formula question????

My daughter is 5 weeks old I have been breatfeeding her all this time, but she has started cluster feeding 4-6 hours in the morning and in the evening.  So I am trying Enfamil lipil w/iron but it seems to give her major stomach aches with gas and spitting up.....  Is there any other way I can solve this????  This is my first and I dont want to make a wrong decision here since my other half wants me to go to work here soon...  I will also call her pediatrition today as well..  My mom started feeding with rice cereal but I have been told not too???  But she is such a little piggie!!!!!!  Any Ideas?????

Tania
Fresno

[AnnieBrooke]

She is way too young for cereal, her stomach will not tolerate it.  Talk to your pediatrician and maybe with a lactation specialist if you can get to one, the lactation specialist should have some good ideas.  I wouldn't go with formula yet if you can avoid it.  Try pumping and freezing and then your husband can take over some of the feedings.

[mami1323]

Can you pump and store breastmilk instead?  I think they have a gentilease formula, that is for sensitive stomachs.  Do not feed cereal, she is too young and it will cause more problems with her stomach.  She will most likely get constipated and her digestive system is still to immature to break down solids.  

[mami1323]

Annie, I was typing at the same time, great minds think alike...lol.

[GNicole]

Yes Enfamil makes a Gentlease formula. I had to use the Enfamil Gentlease with my daughter. And like the above posters said she is way too young for cereal. Good luck!

[tatorbug40]

I third the gentlease-  I typically use/used Good Start-  but my son was sensitive when I took him off of the breast milk and switched to formula at 7 or 8 weeks,  so I switched to the gentlease for about 2 months and he did much better on it...  

best of luck!

and FYI-  I tried the cereal with my first too,  and it really doesn't lengthen time between feedings or anything and just made her fussier because of not being able to digest it properly-  I think that is just an old wives tale,  because it didn't really seem to make any difference with him DD...  my suggestion, and hard as it is, is to be patient-  It was hard with my first too-  but this time passes very quickly-   too quickly when you look back on it...  she'll be 3 and sleeping through the night and eating chicken nuggets in a blink of an eye!  :)

[Pearl99]

Around 6 weeks they have a growth spurt. They need to eat more, more often, more food.  They're trying to make your body produce more by sucking more. They outgrow it (at some point, maybe a few weeks). Cereal's not the answer. Probably not formula either (bellyaches and gas just make them seek more mommy comfort and we all know what that spells). Just feeding more often. I remember it well--20 minutes on, 20 minutes off, for hours and hours.

Perhaps your other half (if it's really just an idea he has) would reconsider the idea that a mommy of a 6wk old should be working right now?  I realize you might have other pressures to do so I hope it's not just papa--- you are definitely more than pulling your weight nursing the baby. Seems to me that's about a FT job til at least 3 months.

Other suggestion, how about pumping, and daddy can get up every 20 minutes to feed baby bottles of breast milk all night, just to get a feel for it?