Help!! Question about need to suck vs hunger

dawnemjh

Hi there! I am new to this group. I have a 4 week old at home and I am having trouble deciding if my little guy is hungry or just needs to satisfy his suck reflex. He is formula fed and eats anywhere from 2-3.5 hours. He will occasionally want to eat after an hour, and sometimes goes as long as 4 hours. He usually eats about 3.5 oz at a time, but it seems like if he ate 2 hours ago, and wants to eat again, he wont eat as much, so maybe only 2 oz. I dont mind feeding him every 2 hours, but I dont want him to get used to that and then have to be getting up all night to feed him.
SO how do I know if he is really hungry or just needs to suck?? He for some reason will use a pacifier, but cant seem to keep it in his mouth long and it just falls out so that isnt helpful. Occasionally I will help him keep it in, and he will fall asleep sucking on it. OTher times I know for sure he is hungry because nothing but the bottle will help him.
He is averaging 25-27 oz per day.

Thoughts??? Is it normal for the pacifier to fall out? my daughter never took one, but she would spit it right out and fight us everytime we tried to get her to use it. He tries to use it but it pops out after a little while.

kcasey155

Sucking is comfort to a small baby and they often use it to soothe themselves and put themselves to sleep. To them it means mum is close and that they can feel warmth and security. The sucking reflex may still be being perfected in a four week old, which is why he loses his pacifier or perhaps he just relaxes as he nods off and loses it. If he's not breastfed for whatever reason you'll have to find alternative ways to provide the same comfort, warmth and security feelings for him. You're probably right that it has little to do with food.

TheJamLady

Feed him when he's hungry not just according to how much he ate last time & how long ago. Babies stomach's hold a lot less & digest way faster than older kids so they need to eat regularly (and through the night). Your 4 week old could also be hitting a growth spurt. Talk to your doctor or public health nurse if you need additional info. Babies can go longer stretches between feedings once they get a little older. As for the pacifier, my youngest child did the same thing spitting it out at first. It takes little ones a while to learn to use the pacifier. Now at 3 months old my youngest keeps it in most of the time & is even getting the coordination to sometimes push it back in with her fist. There's no exact science- each baby is a little different.

RBXChas

I just feed when it seems like they are hungry, and if they don't actively eat, I stop. Both of my sons spat the pacifier out, and I didn't push it not because of nipple confusion but because I didn't want them to rely on it for sleep or anything. One less habit to have to break later, I guess. Though when my baby wants to suck for comfort, I cuddle him close and let him suck on my pinky turned upwards in his mouth. He never sucked for long, and now that he's teething he wants to gnaw on stuff, so a pacifier or my pinky isn't much help. He likes to gnaw on his hands or my knuckles if my hands happen to get close to his mouth!

Edited for typo

RBXChas

Also, feeding more during the day endures that they get what they need, so they may sleep through the night because they've gotten an appropriate amount of food during the day. Not to say they won't wake up at all, but if they don't eat enough during the day, they will definitely have to eat during the night. My older son slept through the night at 6 weeks, so it's possible. (My younger son is exclusively breastfed and isn't even close to sleeping through the night at 12 weeks.)

I'd also guess you're facing a growth spurt, too.

DragonSquatter

Try a pacifier first, and if he spits it out or continues to fuss, then he's probably hungry. My son hasn't had any nipple confusion or anything like that.

We did try a few different pacifiers though to find one that he kept in his mouth and liked. We ended up with the Avent ones.

sunnydayz71

I had a similar issue, my son ended up being diagnosed with failure to thrive. Turned out I wasn't making enough milk. I was nursing all the time and he'd cry almost constantly if not nursing or sleeping. If your baby's weight is staying with the curve, he/she is probably fine. If the weight is dropping, then probably hungry. My son dropped off the chart in a straight line down by 2 months but once we stopped bfing and went to formula, he caught back up on the curve by 4 months. I breastfed my first baby fine so this was a shock to me. But no harm done. I know you aren't bfing, but I would bring your baby in to be weighed if you haven't already.