New mum looking for advice on good breast feeding apps...

[Naisy]

Hi, I have my gorgeous two day old son and am looking forward to taking him home tomorrow. In hospital I've been writing down feed times, sides and notes and have found it really useful. I'd like to transfer it onto an iPhone app and was seeking advice on a good one?

Ideally I want to track feed info (such as start and finish times, sides, etc), see data breakdowns on feed cycles to see what patterns emerge and be able to make extra notes that may be relevant to specific date (nappy details or diet impact details for example).

Do any ladies out there have any tips on a good app to do this on?

Apps to avoid also useful!

Many thanks

[Mobly]

Naisy, congratulations on your new baby

I must admit I recorded feed times etc with ds1 in the hope of an emerging pattern. I think I gave up after a month! It was just another thing to have to do and I found j remembered roughly when he'd fed anyway.

Found it much easier to feed on demand and go with flow (provided baby feeding enough).

I'd aim to feed at least every 2hrs in these early days so would keep eye on clock for that purpose until feeding established. Obviously if baby wants to feed more often then great. I found in the sleepy newborn phase that I had to wake them to feed though.

Sorry I don't know of any apps.

[Wigeon]

This isn't going to be the answer you want, but breastfeeding doesn't work like that. Especially in the first 3 months (at least 3 months!). You will drive yourself absolutely round the bend if you log each and every feed and every statistic about.

Babies vary in what they want from feed to feed, from day to day, and from week to week. One feed might be 10 mins from each side, then next might be 40 mins and 3 sides, and so might the next one. And then you might have all sorts of random sides / times for a bit. Then you've have 2 weeks of every feed being exactly 25 minutes and 2 sides, every 3 hours, but suddenly the baby will be wanting to feed every 2 hours, but only for 10 mins.

And that's all completely normal.

The only thing I found useful which slightly addresses your OP is that with DD1 I wore a band round my wrist to help me remember which breast I most recently fed off, so that I could feed off the other one next time. Didn't bother with DD2 though!

[Wigeon]

Forgot to say congratulations on your son!

Also, you will notice vague patterns without any sort of app (eg the baby seems to be feeding every 2 hours or so - which probably a very newborn will be doing, if not more frequently), but as soon as you have found something, it will change. And that's completely fine and you just have to go with it.

[JollyToddler]

I use Baby ESP. It does everything you are looking for although I haven't used it to track nappies so don't know how well you could link that info to feeds.

It works for sleep too, and gives you stats over longer periods.

E.g. our total 'all time' nursing time is 9 days, 23 hours. Last 30 days is 6 hours 56 minutes.

It also tells you left/right percentage.

[Wigeon]

JollyToddler - are your BF-ing? How do you find the app helps you with feeding (genuine question)?

[ATourchOfInsanity]

Congratulations!
I agree with other posters, you probably will find he changes weekly, if not daily, with how much feeding and when.

I BF'd for 11 months and at the start she was on constantly (literally every hour - v hungry and big!) and when I weaned her off at 11 months we were down to roughly 3 feeds a day and vaguely regular times... Sometimes they will take 15mins and others an hour. It's hit or miss.

Also comfort plays a role and you will notice he will use you to fall asleep sometimes. You will notice when he doesn't actually drink. This is fine, obviously! Just don't try to keep it to certain times, or you will wear yourself out and worry. I used to have her on me in bed to feed to start, then you can doze a bit (but then I enjoyed co-sleeping and lots of people think that is naughty, so up to you!).

Have lots of fun. I miss it now it is over, you get so close!

[ATourchOfInsanity]

Something that might help you get your head around it is that your milk changes as the baby grows - if you have seen the formula bottles for different age groups, basically you produce the milk your baby needs at each stage. Your bod knows what baby needs, but as a result it can be heavier or lighter milk, meaning they will want to feed more or less frequently.
Hope that helps!

[JollyToddler]

At about 12 weeks I was having real trouble with nipple pain so bought the app. Used it for a few days and discovered that DS was feeding on average 17 times a day as I just fed him whenever he squeaked. This was too many and neither of us were coping well.

From 12 weeks we did routine-led BFing because baby led clearly didn't work too well for us - I didn't understand cues. The app worked well for this. It was also useful when Ds started weaning to ensure he was still getting enough milk.

