how long do you feed on demand for?

[scottygirl5]

DD2 is 4.5 months and has been around 75th centile for weight since birth. I've been in the habit if feeding roughly every 2-2.5 hours, on demand, but wondered whether I could get away with pushing it to 3 hours or do I still need to feed on demand at this age? I still demand fed DD1 at this age but she'd been born on the 50th and dropped to below the 25th.

I moved onto more scheduled feeds somewhere around 4 months when I found it more difficult to tell when he was hungry, and also he would get distracted if we were out and about and forget to ask for food. However by trial and error I found if we fed less often than about every 2.5 hours he woke up more in the night to make up for it... So I suppose it depends whether you want to risk extra night wake ups?

Do they still demand or is it habit? Only saying as I find myself putting a boob to a resolutely closed little gob after 2 hr sometimes ... Mine is starting to.pace herself more iyswim.

I can't be bothered to organise any schedule till weaning but then again mine is teeny and I worry obsess about her not growing fast!

Forever. I think. I still feed my one year old on demand and he demands it by banging on the baby gate to the kitchen or dragging his bib off a radiator and bringing it to me! At 4 months I definitely still fed on demand (he was mix fed), especially since he had a big growth spurt around then. If you're lo is giving you a resolutely closed gob it sounds like she's not really demanding??? Maybe she's ready to go longer? I will admit though that my first instinct was to feed but I did usually wait for a cue/demand for food to do it. He was sleeping through by then (now called the good old days/the purple patch) and feeding anything from 1 hour to 3 hours. He never went longer than 3 hours at 4 months though. Hope that's helpful (if a bit garbled!)

I still demand feed my 5mo. Some days he feeds after 1 hour some days 3. He knows what he needs I guess.

I still feed my 26 month old on demand, ie when he shouts for "MILK TIME MUMMY NOW". :)

Both of mine sort of organized themselves into a routine around 3 months but I don't think ever went longer than 2.5/3 hours between feeds except at night until they started solids. I always went on the assumption that if I let them tank up during the day they mightn't want it so much at night...

I found that was about the age a routine finally emerged with feeds up to 3 hours apart, but I was still having to be pretty flexible about the days when she needed them sooner or more often. If I could distract her for a while to get 3 hour gaps I would, but if she was hungry she'd get fed. Seemed less stressful than worrying about exact times.

I wouldn't try to discourage or delay feeds until she's eating some solids (and in our case not even then- DD feeds on demand at 17 months).