My 12 week old is feeding every 4 hours or so at the moment - he's breastfed. This seems like an awfully long gap to go in between feeds - up until last week it was roughly every 3 to 3.5 hours.

Yesterday I tried feeding him when he wasn't hungry - cue lots of spraying, smiles (his) and frustration (mine). He didn't seem to have very much at all yesterday so I woke up at 2 in the morning and dream fed him then just to top him up. Husband thinks I'm mad and that I should have let him see if he could sleep straight through from 8:30 until morning but I was so distraught at the thought of him not having had much to eat yesterday that I wanted to make sure.

Am I being ridiculously paranoid (I suspect I am but am a paranoid first time mum and need to know what's normal!) or should I be trying to feed him more frequently? I know that feeding on demand is the right thing to do, but will it ensure he gets enough during the day? I thought babies should be eating 6-8 times a day? At this rate today he'll only have been eating 5 times in one day which surely can't be enough.

oh honey, try to relax.
feed him when he asks for it, whenever he asks for it and youre doing your job as well as possible.
with my first, i stuck a boob in his gob every time he cried sometimes he wanted it, sometimes not. throw the damn clock away of its making you worry so much - go with the flow

I'm sure someone will be along to give you more details, but they are more efficient at getting milk as they get older. They can take more milk in a shorter feed.

I think this is fine as long is it is definitely feeding on demand. In a week or so he will be having a growth spurt and you will be wondering if it is possible for hom to do nothing but feed for 12 hours straight!
Of course that's assuming plenty of wet/dirty nappies, and that he is in general content...if so then its fine.

Definitely feeding on demand - have tried feeding him when he's drowsy, sleepy, crying etc. but he isn't interested at all. Plenty of wet nappies and a few dirty nappies (not every day but that's normal for him).

I think that seems fine then, although if you are worried I would check with your HV - it can't hurt.

Every four hours is absolutely fine. He'll change his timings as he grows anyway. The growth spurts will most likely change it again for a while too. Demand feeding is the best way IMO, after all, we eat when we are hungry, so why wouldn't they? My Ds was always 4 hourly from about 12 weeks too. At the beginning he was every hour!

And well done for breast feeding on demand too

you are being ridiculously paranoid. your words.

hi I used to feed my lo every 4 hrs she is still being ebf at 16 weeks.. I changed it to every three hours because my boobs were getting too full and they were spraying everywhere which crushed my confidence about bf in piblic, so I triued feeding every 3 hrs, she adapted well fed for 10 mins each side and got her 5 feeds in between 7am and 7pm , she has slept throughy the night since, not saying this is the same for all babies but think she is satisifed during the day instaed of having to 'refill' during the night- hope this helps also since feeding every 3 hours my boobs are always nice and soft and don't spray which is fab xx