even if he got his tongue tie sniped.
We decided that we wanted to wait before getting his tongue tie checked out. Mind you, this also meant I would continue to spend most of the day feeding but at least, I knew that it wasn’t just cluster feeding. Since I had spent so many days already on his schedule, it didn’t feel as overwhelming. It was actually weirdly reassuring to know that it wasn’t normal and the fact that we made it this far was amazing.
About two weeks later, he began to feed for longer periods of time. Slowly but surely, I could tell that feeding was becoming easier for him as well. His eating times were also gradually getting longer. I’m glad we waited to see if it would resolve, since there was no guarantee things would change after a tongue tie procedure. Our pediatrician also recommended waiting until around the 100 day mark to see if things would resolve. Thankfully by the end of month two, things got much better.
Like the uniqueness of our lovable babies, every breastfeeding experience will be different. My journey has been quite bumpy. We’ve had the lowest of lows (read here) and some big victories at the same time. Some are lucky enough to have an easier time than others while others barely survive (ME!) but whichever camp you’re a part of, it will get easier with time. If my experience is similar to yours, I highly recommend seeking help just to ease your already stressful mind. At the end of the day, a fed baby is a happy baby whether it’s from a bottle or the breast! This is tough mama, but you’ll get through it.
Comment below of the obstacles you’ve had to overcome as a new mama. Breastfeeding related or not! Please feel free to email me or DM on my Instagram (follow me!) if you have any questions about my experience.