How to make a feeding schedule fit a 24 hour period?

[IsabellaSwan]

DS (15 weeks) was feeding roughly every 3 1/2 hours during the day and going for one longer 6 hour spell at night. On 6 feeds a day, that fitted exactly into 24 hours. Worked perfectly as he was very settled and happy doing this.

Over the past couple of days he has suddenly decided he wants to be fed every 4 hours and that he will last for 6 1/2 hours at night. This effectively leaves me with five feeds fitting into a 22 1/2 hour period. Obviously there's now a big discrepancy between his feeding routine and a 24 hour period. How do I make this work so that his bedtime doesn't end up moving around too much?

We have previously tried the Baby Whisperer "tanking up" thing but the problem is that if we significantly shorten his usual period between feeds then he just starts snacking. OTOH I don't see how I can expect him to last for more than 4 hours at this age. Has anyone else had this problem and how did you get around it?

IMO you need to look ahead to what you want to be permanent parts of his routine. For me this is bedtime and getting up time. So if dc3 (8 weeks) has fed at 5.30pm, she still gets fed at 6.30 as part of her bedtime routine. If she wakes and feeds at 5 she still gets fed at 7am so we can start the day the same as usual. Other than that she has no feeding routine, if she thinks she's hungry then she is.

I don't worry about any routine except bedtime. So at 7pm it is bath time, then story time with brother, then last feed and then into bed.

Sometimes he is feeding at 6:30/7pm, but it all still happens regardless. I love bedtime.