Is he eating less?

[Slanted]

DS is 16.5 weeks, and very suddenly (overnight, really) has cut down on his feeding time. He is ebf, and has gone from taking 20-30 minutes per feed to 10 minutes (sometimes not even that long). He's still producing plenty of wet nappies, but only 1-2 dirty nappies a day (used to be 3-4).

He's also going a lot longer between feeds, even though I offer him feeds regularly. He seems to only want to eat every 3-4 hours.

The last time he was weighed (last Monday) he had actually moved up a centile, and had gained a lot more weight than he usually does, but this was before the 'drop' in feeds began.

Is this normal? Or should I be doing more to encourage more feeding?

[bushymcbush]

This sounds normal. As they grow bigger and stronger, babies become much more efficient at extracting your milk, so they take more volume in less time.

[Slanted]

Thanks bushy. I thought as much but was just concerned at how suddenly it seemed to happen!

[bushymcbush]

Just keep watching the wet nappies as your best gauge to him taking enough milk. And 1-2 dirty nappies is quite a lot - my ebf daughter sometimes went for a week without a dirty nappy (also normal, as I discovered at the time from the good people of mumsnet )