5mo DD feeding every 4 hrs for 5-10 mins at a time - is this normal?

[gingerkirsty]

Hello, I think everyone will tell me that as long as there are wet and dirty nappies, she is ok in herself and she is not underweight, she is fine - but I have just put her onto a 4 hr 'routine' (as she was clearly snacking before and I was in the habit of offering feeds FAR more often than she needed) which she is totally relaxed with, and she is still only feeding for short times.

I just want some reassurance that she is clearly a very efficient feeder and getting what she needs in a short time!

TIA

buuuuummmmp....

"4 hour routine" - does she "demand" food before the 4 hours are up? If not sounds fine.

Normal for feeds to be shorter by that age.

How is she at night? Does she have solids yet?

No demands at all, she is perfectly chilled and not even particularly demanding by 4 hrs if I'm honest! No significant solids I have just started giving her little tasters of things, a couple of times a week. Also have introduced hipp organic night milk which has cereal in it in the hopes that if she has that at her dream feed she will sleep for longer - this whole thing has come up because she is sleeping very erratically at night and I needed to do something to preserve my sanity!

Mine is 4 months and is similar. I am now combi feeding but he's easily going 4 hours between BF and only feeds for about 7 minutes at a time. He gulps like there's no tomorrow, coughs and splutters a bit as I have a fast letdown and comes off perfectly happy. Unless it's the evening if I offer a feed much before 3-4 hours he's simply not interested at all. Big change from the hourly feeds of the early days.

to be honest, if she is sleeping erratically at night then cutting down on feeds during the day isn't going to help

Well i am pleased to say it has done, actually! Dream fed at 10.45 and she woke right on schedule at 2.45 for a feed, then slept on. This is the first time in months we've only been up once in the night!

It's normal at that age to wake up several times a night. Cutting out feeds/enforcing routines may impact upon your milk supply.

Are you aware that the formulas packed with cereal have been linked to increased SIDS rates?

jemabella. Could you point me in the direction of formula with cereal being linked to SID's. I haven't heard this and whilst I am aware that the incidences of SIDS are higher in formula fed babies I haven't seen anything linking cereal in formula's specifically to this.

Why would that be, if it is ok for a baby to have formula and cereal seperately? Is there some nasty additive when cereal is put into milk?

gingerkirsty - it's to do with sleep cycles, etc - babies are 'designed' to wake frequently to keep them alive.

I'll dig up the links I have saved, bear with me (408 bookmarks to go through)...

From what I can read, the 'link' is actually to do with two factors.

Firstly, some say sleeping through the night may be linked to higher instances of SIDS - this type of formula helps baby to sleep longer and therefore this is an indirect consequence. I would imagine that if this was a genuine 'link', we would be advised by the WHO and NHS not to allow our babies to sleep through and instead to wake them regularly through the night!

Secondly, breast feeding leads to a lower incidence of SIDS - therefore all formula feeding is 'linked' with SIDS.

I cannot see any evidence for a specific link between this type of formula and SIDS. Jembella if you have a link, please post!

BTW apart from her dream feed, DD is EBF - I didn't make that completely clear in my OP.

Sorr X posted, had a nappy to change!

I'm about 200 through and the only link still working is one theorising a connection (and is very AP-biased), not a proven link. Got to go and cook shortly but will keep trawling through...

I know I've got at least one study here somewhere I collect these things

OK, it's not there. The only other link I did find mentioned the theorised connection but the back-up studies referenced only mentioned normal formula.

Which means either I imagined it or it was in the load of bookmarks I dropped when I went from Windows XP > Win7

I thereby retract my statement. (Although will post the link to the AP-biased anecdotes if you like..)

I can't find 'em in my old folder either. This is very embarrassing. I'm not wrong often

ginger my DD is 20 weeks and is very very similar - only 6 mins at a time max and if I try to feed her more than every 3 hours its like Im poisoning her! She is EBF and is following 50 centile nicely. We have very efficient babies - hopefully they'll stay that way!

Hee hee, not to worry jemjabella I would not relish reading the AP stuff in any case!

siamese I think you are quite right, we have just finished day 2 and she is clearly not going hungry at all! It's very convenient anyway isn't it?!

Have I just committed Mumsnet hari kiri by saying "hee hee"???

Thanks Jemjabella don't worry about it.

A friend of mine had an efficient feeder. I remember being at her place once after an afternoon off and she was really full and engorged. She said "Watch this". Latched baby on and you could see her boob deflating.

After around 5 minutes baby pulls off does a massive burp and was done.

Was hysterical.

My DS is also 20 weeks and is feeding 5-10 mins every 3-4 hours. I was really shocked when at about 12 weeks DS suddenly started feeding much quicker. They are just much more efficient at this age and the local bf counsellor says that the calories are much more concentrated.
It is always worrying when the ff and ebm babies sink 7-8oz bottles, it is difficult to believe that they are getting anywhere near the same from us. But they must be, at least in calories, my DS weighs in at over 18lbs!!

I think I read somewhere (possibly on here) that BM changes structure to suit an older baby so they don't necessarily need more whereas formula doesn't change so the amount needs to increase to give them the calories needed.

My DS was exactly the same at 5mo. He used to feed for precisely 6 minutes, 3 minutes on each side. Massive burp, and that was him done for 4-5hrs.

The SIL of one of my friends watched this in awe and then said she'd have persevered with bfing if she knew it would end up that easy .

Brilliant, thank you all!

And morloth I meant to say, what a brilliant story!