Episode # 58 My baby is a lazy breastfeeder! Here's what to do when your baby is too sleepy to breastfeed or has a lazy latch
- jaimiezaki
- Sep 9
- 8 min read
Updated: Oct 20
Understanding and Addressing Lazy Latch in Newborns
Is your newborn too sleepy to breastfeed or struggling with a “lazy latch”? You’re not alone—many new moms face this challenge in the early days of breastfeeding.
In this episode of The Breastfeeding With Confidence Podcast, Jamie Doula—International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and mom of five—explains why some babies seem too tired to latch or feed effectively and what you can do to help.
What Is a Lazy Latch?
A “lazy latch” often describes a newborn who seems too sleepy, weak, or unmotivated to breastfeed. But the truth is—babies aren’t lazy. They may be experiencing underlying challenges that make latching and feeding harder.
Common Causes of Sleepy or Weak Latch in Newborns
Jamie explores several reasons your baby might be too tired to breastfeed:
Normal newborn sleepiness in the first 24–48 hours
Effects of birth interventions such as medication during labor
Prematurity or small size for gestational age
Jaundice in newborns
Oral restrictions like tongue-tie or lip-tie
How to Help a Newborn with Lazy Latch
Practical strategies to encourage more effective breastfeeding include:
Doing frequent skin-to-skin contact
Trying switch nursing (changing sides to keep baby engaged)
Using breast compressions during feeds
Evaluating for underlying issues that may need professional support
Encouragement for Moms
Jamie reminds mothers that their instincts are powerful. If something feels off—trust your gut and seek skilled support. With the right strategies and guidance, most babies can overcome a “lazy latch” and breastfeed successfully.
Episode Timeline
00:00 – Introduction to Breastfeeding With Confidence
00:54 – Understanding the Lazy Latch
01:47 – Common Causes of Sleepy Babies
05:04 – Practical Tips to Keep Baby Awake
07:10 – Checking for Underlying Issues
08:01 – Final Thoughts and Encouragement
Confident Mama Breastfeeding Academy
Avoid Mistakes that Sabotage Breastfeeding
Transcript:
Hey Mama Bear. Welcome to the Breastfeeding With Confidence podcast. Do you dream of bonding with your baby through exclusive breastfeeding, but worry about breastfeeding pain or low milk supply? Maybe you're struggling with breastfeeding and no one seems to have any answers. I'm Jamie Doula, international Board certified lactation consultant, and Mom of five, and I have been where you are after working through painful latches, milk supply worries, and postpartum depression, and.
Supporting countless mothers through their breastfeeding journeys for over eight years. I'm here to tell you breastfeeding doesn't have to be perfect to be positive. Each week I'll share breastfeeding tips to help you prevent and overcome unexpected breastfeeding challenges so you can actually enjoy bonding with your baby.
If you are ready to shut out the toxic whispers of the world, embrace your God-given intuition and release your inner fierce Mama bear. Grab some coffee or your favorite herbal tea and let's dive in.
Hey mama. Welcome back to the Breastfeeding with Confidence Podcast. I am Jamie, and if you have ever tried to nurse your newborn and thought, why won't my baby just stay awake at the breast? Today's episode is for you. We are talking about the so-called lazy latch or lazy breast feeder, what's really going on and how you can help your baby latch and feed better even when they seem super, super sleepy.
So maybe this sounds familiar. You finally get your baby positioned, they finally get latched, take a few sucks, and then they are out like a light. And you're left sitting there wondering like, why is my baby too lazy to eat? , You're wondering if something's wrong with you. Maybe something's wrong with your milk supply, or maybe you're just like, oh my gosh, this baby is just lazy.
This baby doesn't want to eat. First things first. Your baby is not lazy. That word gets tossed around way too much. I hear it most often in the hospital rooms from nurses. I see it in online forums, and we really need to stop calling babies lazy. What's really happening is that newborns are adjusting to life outside the womb.
Yeah. And sometimes they're extra sleepy. , Sometimes they're a little extra small. Sometimes they're recovering from birth interventions or maybe. Frequently they have some of the kind of functional or structural issue that makes breastfeeding more work than it should be. So it's really hard for them and they get tired really quickly.
So there are a few things that can kind of lead to this lazy baby at the breast phenomenon. The first one is that normal newborn sleepiness. Y'all, that first 24 hours. Your baby might want a nurse. They might just be super sleepy, and that's normal. That's normal. So, yes, we wanna latch as often as possible.
We wanna keep the breast accessible, frequent skin to skin, but uh, your baby's recovering from birth just like you are. So if they rest for a little while, that's okay. We don't wanna put too much stock in the first 24 hours of breastfeeding being like, it's very important. But we don't wanna be like, oh my gosh, they're not a perfect breast feeder yet.
And assume that there's problems. All right. Next is the effects of interventions. Things like epidural c-section. Certain medications, they can make babies extra drowsy. You'll get a lot of opinions on this. Fact of the matter is babies who were born after a high intervention birth often have more difficulty breastfeeding.
