My newborn is a slow eater, is that normal?

Question

My newborn (about 4 weeks old now) takes hours to feed - this has been the case since birth. When breastfeeding, she can feed for 3, 4 even more hours and then still be hungry when removed from the breast. We have started topping up with formula after 1 hour of breastfeeding and she can still take an hour and a half to finish the bottle making the feed take two hours or more in total. To clarify, she is constantly sucking during this time, not falling asleep or taking breaks, or sucking gently - she is constantly taking milk for the full time. Getting her undressed/skin on skin doesn't make any difference.

Is this normal? Is there anything we can do to make her eat faster - my wife is slowly losing her mind!

Answer 1

Extended periods of feeding is fairly normal at a newborn stage. Three-four hours of continuous feeding is not. If she is going on every 15 minutes with 15 minute breaks in between -- that's a growth spurt, it's normal, it'll pass.

I imagine that even though she is sucking, she is not actually taking milk -- she might be latched incorrectly. I would highly recommend a lactation consultant or a visit to your doctor.. There might be other issues with her tongue or even the mom's breast which are preventing efficient flow of milk. Having a day's schedule of when the baby was fed and for how long would greatly help them in seeing the problem. You may also need baby's poop and pee count so that they can take comfort in knowing that the baby is actually eating enough.