Increasing time between feeds

[DeeBeee]

DS is 10 weeks old and still feeds on a 3-hour cycle (ebf on demand). I'd like to gently encourage him to a 4 hour cycle at night. He is a slow feeder and has reflux so each feed takes 1.5 hours, leaving me just 1.5 hours to sleep between feeds and I am starting to struggle with so little broken sleep.

There seem to be two schools of thought. One says to feed more in the day (eg every 2 hours) so that he takes most of his calories in the day and needs fewer at night. I've also seen advice to feed less in the day so he gets used to going for 4 hours between feeds. Pretty conflicting!

Can you help me with this, any advice on what could work and what I should try?

At ten weeks I wouldn't feed less in the day. It might help to feed him more often. However is sleeping pattern is likely to change many times so even if that helps it might not last! And it might not help at all, sad to say. Mine fed two hourly in the day with night wakings ranging every 1.5 hours to 3 hours, for about two months after the dreaded 16 week sleep regression, so I feel your pain and I hope things improve.

Have you tried a bottle of EBM? If you have a partner could they give one before they go to bed to let you go to bed early? If your baby takes a bottle that is. If he does, keep giving him one regularly in case he goes off the idea! [Bitter experience]

8 feeds per 24 hours (on average every 3 hours) is considered the minimum for BF babies nowadays. Especially with a 10 week old, cutting down on feeds could compromise his growth as he just may not get the calories he needs.

But I'm wondering about the 1.5 hour feeds! This may be a sign to look more closely at how effectively he is feeding, for example is his latch as good as it could be. Have you seen a breastfeeding counsellor? If not, might be worth considering? Perhaps if he was feeding more effectively that might help ease the pressure on you?

Thanks for the replies. The 1.5hr feeds consist of 45 mins bf, then I make and give gaviscon, then I need to keep him upright for at least 20 mins, and then sometimes he writhes and I can't get to sleep till he is calm. By the time I fall asleep I have an hour left and the whole thing starts again.

I don't want to feed him less overall, but if the books are to be believed, at 10 weeks he's able to go for 4 hours at night (apparently at this age 50% of babies go for 5 which is too good to hope for), so I am wondering if there is anything to help towards that. Mainly I am wondering whether feeding more frequently during the day will help or just get him used to frequent feeds which he'll want to do at night too

(Disclaimer:I didn't ebf, I used formula as well)

The NcT friends I know who had ebf babies that slept longer stretches at night did cluster feeding in the evenings and then had stretches of 5-6 hours of sleep. Might be worth a try?

Ive also got a baby with bad reflux (on ranitidine and domperidone) so feel your pain. Dd is literally 40 mins on. 1hr to 90 mins off and repeat. In the case of the reflux I'm resigned to the fact it's as good as its going to get. The milk neutralises the pain of the acid coming up so eating is really soothing for them. So I begrudge trying to get her to longer if she's suffering.

DeeBeee - what books are you reading?? Any book which sets out specific lengths of time that a baby 'should' be able to go without a feed is not well informed. Do bear in mind that there are lots of books about babycare out there written by people with no qualifications in breastfeeding or even child health.

Especially since he has reflux, I think it might be more helpful to talk this through with someone knowledgeable like a breastfeeding counsellor, or your HV ...

And bear in mind babies can't read books or tell the time! They're pure instinct with very simple needs: Food, Warmth, Comfort - they don't give a hoot for what they 'should' be doing, or what 50% of others are doing.

You certainly could try offering more during the day, but it may not have any effect on his night feeds. BF on demand is directly at odds with encouraging babies to 'go longer' I'm afraid. Some people are able to introduce more routine and scheduled breastfeeding, but it can lead to problems as breast milk is a supply and demand product. If it's not demanded often enough, it ain't supplied.

I'm with thezoobmeister - see if you can get him to feed more efficiently, with the help of a BFC. You never know, this may help with his reflux too. Definitely seek some RL help, as they'll have the most up to date information - books can be unhelpful if full of outdated and misleading info.