How often will my newborn feed?

[moomin35]

Sorry, new mum here who is planning to breastfeed (here's hoping!). How often will my newborn need to feed? I was told every other hour?!

How long is a piece of string?

In the early days baby could feed more often than every other hour, or they could be feeding continuously for well over an hour, sometimes longer. They might feed more often during the day and have longer gaps at night. They could cluster feed in the evening which will see you sat on the sofa feeding for hours.

It depends on the baby.

The early days mine fed some days every 3 hours, some every 1.5 hours. I had no idea what I was doing before I started but since starting a very steep learning curve have realised when people say see feeding as a full time job they mean it! Only it's 24/7 :) Worth it though

Could well be every other hour in the early days - then will extend. Read up on BF as there is loads of info out there

There's no answer to that question! It depends on so many things. It could indeed be 2 hourly, that's completely normal. It also changes from day to day, although a tiny newborn shouldn't really go more than 3 hrs between feeds.

Best thing to do is to go with it, as breastfeeding on demand is the best way of getting your supply going.

Basically, if you want to breastfeed, then don't plan to do anything else for the first few weeks. You'll probably manage to do other stuff too, but definitely choose a good DVD boxset to get through.

I don't recall doing much other than breastfeeding in the first few weeks. Then it settled down. Then the cluster feeding started and I lost hours of my life to it

It's lovely though. Just try and relax into it and make sure you have entertainment and refreshments to hand.

Every baby is different.

Could be anything from 45 minutes to 4 hours from what I have heard/seen.

Only have one DD but she was every 2-2 and a half hours, so I'd say that seems quite reasonable.

Every baby is different though and have to take growth spurt into account around day 10 (I think) which is like constant feeding for some babies and a lot of sleep.

Congratulations on your baby, by the way :)

Sometimes several times an hour in the newborn stage. My 8 week old now feeds every couple of hours, more in the evening. My older son fed about every 2.5 hours until 6 months-ish, then 3 hourly.

There is no 'normal' but both mine were every couple of hours from birth. It is worth having a eead about growth spurts and cluster feeding too.