Ebf 5 week old - how often should he be feeding?

[ASmidgeofMidge]

Have looked on Kellymom and LLL websites but struggling to get an idea of what's 'normal'. My DS has, a couple of times over the last week, had days where he's fed much less than usual - 4 hour gaps between feeds rather than the usual 2, or alternating short feeds with longer ones. I realise that patterns will vary but in general I have seen so much about newborns being frequent feeders/cluster feeders that this new development has made me worry a bit...

Should have added that he's been a bit sleepier than usual, although seems alert/happy when he's awake - he's discovered the art of the smile!
He's still producing plenty of wet/dirty nappies and is gaining weight

The key thing is how effectively a baby of this age feeds rather than frequency.

Nappies and wet gain are the important indicators.

A 5 week old may feed every 90 minutes all day, THEN cluster in the evening and feed non-stop for 4 hours.

OR they may have 4 hour intervals at times. That could be perfectly normal and fine for that baby. It's also normal for feeds is vary in length.

There is such a big range of normal.

If you are worried, you could have a more detailed chat with a breastfeeding counsellor on the NBH 0300 100 0212. But nothing you've said sounds worrying to me.

Could be anything between the extremes of my first two children- from 45 mn an hour, 10 hours a day and several times at night (DS), to 10mn every three hours day and night (DD1) or many other variations.

As long as he's doing the expected number of nappies and meeting milestones etc... he could be just developing his own feeding pattern. The only reasons that you might want to influence it is to encourage more feeding in the daytime to lessen the chance of night-time waking; or if you felt that overall he was not feeding enough.

Thanks both. A week ago I was posting about cluster feeding, fussy evenings and colic, and tonight I'm worrying he's sleeping too much! Wasn't sure whether to interpret it as a sign bf is more established/he's becoming more efficient at feeding, or whether it's a sign something is 'wrong'/he's ill etc. Will see how next few days go but feel a bit more reassured. duchesse - good point about encouraging more feeding in the day... I'll try to do that if this pattern looks set to persist