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Expert Q&A

	By Melissa Clark Vickers International Board Certified Lactation Consultant Moms & Babies Huntingdon, Tenn.

My 3-week-old son wants to nurse all the time. He does not seem to get full. This especially happens between 9:00 p.m. and midnight. What can I do short of giving him a pacifier?

Many babies use the technique you describe--called ""stack nursing""--in the evenings, just before a longer period of sleep. It is as if they are storing nutrition.

It often happens at this time because, when the mother is (or tries to be) a night sleeper, her milk supply is greatest in the morning and lowest around dinner time. A few hours after dinner, the supply rebounds--and babies take advantage of this!

Three weeks (and six weeks, three months and six months) are also growth spurt times, when babies tend to nurse more than usual to increase their mothers' supplies, since they have grown and now need a bit more milk. By following her baby's feeding cues, a mother will generally get though the growth spurt more quickly than she will by putting the baby off when he asks to breastfeed. Growth spurts usually last 3-5 days.

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