What's average number of feeds day & night for 8wk old - b'feeding....

[Ilovenutella]

My DD is having 4 feeds during the day - roughly 8am, 1pm, 6pm and 10pm - and then she wakes once in the night about 4am. She feeds between 20-40mins each time. Is this pretty normal? (Am not in UK so don't have HV monitoring her - am seeing her paediatrician this week) and I don't know what she should weigh (i.e the weight range). She weighed 7lb 7oz at birth and is about 12lbs now......

[moondog]

Are you feeding on demand?
She should be feeding about 8-12 times a day I think...Or maybe you are very very lucky and she is an incredibly efficient feeder.
Sounds like the wieight gain is great!!

[dal21]

Each bub is different. I have DS (also 8 weeks old) on 3 hourly feeding schedule during the day, then some cluster feeding pre bed/ bath. He doesnt go through anywhere near as long as yours does at nighttime - still too erratic. Lucky you with your feeding patterns. Feed lengths seem spot on too. I wouldnt worry about a thing. As I said, all bubs are different and as long as your baby is producing nice dirty nappies consistently (so whatever is routine for them) and producing plenty of wet nappies aswell - then your bub is spot on. Make sure the paed looks at growth based on breastfeeding and not formula.

[Ilovenutella]

Not feeding on demand - paediatrician encouraged me to get her towards 6 feeds a day at 4wks and 5 feeds a day towards 8wks. It seems to have worked well for us and she only yells with hunger in the last 15-30mins before she is due a feed...... Don't want to be strict routine mummy (am generally more a freestyle kind of girl) but it seems to work and just following advice of paed as he's my main contact here (france)...... 2 pooey nappies and several wet ones a day - is that normal too?

[morocco]

good grief!! sounds bliss. certainly nothing like dd at all but the important thing is the wet nappies and happy baby. lucky you

[Ilovenutella]

Prob a few more than several wet nappies too. Plus dal21 how does growth differ btwn bf and ff babies?

[morocco]

just seen your next post. can i suggest that fab though it is to go so long between feeds, it perhaps is not worth the baby crying for a feed, why not just feed her? i only say that from the position of having been like that myself with ds1 and it seems kind of pointless looking back. as you know, bf rates in france and support for bf are pretty crappy (just like here i guess) so your paed is more than likely not v well informed on bf in any case (my paeds were all french trained so i have 'insight' lol)

[lailasmum]

I think bf babies are normally a bit lighter and many charts are based on ff babies so people think their bf babies are not doing well because they appear light when they are fine.

[Ilovenutella]

Morocco - I try not to leave her to cry as I agree with you - it is pointless - hence some varying in times btwn feeds. sometimes she goes 4hrs sometimes 5 and a half! Have been lucky with bf support here with gynae, paed and midwife all helping & encouraging me. Just more concerned about weight gain etc and whether it's 'normal'. Imagine I could find weight charts on internet.....

[tiktok]

No - breastfed babies are not generally lighter than formula fed babies....please lets get away from this myth

The gap between them does not start still about 4 mths at the earliest. By the age of a year, yes, breastfeds are lighter, but in the first months, they tend to be heavier than ff babies.

Ilovenutella, your baby is feeding very infrequently, but weight gain sounds fine and if she is responding and behaving as you'd expect in an 8 week and not sleeping all those hours between feeds but is awake and alert, then prob all is well

[Ilovenutella]

No tiktok - she is awake about an hour after the feed - plays. Then she sleeps for an hour or so then wakes and plays and then sleeps again in the run up to her feed.......

[morocco]

then once again - lucky you , all sounds fab, wish my dd only woke once or indeed only fed 4 times - and she's 7 months!!

[PrioryParkChick]

Hi Ivovenutella- just wanted to say that I think you are doing amazingly well. My DD is now nine weeks and eats every 3-4 hours on average during the day, cluster feeds in the evening and then wakes once during the night at 5.30ish for a small feed - however she doesn't usually go down until midnight. She was also 7lb7 at birth and is now 10lb4, so a big congratulations to you it sounds like you have got it all sorted!

[NellyTheElephant]

Hi there, well done, you sound like you are doing a great job and have nothing to worry about.

Your baby sounds just like my two. I demand fed, (but no one ever believed me when I said that). At 8 weeks DD1 fed 4 times during the day (around 7.30am, 11am, 2.30pm 6pm) went to bed at 7pm and woke at around 5 am for a feed. I would then wake her around 7.30 and feed her again. She slept 12 hours a night from 9 weeks. DD2 was almost identical and started sleeping 12 hours a night from just over 9 weeks. Both babies were quite small at birth (DD2 was only 6lb), but by 2 months both were well over the 50th centile. Both of them gained weight way more quickly than the charts indicated for formula fed babies, so I do think the formula / breast feeding weight gain thing may be a bit of a myth.

I think I was extremely lucky (as are you), and had a great milk supply and babies that latched on well and fed efficiently. You are lucky that you don't have a HV monitoring you as with DD1 mine made me feel that I wasn't feeding often enough and should be waking DD1 in the night and implied that I didn't know what demand feeding meant and must be leaving my baby to cry - and this despite DD1's exponential weight gain! With DD2 I simply avoided the HV.

A word of warning though, when the girls reached about 3 months I found it necessary to introduce and extra feed around 4.30 (so fed 7.15, 11am, 2.30pm, 4.30pm and 6,30pm) but they never deviated from sleeping through the night.

[Ilovenutella]

Phew - am feeling reassured now - she sleeps brilliantly at night and we have had a few nights where she has slept through. Must be lucky!!!!