8 week old still feeding on demand

[beachavendrea]

Hi
My son is almost 8 weeks old and is still feeding on demand, sometimes every two hours and sometimes every hour during the day.

For the past week he has been sleeping like a dream at night only waking once bewtween 7 and 5-6 ish. And has about two hour and a half naps a day. And some cat naps.

I tried getting him on a three hour feeding routine which worked for one day and then we went back to our old tricks. He also gets quite windy and i thought i might be overfeeding him. He spends about 10 minutes on the boob so I think he might be only snacking.
The only way I can get him to settle is too feed him so it seems I am stuck in this frequent feed/sleep routine.
Can an 8 week old settle himself?
Sorry first time mum and I'm not really sure what I am doing.

[beachavendrea]

sorry also tried a dummy and he doesn't fall for it.

[nigglewiggle]

It sounds like you are doing a really great job and sounds quite normal to me from what I recall. Someone more knowledgeable will hopefully be along soon, but if not, try posting in the Breast and Bottle Feeding topic as some really excellent and well qualified people monitor those threads.

[Tryharder]

This is entirely normal. He's 8 weeks old. He cannot settle himself yet. He is biologically programmed to cry to keep you near him because he is reliant on you for everything. Please, please, please (times a million) throw away or burn your parenting manuals, ignore "well meaning" friends and family and listen to your baby. Cross out the word "routine" from your vocabulary.

You can do routines, sleep training etc etc if this floats your boat at a much later date. For now, sit down, relax, put on a DVD box set, feed and cuddle your son and sleep when he sleeps.

If you have feeding issues, post them on the breastfeeding section as there are usually a few experts about who can offer proper advice.

[MarshaBrady]

Completely fine. ds2 is six months and I still feed him to sleep. Feeding frequently is fine and normal (and nice for the baby I think!).

[lal123]

I'm still demand feeding DD2 - and she's 9 months! With demand feeding baby gets into their own routine. at him sleeping at nights!

[CMOTdibbler]

He's obv a very efficient feeder who stocks up during the day, so that you get a good sleep at night.

I think 10 minutes feeding in 2 hours is fantastic going, and I really wouldn't change a single thing

[plantsitter]

Sounds like you are doing absolutely brilliantly! He would eat more in the day if he's sleeping all night. I know which I would prefer!!

[beachavendrea]

Thanks guys I feel better already, I just visions of feeding him to sleep when he was two!

[gomez]

All sounds good to me - if he is sleeping well at night then he needs to get the feeds in during the day. That was always my mantra anyway made the what seemed like constant feeding for months okay.

Re: 10 minute feed my two girls both fed for maybe 30 minutes at a time, DS was an on and offer 5/10 mins at a time - made no huge difference to the frequency of feeds to be honest.

I think things started to calm down a bit around 4 months. I only really started to try and control feeds when weaning was well establihsed - which was again different for all three - 8ish months, 10 ish months and 14ish months as they al took to 'food' with carying appetites and enthusiasim.

Also if you know he has been fed and is not starving don't be afraid to let hime wait for a wee bit if you are in the midst of doing something else. I would sometimes think you can't possibly be hungry so would let DH shuggle for a few minutes until I finished eating or whatever. Or would rock in pram for 5/10 mins whilst I spoke with one of the others.

All in all sounds like you are doing great and all is fairly normal.

[thatsnotmymonkey]

You are doing really well, and I would only echo what the others have said.

Your DS is supposed to demand feed, and it sounds very very normal to me. Forget "routines" and go with the flow. I think baby gets a free pass until they are at least 3m

[Hullygully]

what tryharder said.

It would be a lot better if people told the truth about bf to new mothers - ie, sit down and get your tits out for the foreseeable future...

[Sidge]

Demand feeding is completely normal and is what you should be doing really.

This whole 3 or 4 hour feeding that seems to be 'recommended' is arbitrary and has no basis in physiology or development. If you think about it, if someone told you you could only eat or drink every 3 hours you'd be pretty cheesed off and soon get very hungry or thirsty.

You are doing brilliantly, your baby is eating regularly and very efficiently, sleeping well and no doubt growing beautifully. If it ain't broke don't fix it!

(Oh and IME feeding a small baby to sleep is fine; you have plenty of time later to help him learn to self-settle, he's far too young to 'learn' to do it at the moment).

[Spidermama]

What Sidge said.

[beachavendrea]

i think you are right I have read too many parenting books and heard people say their babies were settling themselves at 8 weeks!

[AngelDog]

It's easy to worry, isn't it? I'd say these thingt are only a problem if they genuinely cause you a problem. Chuck away any book telling you what your baby 'should' do, they will all just do their own thing anyway.

My DS (6 months) is always fed to sleep at night I love it because it's easy and virtually always works. Babies do get faster at feeding as they get more efficient at it.

You're doing a grand job, well done.

[pigleychez]

My DD2 is 6 weeks old and in no routine either.

She feeds when shes hungry, sleeps when shes tired. No point trying to force it.
My mum is horrified that im demand feeding and says it like its the work of the devil. I dont know what she expects me to do.. if shes hungry then im not going to let her scream for another 2 hours am i!? - Anyway i digress!

DD2 is the same and stocks up during the day and usually goes-10/11ish till 4/5 ish till about 7ish. Which is fine by me. She has kind of found this pattern herself.

At 8 weeks id say demand feeding is perfectly normal. DD1 fell into a routine of her choosing by herself. With both girls, sometimes they would settle themselves, sometimes they wouldnt. They learn it themselves in the end and 8 weeks is still very little.

[lagrandissima]

Sounds all very normal, all very healthy. It is tiring for you, but great for him. Try not to plan too much for the next few weeks/months, nap when he naps, and take things as easy as you can.

He won't overfeed if you're breastfeeding. In hot weather you produce more thirst-quenching milk, so perhaps he is keeping up his liquid intake as it's so warm.

Sounds like you've been lucky at night (to be honest), make sure you get to bed as early as you can bear, so that you get a chunk of sleep before he wakes up for the feed. Don't be surprised if he wakes up more frequently at night at times- this might happen during growth spurts.

It is very hard work, but gradually gets easier. You're doing brilliantly - trust your instincts and follow his lead and you can't go wrong.

[Confuzled]

I's bloody hard work, but completely normal. My mother tried to get me to use a routine as he was a 2 hourly feeder till 5 or 6 months, night and day - but all that happened, as you found, is he ate too much if coaxed into it and then either vomited it all up again or had chronic indigestion. Things went much better when I followed my gut - or actually, quite literally, we both followed his.

Nobody else will know your baby's needs as well as you. Trust your instincts, and his. DS has never been routinised in his life until he started eating our meals with us, properly, at about a year or so. He doesn't feed to sleep now, either (20 months). He's fine, it was fine, and I'm glad we did it as we did.

[tb]

We found that Boots gripe water worked really well. The only use we found for infacol was to sterilise the empty bottle and use for squirting gripe water down her throat before a feed. Also found that having a sleep during the afternoon helped to build up the more satisfying milk - apparently the thirst-quenching milk contains more sugar, so it can cause wind.

Agree with chucking the books in the bin, 'cos you know your baby better than anyone else.

[beachavendrea]

When they said on demand I just didn't realise it would quite be so often!
He is a very good baby though, I think I had information overload and was stressing out about how to do it all perfectly!
Thanks for all the support I will try to follow my instincts from now on and stress less about the small things.

[Ashtofela]

I am facing the same issue.Even my 8weeks demand sometimes twice in an hour.