2.5 month old bf frequent snacking habits. Normal or should I try and spread them out?

[eightyone]

My 2.5 month old seems to have turned into a snacker.

He feeds in blocks of 1 to 10 minutes throughout the day. I have never been one to watch clocks so I cant remember how long his feeds used to last before but he used to feed for a lot longer each time.

Now it is 2 to 5+ snacks over a 2 hour daytime period when he is awake. The longest snack would be around 10 minutes but usually they are around 5 minutes. He then has a nap for anything from 1/2 an hour to 2 hours and then wakes again for another snacking session. Sometimes he has sleeping marthons in the afternoon and wakes a few times for literally a couple of minutes of feeding and then goes back to sleep.

Night is the only time when he feeds for a good 20 minutes. He wakes twice during the night.

He still has plenty of wet heavy nappies and does 2 to 3 dirty nappies a day (I know dirty nappies can decrease with age anyway) and he is growing well so Im not worried about him getting enough but it can be a problem when we go out as I can no longer fill him up before we go.

I went to breastfeeding group and one of the mums was talking about how she was planning on spreading her DD's feeds out to every 3 hours. Would this work????

Also is snacking like this common? How long did it last for?

My six month old feeds 20-30 times a day. This is completely normal behaviour for babies with unrestricted access (carried by day, co-sleeping by night) to the breast.

It's normal. Spreading feeds over long periods could reduce your supply. Go with it if you can, it will soon pass. Then you'll miss the cuddly tv-watching tea-drinking biscuit-munching days!

Its normal for my 24wk DD too. I have tried spacing out the feeds but it takes so much more effort and is never guaranteed to happen at a convenient time. My friends DS seems to be in a much more predictable feeding routine but hey they are all different.

It depends if it bothers you or not. He's obviously doing fine, but if it bothers you, it wouldn't hurt to gently try to stretch him out a bit, by taking him out in the buggy, or distracting him some other way.

It's very normal though. My 7 wk old twins do it too, and it feels like I constantly have one or the other on my boobs! I (usually)get a long stretch at nioght though, so i can't complain

My brilliant BF counsellor once told me to think of babies eating patterns as similar to ours. So when they want milk it could be for a drink, a snack, a light lunch or a big dinner. That made sense to me.

Your baby sounds like they're doing well so don't worry. The pattern will change and evolve as they grow anyway.

Good to hear it's normal. I was a bit surprised to hear the other mum say this as I had thought breast feeding was demand feeding. Doesnt bother me at the moment as Im on maternity leave so have no real need to for it change.

Was a little surprised to hear about the 6 month olds though. I had
I'm assumed it will change as he gets older and when he's weaned etc as I dont think it will be an easy habit to transition to bottle feeding when I go back to work at 7 months. Will have to see how he goes!

My 6 month old only feeds about 7 times in a 24 hour period but it's obviously different for that poster (rather her than me! ).

I don't know anyone who breastfeeds any other way than on demand but it is possible if you read Gina Ford.

I would worry that restricting day time feeds will mean he wakes more at night to make up for it!

I found feeds spread out/fell into a pattern more around 4/5 months for my ds, but that was mainly because I instigated a napping routine (he was getting harder to get to sleep in the day, never really showed tired signs, but I discovered he would fall asleep every 3 hours on the dot if I fed/rocked/slinged him). So feeds basically became predictable as they were before naps and upon waking.

Then again by 6 months when he was on 3 meals a day, feeds were predictably in between naps and meals.