That doesn't mean your interventions were wrong, it's just something to be aware of. Mm-hmm. So if your baby is struggling to breastfeed, kind of keep in mind what happened during birth. Alright, don't, don't make it mean too much. If your baby was premature or they're small for gestational age, their energy reserves might be a little lower, so they might be extra sleepy and we might have to work extra hard to support them.
Sometimes if your baby has jaundice, that can make babies extra sleepy and really difficult to rouse for feeding. So we do have to be aware of that as well. And then. Last, but certainly not least, , oral restrictions and functional issues like, uh, tor, um, overlapping cranial sutures, tongue tie. All of these things can make your baby's sucking less efficient, so they give up quickly.
So the first thing we need to do before we label your baby as lazy is understand. Why they don't seem willing to breastfeed, because everything your baby is wired to do comes back to feeding. Your baby's only job is to breastfeed. So there is not a baby born on this earth that does not want to breastfeed.
If a baby isn't breastfeeding. If a baby's having a hard time, if it's not so much that they won't, it's they can't. And it's really important that we flip that script of calling them lazy. So what do we do if our baby seems to be very tired and struggling with staying awake? First of all, skin to skin contact is always going to be the first step.
Alright, frequent constant skin to skin. This stimulates your baby's natural feeding reflexes. It helps keep them alert and it just keeps them close to the breast so they can find it when they're ready. Frequent feeding attempts. You do not have to wait for a full on hunger cry to offer the breast, especially if your baby is sleepy.
If your baby is frequently going 3, 4, 5 hours without signaling to feed, then you need to be waking your baby to feed because that is often a sign that there's something more going on, and these are the babies that we see quickly dropping weight with no explanation why there's an explanation.
Hey mama. Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to tell you that when I had my first baby, I really thought I was ready to breastfeed. And the truth is I struggled and the people I expected to help me didn't actually have the answers. That is why I created the breastfeeding resource library, so you don't have to leave breastfeeding to chance Inside you will learn how to avoid unnecessary formula, protect your milk supply.
And get a pain-free latch. You'll also learn how to fix common struggles before they become big problems. Visit little bear lactation.com/library and use code podcast 50 to save. Now
Switch Nursing is a technique that some people will use to help keep their baby awake. So as soon as baby starts to doze off on one side, gently unlatch them switch sides, and sometimes that kind of wakes them up a little bit. Breast compressions can be very helpful while your baby is latched. You can do a little bit of breast massage or compress the breast and that increases the milk flow a little bit.
Um, making them have a little less work and kind of stimulating that milk so they're kinda like, Hey, yeah, there's milk flowing. I'm gonna start sucking again. Sometimes, uh, a little bit of gentle stimulation, like just, you know, tickling their feet, just kind of keeping 'em awake will help. That's not usually my go-to though.
All right. My biggest, my biggest, biggest, biggest intervention is to check for underlying issues. All right? If your baby is consistently struggling to stay awake and is not transferring milk well, is losing weight. That is a red flag. I don't care if they do great on the bottle. Alright, that's fantastic.
We know we can get food into them if they do great on the bottle, but they're very sleepy at the breast. There is a problem and we need to figure out what it is because I promised you it will catch up later. Alright. Whether that's when you start solids and now they can't eat solids and so they just gag on everything.
Whether it's an airway issue when they're four years old and they won't stop wetting the bed. Like there are so many things that this can fall. Um. Signal down the road. We wanna make sure that we are checking for those underlying issues early. Remember, mama, your baby is not lazy and you are not failing.
You're not doing anything wrong. Babies communicate with us through their behavior, and a sleepy baby is telling us something important. All right? Your job is not to just power through and hope for the best. It's to observe and respond and get the right support when you need it. It's to advocate for answers.
It's to understand the why. That is how you protect your breastfeeding journey. Whether you're a first time mom or this is your fifth baby. If something seems off and is different and doesn't seem right, trust that instinct. If you wanna dive deeper into how you can avoid common early challenges like this and protect your exclusive breastfeeding goals, Check out the breastfeeding resource library right now. It was designed for both pregnant and postpartum mothers to learn what's normal, what's not, and what you can do about it. So you can start your breastfeeding journey with confidence. Grab it littlebearlactation.com/library and use code podcast 50 to save today.
Alright, mama bear. That is a wrap for today. If this episode helps you feel a little more confident or a little more prepared for breastfeeding, can I ask you a quick favor? Go ahead and leave me a review. It helps other moms find this podcast and join us in this amazing community of fierce and confident Mama bears.
And hey, if you know a friend who could use some encouragement or real talk about pregnancy, breastfeeding, and all things motherhood, share this episode with her. You've got this Mama Bear Trust your instincts, stay fierce, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
Jaimie Zaki is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and mom of 5! Jaimie has volunteered as a La Leche League Leader, worked as a nurse, doula, and birth photographer, and is the host of the Breastfeeding With Confidence Podcast and founder of the Confident MamaBear Society. Jaimie provides holistic breastfeeding advice for pregnant & new moms, helping them overcome unexpected latching trouble and milk supply issues. She empowers mothers to make informed decisions from a place of confidence and intuition.
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