Moving on from cluster feeding

[blushingmare]

Just out of interest (and maybe a bit of reassurance too ), I'd like to know how babies "grow out" of cluster feeding. My dd is very much at the stage of the 6 hour feeding frenzy every evening. I'm not worried about it, as everything on here seems to suggests its normal and a phase that will pass. But how does it pass?! Do they just stop doing it or do you do something to encourage them to move on? I think the pattern is so engrained for me now that might miss the cues that she doesn't need or anymore! I could never do controlled crying with her and don't think I'm going to be a massive "routines" person, but it would be nice to think that at some point I'm going to be able to eat my own dinner without constantly having my boobs out at the dinner table! But how will that happen - its all a mystery to me!

They just start going longer between feeds. How old is your DD? With both of mine, I started a "bedtime" at about 4 months, as the feeding was all settling down then. I have never done routines apart from bath to bed. So bath, a bit of play/massage, story, feed and sleep. By 4 months they were ready for this and then went to sleep for at least a couple of hours.

I think the marathon cluster feeds started to reduce at about 3 months. Mine still cluster feed/fed during a growth spurt though.

Thanks. She is only 4 weeks so we have a long way to go, but that's fine! How did you know they were "ready" for a bit of a bedtime routine? Was it just a case of they naturally started falling asleep instead of feeding so then you started doing the bath/story etc? At the mo we do our bath in the morning because doing it in the evening is just one thing too much with feeding her and feeding myself (DH works long hours so evenings we're pretty much on our own so they are long and exhausting!) But do you think it would be worth trying to start her having her bath in the evenings even now, or is she just too young to bother with that anyway?

I think because the cluster feeding had stopped....it's only about 2 months ago with DS2 but all a bit vague I'm afraid! Am not a very structured person :) I always thought there's no point trying to settle them when they're feeding every 20mins. And also I didn't want to put them upstairs to sleep (albeit in our bedroom) when they were really tiny. Even at 4 months I was up and downstairs checking on them a lot. Think I have mostly done evening baths, certainly once I had started weaning DS1 so I could be sure he wasn't going to bed with carrotty ears. DS2 has always been done in the evenings cos I just dunk him in with DS1 to save time and water.

I don't think bath is necessarily critical to routine, it's just doing things the same each day at roughly the same time so they start to expect to go to sleep. But I did read somewhere that the temperature change when you get out of a bath can cause you to become naturally sleepy, so may help!

Ps you'll feel much better in the evenings when cluster feeding lets up. I would see where you are at 3 months and think about whether switching to an evening bath might help at this point. If she starts to then sleep a bit longer in the evenIngs, yoU may get some of your evening back!

Thanks for your help spagbol! By the way, I should have your name - it is spag Bol again tonight as I batch cooked it for the freezer in my last weeks of being pregnant!

Haha that was the inspiration for my name- seemed to be all we ate for about 4 months!