Laurie, I have also had cases of over abundant milk supply where the 
baby nurses for a long time. Well, they gulp for five minutes and then 
want to stay on forever. They seem to stop sucking but some of them like 
to be comforted on the breast without the flow. I assess feeds by weight 
gain, diaper counts, etc. Long feeds are not really "normal" but 
sometimes they are ok. Test weights have showed me how some babies suck 
and suck and suck but only remove milk in the first 10 minutes. After 
that, and it can be 60 minutes of what looks like good sucking, test 
weights show almost no intake. So it is tricky and one size does not fit 
all.

I will say that when I worked in a hospital five years ago, I observed 
and timed a bunch of newborn babies. Normally, they actively suck about 
10-15 minutes then slow down and get lazy for another five or ten 
minutes. Come off, get burped and a diaper change and do about the same, 
maybe less minutes on the second side. I do tell moms that baby needs to 
work at the feeding for the first 10-15 minutes on each side because I 
get a lot of lazy feeders (premature, bottle feed, or drugged from 
birth). This gives her some guidelines to watch the baby and make him 
participate in the feedings. Most moms of problem breastfeeders do not 
do this well on their own, they have to be shown in-person what good 
sucking looks like. And without test weights for problems like poor 
weight gain, one can not assume baby is removing anything because some 
of these little ones look good but are not removing milk.

Kathy Eng, BSW, IBCLC

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