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Grumpy baby in the evening

Little_flowerLittle_flower
in My baby was born in Jan 2010
Hi all,

Hope you and your gorgeous babies are all well!

Do any of your LOs get quite grumpy in the evening? Angus is a dream all day. He feeds every 3/4 hours, naps well etc but when the sun goes down he turns into a horror! He gets really grumpy and won't settle and ends up screaming. We run through the usual list to try and identify the problem (i.e. dirty/wet bum, wind etc) but the only thing that we come back to is that he's hungry. By that point the only thing that will calm him is a boob. Problem is I end up feeding him almost constantly until he goes to bed.

The midwife told me breastmilk isn't as good quality in the evening so he might not be fully satisfied after a feed. Anyone else heard this?

Anyone else have the same problems? Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Elle & Angus

Replies

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    Peeptoe1Peeptoe1
    This is a well known phenomena apparently and it has been dubbed 'the witching hours'. It affects FF babies too so milk quality isn't the only factor. Apparently it's due to the fact that by the evening, even if they have napped well throughout the day, the baby is over stimulated and wound up and express this by being little horrors. Cluster feeding in the evening helps them to settle better once they're down for the night (in theory) so it's important to feed on demand at this point and not make them wait for the next feed if they're out of their 3 hourly routine.
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    Little_flowerLittle_flower
    Thank you both for your replies. It's reassuring to know it's not something that I'm missing! I have been feeding on demand, even if it's not long since the last feed. Just hope my nipples can cope with the evening cluster feeding!!! xx
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