What is the minimum amount of bfs per day?

[hotmama]

My dd2 is 11 weeks and is fine but can be a bit of a sleepy head.

Everything I have ever read gives advice on amount of feeds for a newborn e.g. between 8 to 12 feeds a day - but what about when they are older?

I feed on demand but I feel a bit insecure about how often she 'should' be feeding.

Just would like a bit of guidance really and what you do.

TIA

Personally I wouldn't necessarily go by number of feeds but by

• amount of wet nappies

- alertness

• increasing interest in world around her

that sort of thing.

I guess less than 5 to six feeds in 24 hours would be a bit strange though.

I have a 4 month old and feed on demand. I have no idea how often he feeds - at least 12 times a day I'm sure. But sometimes that just for 5 mins eg to calm him down if he's got a fright or is upset.

I cant quite understand these babies that only feed 5 times a day _ I knwo I eat or drink more often than that!

I think the standard advice is that as long as your baby is content and has plenty wet and dirty nappies, he is ok. But I'm sure an " expert" will be along soon

HM - I'm in a fairly consistent routine of 7 feeds in 24 hours, which works for us at the moment (nearly 9 weeks).

Don't get hung up on amount of dirty nappies though as b/fed babies can go for days and days without pooing and it's perfectly normal.

We do have the occasional mad feeding day of 12-14 too.

Don't worry about it, DD2 pleases herself and she's 6 months old, some times she just uses me to fall asleep after a particularly stressful attemped crawl and other times she just turns her nose up even when she should be starving!!!!
As long as her nappies are fine and she's not fretful don't worry at all
I know easier said than done.

My concern is that as she is a sleepy baby she would rather sleep than feed - this happened with dd1 and I moved to ff (on the advice of the hv) as dd1 was losing weight/not gaining.

bf is going well this time around - have been in contact with La Leche etc.

I am happy with the amount of wet/poohy nappies etc - but would just feel more secure if I had a ballpark number of feeds to work to IYKWIM.

I would say my 13 week old DD has about 7-9 feeds a day (24 hours) she's on the 91st centile for weight so I'm not worried at all.

Hot mama - I think the problem is defining what is a feed. When you Bottle feed you can say " he took six 5 oz bottles". When you are Bf, do you count the 5 mins he fed to calm down after Ds! shouted or he woke up with a start? Also as you can see, i have a snacker but Jasnem has a "main meals" baby!

I'm not sure that I agree with the advice of your HV. But then I'm no expert. Seems to me that if your baby isnt gaining wieght you shoudl Bf more often, not give formula!!! Unless you are happy with that of course!

Okay then I would say at least six, better to aim for eight.

Mine is 18 weeks and has a feed
6am ish
9am ish
10.30 ish
12 midday ish
3 pm ish
5 pm ish
7 pm ish
12.30 am ish
3.am ish
then back to the 6am one, so about 9 in 24 hours. She's demand breastfed.

My DS was having about 6 or 7 feeds at this age. But this increased and decreased depending on his growth spurts etc. One of those 'feeds' would be a 5oz bottle of expressed milk.

I think that some babies are sleepy because they don't feed enough and it can be a vicious cycle. my friends baby was certainly like this. Is she gaining weight well? If you're feeding on demand and her weight gain is fine don't worry.

And some babies are sleepy because they like sleeping . If there is nothing to be concerned about then relax and enjoy her!

Thanks for your responses so far - keep them coming.

My current hv is fab and really supports bf - my old one was crap and has retired - hence bf is going well with dd2 not so well with dd1.

My sis was quoting a well known book at me and said ? says that at dd2's age she should be on 5 feeds a day - surely that leads to the rocky road of supplementing and moveing to ff?

moving

DD2 was 9lb at birth and was 12lb last week - she is making steady progress - so I have no concerns about her weight.

I know that well known book! I can't see that you can apply the same rules of ff to bf. Which, IMO is what the author does. If your baby only needs 5 feeds a day and you are feeding on demand (and are sure you aren't missing cues) then I can't see that that is a problem. I think trying to force 5 breastfeeds on a baby that wants 10 is going to be problematic though.

My DS is now almost 9 months and, since 4 months has gone between 4 and 10 breastfeeds a day. It's variable from one month to the next.

I read on kellymom.com (i think) that the amount of milk a breast can store can vary massively from one woman to another, with some storing 3 times as much as others .

And babies are different too - some like snacking, some like proper "meals" etc.

Ds would feed much more frequently that 5 times a day at that age, but I think it was partly that was always quite "sucky".

I would offer feeds readily iyswim, but at this sort of age you'd expect sleeping to become more obviously separate from being awake, so hopefully there isn't going to be so much room for incertainty?

Ds2 was 10 lbs 5 and has stayed steadily on the 98th centile. He is now 8 weeks and has about 6 proper feeds a day at around: (ish!)
8am
11am
2pm
5pm
6pm
7pm
5am
I feed on demand but he is also likes his sleep, am sure he isn't really hungry every hour around tea time but I just go with the flow to keep him happy as I think really he just gets tired. Is gaining weight steadily, I think he is just a very chilled baby. (Plus I think it may help that he was/is a whopper!)

Sorry for all the mistakes in that post, hopefully you get the idea of what I was trying to say!

I think DS was probably feeding about 7 or 8 times a day at 11 weeks. At four months it was about 6 or 7 times a day (could be more if he had a particularly wakeful night)

sorry, that wasn't very clear - my amazing stats were supposed to illustrate that it's different for everyone. It's not that helpful to hear that you "should" feed x number of times a day - it won't help you understand whether you're feeding enough or not.

If your baby is happy and becoming more alert and filling her clothes out a bit, that should be enough I think.

Your posts have been really helpful so thanks mners!

Think I'll be aiming for at least 6 to 8 but obviously could be more.

Must go and wake dd2 she has been asleep since 7.30!

DS2 is 14wo and feeds at roughly

5am
8am
11am
2pm
5pm
8pm
11pm (dreamfeed)

and then 5am again.

But these can vary and I'll offer sooner if he doesn't seem to have taken much at the last feed - he very rarely cries to be fed and today had a marathon "ooh, look over there" session while pretending to feed (we are in the age of the distractible baby I suspect!) so he may well wake tonight.

If I feel a bit full (as I do tonight because he's been distracted a lot) I'll express for my own comfort - and also so that the next feed for DS2 isn't a choking mass of snorting gushing milk...!

Dreamfeed is a breastfeed too btw - he's fully bfed. Will hopefully be taking EBM again soon (got blase about it and now a bottle is the work of the devil!).