cluster feeding

[katherine2008]

can anyone help with advice or experience with cluster feeding> six week old daughter is feeding roughly every 3 hours and i see in CB that she recommends afternoon feeds at 4, then a 6pm cluster and 8pm cluster before a 10 or 11pm. she is taking 4 fl oz of easy digest formula normally ~(7 feeds a day) so what do i give at the clusters< two lots of 2? and previous experience/knowledge appreciated xxx

I think cluster feeding applies more to bf babies than ff ones. From what I understand CB is just suggesting you feed at 4, 6 and 8pm to help baby stock up and hopefully sleep for longer periods at night. I would offer her normal feeds at the above times. If she finishes them all then you could up each feed by an ounce but it's quite a lot of milk in a short space of time.

At 6wks my Ds was feeding every 3 hrs day and night and would attatch himself permanently to the boob between 7 and 9 and never seemed to sleep any longer at night. It's very tiring but things do improve.

Be guided by your DD and what she needs rather than what a book dictates. That said if it works for you - go for it!

(Oh and for what it's worth as a nanny I've ff a lot of babies and never done the cluster feed thing with them and they've all slept well from quite early on - better than my Ds

thank you!!