EBF 12 week old and hunger cues?

[Ariel24]

I feel stupid posting this but just wondered if it's normal for babies to stop giving so many hunger cues as they get bigger? When my DD was first born she would give all the classics such as putting her fist in her mouth, sucking in her sleep, and rooting around lots. She's 12 weeks now and doesn't seem to do these things much. I have always tried to breastfeed on demand but worry that I might unintentionally not be feeding her as soon as she wants it as I don't see the cues anymore. I always offer a feed whenever she wakes from a nap or whenever she does cry, or sometimes if I just feel like it! She's not always bothered though. I guess the longest she ever goes between feeds in the day is about 3 hours, and fir the past week or so she has been going 6 or 7 hour stretches at night. I've no real concerns as she has been gaining weight very well, she was 7lb 13oz at birth and when weighed at 10 weeks was 13lb 5oz, and is a content, active and healthy baby, but just wondered if the lack of feeding cues as they get bigger is a normal thing?

All sounds well, Ariel. You and your baby are communicating well, from the sound of it :) It's very common for well-established bf to be just as you describe - mother and baby have confidence in each other and in the whole process of breastfeeding, and it just sorta happens. You are probably picking up her cues and you have reached a point where you know when she is likely to want a feed - and offering ween you feel like it is absolutely fine, too :)

Bf is more than food and drink - it's a way of 'checking in' emotionally and communicatively, and it works 2 ways, from and to mother & baby.

Thanks Tiktok, I thought all is well really, I just didn't want to be leaving her to get to crying stage before feeding, lol I think I was just being paranoid and a bit pfb!

You're advice is fab btw, it was only from reading your posts on other threads that I stopped worrying about foremilk and hindmilk and whether DD was getting enough nutrition.

:)

I wanted to ask this today, too! My baby is 10 weeks old. She drools a lot and chews her hand a lot, but seems to do that because she's just discovered it, iyswim - sometimes she does it after feeds. She doesn't seem to "root" anymore, I don't want to wait til she's crying with hunger. She is putting on weight fine (75th centile for last few weeks), I just find her so hard to read at the moment - earlier I thought she must be hungry but she just carried on bawling when I tried feeding her, then eventually fell asleep, so she must have been tired.