Bfing - when do you stop feeding whenever they seem to need it/start to see a pattern?

[titferbrains]

Am talking about very early days/weeks. My friend has just had her baby, is attempting to space feeds, she texted an hour ago to say it was 3wk old's 6th feed of the day. This seems fine to me, am reassuring her that lots of feeds are normal, that I'd expect more, baby growing, tiny tummy, she is providing food/drink/comfort etc.

But my own baby is due soon and I really can't remember how long you should be super relaxed about giving lots of feeds for. I can't remember when DD started to feed more regularly, tho I do remember she was like clockwork, 2 hourly, then 2.5hrly, then3 hrly. Just want to continue to offer reassurance as I know how crucial the early days are, particularly as I really really struggled and had to mixed feed at the beginning with my DD.

Is it about 6 to 8 weeks before you see much of a pattern?

I didn't see much of a pattern til 4 or 5 months, and ds didn't space feeds out until he was well onto solids.

Feeding on demand is the best thing you can do to establish (and continue) breastfeeding. You can relax about giving lots of feeds for as long as you like!

Mine never had a pattern unless you mean that a pattern was they cued for a feed and I fed them! After solids were intro'd there as a bit more structure to our day but I loved the cue feeding stage - we could go anywhere and do anything with out worrying about needing to be at home for naps/feeds I just fed on the go and they slept in the sling or pram or my lap as and when they needed to do it.

I remember someone (not even sure it as this board might be a US one) saying their baby loved routines so much they had a new one each day.

As Rita says it's best to feed on cue (looking'n'licking is a very early cue so good to offer a feed if you see baby doing that) as baby knows when they are hungry/cold/tired/thirsty/hot/lonely/over-stimulated/want comfort not a clock.

Well... I have fed all three of my boys and there was never much of a pattern. I mean, about .... 3 months ish I guess I could leave for an hour or so and be pretty confident they wouldn't have a meltdown, but my 12 month old still is on/off/on/off all over the place with no pattern.

So true TruthSweet - I keep complaining recently that when ds was little he would just feed and sleep whenever/wherever and life was so easy! Now he's coming up to a year and for the last month or so has wanted his food and milk on the dot and will only sleep at home in his cot

I think that was me truthsweet.

Ds did find a routine of his own around 10m but it was still flexable.

I definatly noticed his feeds space out around 3m...i thought there was something wrong.

DS got himself into a pretty predictable routine at about 3 weeks. It lasted until about 6 weeks. Then it went all over the place and it settled down a bit more at about 4 months - but that was only because I couldn't identify any of his hunger cues, so I just offered, and by then I had a rough pattern to when I offered. I did also offer any time he seemed to be upset as well.

DS never really had a pattern - I thought one was emerging at about 3 months when the feeds spaced out a bit, and then we hit the 4-month sleep regression and he started demanding every 2 hours round the clock. We started trying to impose a routine on him at 5 months because I was going back to work at 6 months, which involved gradually spacing the daytime feeds out so they were every 3 hours and not BFing him between midnight and 6 a.m. (DH offered a cup if he woke).

Oh, and like AngelDog I offered when DS was upset until we hit 11 months - I'm now tailing off the BFing as want it finished by his 1st birthday, so he gets cuddles instead.