Help...Feeding every 2.5 hours

[Nje1]

Any advice how to drag out feeds? My 3 months old baby BF's every two and a half hours day and night. My HV tells me to try and get to 4 hours but how???

[dementedpixie]

I'm sorry but 2.5-3 hours is perfectly normal for that age. Do you always make yourself wait 4 hours before having a drink/ food?

[Smurf123]

I ended up literally walking the streets with mine in the pram to try and stretch it.
16 weeks on Monday and I think he is having another growth spurt as yesterday and today he has fed every 1hr half to 2 hours during the day but at least he now goes to bed around 10 or 11 and feeds once somewhere between 3-5am then sleeos to about 8

[Smurf123]

But i still think it is great if I get him to 3 hours during the day. And he cluster feeds all evening from about 5-11. I did try to stretch to the four hours at night though

[Dobbythesockelf]

Sounds totally normal to me. If your baby is thirsty/hungry why shouldn't they be fed? Don't try and force your baby to wait longer it will just be much more stressful for both of you.

[ColonelCakes]

The best way to stretch night feeds out is to feed feed feed in the day!

[nuttyknitter]

Why on earth do HVs come out with such rubbish? This is perfectly normal and how BF is designed to work.

[RedFin]

Breast fed babies are supposed to be fed on demand. If your baby is hungry, please feed him/her. Your HV obviously doesn't know much about bfing and hasn't been helpful to you. Contact la leche league or whatever group is near you . Or a lactation consultant can help but they charge! But please feed your baby when s/he is hungry. It might feel like you're constantly feeding but it won't last forever

[Astrid2]

Completely normal. My 11 week old will feed anything between 30 minutes - 4 hours in the day and 7 hours at night. There's no consistency. If she needs a wee snack or just a drink, she has it. If she needs a full meal with dessert, she has it!

I would never go longer than an hour without having a drink so don't expect her to. They will eventually settle into a routine at night. Mine just started 9-4 asleep then 5-9 with a feed in the middle!

Give it time.

[newcupcake]

Totally normal here too my dd is 9 months now and weaned and it does get easier but she has only very recently (2 weeks ago ) knocked the 3 hourly night feeds on the head. It's a total slog and exhausting but hang on in there

[Nje1]

I feel better knowing it's normal!!!
Thanks everyone we'll carry on as we are, every 2.5 hours. Sounds like I'm lucky we have this routine at least and it is precious time together...harder to think that at 3am mind!

[chloechloe]

Having BF two babies for a year each I would say it's pretty normal in the early days. Especially if they are sleeping every 2-3 hours as most newborns do, they'll be having a feed in each cycle. It will get better. As others have said, feeds as much as you can in the day in the hope they start to go for longer at night.