cluster feeding to get through the night? 6 weeks old

[beckymcfc]

Hi there

My 6 week old son is currently 9lb3 and is feeding 5oz every 4 hours. In order to help him sleep longer during the night I've been told to try cluster feeding. Does anyone have any experience of this and if so howmuch should I feed him and when?

He currently has his last feed at 11pm, then we go to bed and he'll wake around 3am then 7am.

I look forward to receiving your advice.

Golly - a 3am wake up seems brilliant to me at such a young age. DC1 and DC3 were waking up two hourly at that age (and for some time longer) though dC2 was maybe only waking twice.

I've always thought of cluster feeding as a response to the baby's cues rather than setting out specifically to do it. All three of mine would demand feed little and often from about 5pm until 10pm - just the way they were. With dc1 she had colic and it coincided with her tummy being sorest. With dc2 he used to feed loads at that time and wasn't colicky and I did get the sense that he was tanking himself up for the night. DC3 was similar.

Pooka is right - cluster feeding is not a strategy but a need that babies have :) It's not something that would be advisable to deliberately do with bottle feeding if the baby does not indicate he needs it - you could seriously overload him and make him uncomfortable.

Your six week old baby is only waking once in the night - you aren't going to stretch the sleeps out much longer than that.

Babies need to wake in the night - sounds like your baby is doing just fine :)

Just to add: he's not a big baby, and he will be genuinely hungry in the night!

Perhaps try feeding him every 3 hours during the day, he may then start to go longer after the 11pm feed but 3am seems pretty good for that age. I think our twins were 12 weeks when they started sleeping from 11pm to 7am.

I'm assuming you are FFing, as you know the oz he is taking and when.

It is the same timings my DD had when she was that age. I fed her 7am,10am,1pm,4pm,7pm in the day, then she would have an 11pm bottle when we went to bed (dreamfeed if she was asleep), wake 3amish for a feed then up at 7am again.

At around 7/8 weeks she stopped waking for her 3am feed altogether, and now, at 12 weeks she's also stopped waking for her 11pm feed.

With both feeds which she has now dropped, she did so of her own accord. When she was down to having her 11pm feed and then sleeping til 7am, she'd have 6 bottles of 6oz a day (7am-11pm). Once she dropped her 11pm feed we altered how much she was having in her bottles so 5 feeds but 7oz in each. That way she was still getting the same amount of milk, but in less feeds.

Your LO is doing very well to be sleeping to a good little pattern, I don't think it will be long before he drops the 3am feed, but dont push him to do it, he will, suddenly, just sleep through it.

Sorry, I see your DS is on a four hour routine...maybe try 3 hourly in the day?

I did this when my DS was little - did not know I was "cluster feeding" at the time - just used to let him feed for almost 2 hours solid ! but then he would often sleep 8 hours and he was 8 weeks old and exclusively breastfed I was lucky, mind!

becky, what do you think?