Q. My baby is two months old (later this week) and breastfeeding has been going fine. Lately, however, for the past two weeks, he has changed his habits a bit. He has begun to just have about 3 "meals" a day meaning sucking hard and good for at least 15-20 minutes and taking both breasts; the rest of the time he seems to just want to snack. He will cry like he's hungry and then only suck for about 5 minutes or so and only on one side and them stop and will NOT open his mouth again no matter what I try. Sometimes he falls alseep but mostly he just stops and lays there content looking. He is still having more than the required number of wet and BM diapers and has a couple of nice wakeful periods a day; he smiles, laughes and coos and seems to be doing just fine. I guess my question is, is it normal for the eating habits to change as they get older like this and is this "snacking" anything to be concerned about?
A. Babies change so much in the first year~you'll look back and wonder how you kept up with it! You are gauging this entirely correctly. If he is wetting enough diapers and is alert and happy, he is getting enough. You might find yourself a bit engorged if he stimulates a letdown and then suddenly just stops eating, but your body tends to adjust well to these changes in eating habits, especially after the first couple of months. Sounds like things are going wonderfully!
