Can someone remind me how often a newborn should feed in first few days?

[AnMum]

Just that really...

every couple of hours! congratulations btw

Are you breastfeeding or bottle feeding? I breast fed and my eldest fed every hour for an hour for week s (or so it seemed). My second went every few hours. Of course I've no clear idea how much milk they actually took.

Congratulations!

DD2was a sleepy one. I didn't let her go more than 4 hours between feeds during the day.

DS3 is three weeks old.

In his first few days he typically fed every two or three hours, but did a weird seven-hour stint the first night. This was because he was coughing up a lot of mucus and swallowing it, so was constantly full

DS2 was the same (swallowing mucus) but once that had gone was 2-3-hourly. The hospital then had a policy of waking them after three hours, and supplementing (syringe feeding at least 1ml of expressed milk per feed) after five hours.

I'm currently bfing an 8do, and the hospital have been obsessive about checking he feeds at least 8 times in a 24hr period. But he's averaging 11-12 decent length feeds!

One million times.

I wouldn't let a baby go more than 3 hours in the first few weeks, bottle or breast.

Certainly with BF'ing, on demand feeding could be every hour or two for a number of weeks and then it easing off. Breastmilk is absorbed quicker than formula milk as such the gaps are shorter (normally) in comparison to formula milk).

I think it's 8-12 times in 24hrs

Whenever they are not sleeping or 10-12 feeds over 24 hours if you have a sleepy newborn.

I sometimes fed DC1 20 times in 24 hours (good ol cluster feeding) - that was at its peak. Normally it was 10-12 times.

I would say 2 hourly as a good average.

Amandacooper

Don't let your baby go more than 3 hrs but feed as often as they want.

I did a feeding diary at 3 weeks old and DC2 fed 40 times in those 48 hours.

Feeding diary IdaClair?! It must be your first and you obviously have too much time in your hands. Get round to mine and do some ironing!

Every hour for mine, sometimes half hour

Pretty much constantly, which is normal.

At first DD was spending 6 to 6.5 hours a day solely feeding (doesn't include time spent burping, changing etc).

All 3 of mine fed almost the whole time they were awake for the first few weeks...

Over her first few days DD fed:
14 times - 7 hours
16 times - 5.5 hours
18 times - 3.5 hours
19 times - 3.5 hours
16 times - 2.5 hours

But she's always been a very efficient feeder compared to a lot of babies.

A lot! Particularly weeks 3 and 6. DD fed every half hour when she was trying to get milk to come in, every one and a half hours when she was going through growth spurts and every 3 from there on in. A midwife on post natal ward told me 'don't let her go more than 6 hours between feeds' haaaaa haaaa! X