To be honest, it ha been more useful for sleep as you can see general trends.

[APipkinOfPepper]

I use an app called Baby Log (I think!) which lets you record feeds, nappies and sleep (and some other things). I stopped recording nappies after the first few weeks, and I'm now mainly using it to remind myself which side I used last for feeding.

[MargoThreadbetter]

I used BabyNursing, just the free version. Found it handy as in the beginning it seemed DD was feeding for much shorter times than my PFB DS.

Very reassuring to see patterns emerging, and reminded me which side I fed from last.

[feekerry]

congratulations!!!!

honestly, i wouldn't bother! sorry! i think the more you start recording, thinking about and timing etc the more complicated it gets. just feed v often, everytime your lo squeaks! and sometimes when not too lol! your body will sort it out, promise!!! its got its own internal app!!
x

[Seriouslysleepdeprived]

Congrats on your little one!! I use ibaby feed & find it really useful even at 6 months in. You get a feel for after a while but I still like to use it do I know how long it's been between feeds etc.

You can put sides in, time feeds (although it doesn't matter how long they feed for), write notes. All v useful!

[rememberingnothing]

Although this would have driven me absolutely mental (and I like a spreadsheet) I can see that for some it would provide some element of control or understanding of a process that really isn't very predictable or consistent.

I found I could easily tell which side I need to feed from first as that was the one that was leaking most or later just a quick squeeze of each side tells you which is fullest.

[mathanxiety]

Don't bother with all that clock watching and recording.

This isn't a scientific process. It's establishing a feeding relationship with your baby and responding to his or her cues, not a graph-making exercise.

Don't fight it or try to control it. Surrender to the flow.

[byhec]

I used feedbaby for a while to keep track but it's true that once you get more confident and breastfeeding is more established you'll probably stop feeling the need to record all the feeds.

[MigGril]

Jolly - This is why apps are maybe a bad idea feeding them at ever squek is fine. But you probably would have benefited from breastfeeding support from some one well trained to help with the nipple pain. Helping improve latch can lead to less frequent feeding to as they are then getting milk more efficiently. So it actually stop you seeking the help you really needed.
Remember restricting feeding at any age can lead to you not producing enough milk, and cause you real problems when you hit a growth spurt. There are very good reasons why demand feeding is recommend.

I did start recording times with my eldest but soon gave up as there is just no pattern in the early days. Clock watching could just drive you a little mental. As long as baby doesn't go more then 2 hours between feeds there is no need to time feeding.

[notcitrus]

Personally, an app game like Pocket Frogs to pass the time while you feed! (you breed frogs. And sell them. At first they grow up in under an hour so ready to sell by the next feed...)

Kindle app. And the Kellymom website.
But if you want to track feeds how about a simple spreadsheet on your phone?

[Fuchzia]

Awww congratulations! I used ibaby feed which does most of that but only for the first two weeks. You certainly won't need it once you establish feeding.

[MargoThreadbetter]

Btw, I fed on demand. I just liked having an easy way to keep a record.

And my iPhone is always to hand for feeds anyway

[megandraper]

goodness! not meaning to sound rude, but just concentrate on your baby (or MN on your phone while feeding which is what I do). You will pick up everything you need to know about their patterns and how they're (constantly) changing just by being there, you don't need to analyse stats. The more you concentrate on 'recording' the less you'll be naturally aware of what's going on. And I speak as an ex-management-consultant...

Totally agree with the poster who said your body is its own internal app.

[JollyToddler]

Mig, I tried the health visitor, midwives, the hospital, la leche and nct and nobody could work out what was going wrong with the latch. If we actually had some NHS employed bf support folk who were flexible and not only working 9-5 at a hospital 45 minutes away and mainly dealing with parenting skills for under 25s rather than bf support then rates up here would be better. I reckon our various problems were: large, very flat nipples, Ds having a very small mouth, fast let down and oversupply. None of which are easy to solve.

As it was, reducing feeds and routine feeding was the only thing that worked for us. We are still BFing at 17mo and haven't had any real problems since 7mo.

Agree entirely that demand feeding is the only way to do it in the early weeks though.