efficient feeder or is she just snack feeding?

[louise987]

My 4 wk old DD us EBF and so far it has been going about 3 hrs between feeds in the day and 4-5 hrs at night. My concern is the time she spends on the boob feels very short when comparing to others/listening to advice (it's hard not to compare and being a FTM my usual confident self seems to has gone into hiding...)

I feed her on demand and wait until she drops off and won't take any more milk (I wind and change her then try again). On average each feed lasts about 10 mins, but she ranges between 5-20 minutes. Last night she was up twice and fed for only a few minutes each time but seemed quite satisfied - is that possible? Is she getting enough? Still plenty of wet and dirty nappies and she seems content but I don't know how I could encourage her to stay on the boob any longer?

I don't know if it's related but I produce a lot of milk and it often overwhelms her when she first latches, literally squirting at her! Sorry TMI! Not sure if I'm being paranoid with this and maybe she's just an efficient feeder but I'm worried she's not getting enough milk, esp if she's not reaching the hind milk feeding for such short periods. Help!

From about 4-5 weeks onwards DS fed for 10 minutes only except at the bedtime feed which was more leisurely.

Don't worry about hind milk. There isn't a sharp distinction between the two - the milk gets steadily fattier over the course of a feed, there's no magic point where it suddenly becomes hind milk.

If you've got a happy baby, normal nappies and decent weight, then congrats - you've got an efficient feeder. It makes life so much easier :)

Have you tried expressing a bit before latching her on, though, so the flow is slightly slower?

If she's content, gaining weight and doing appropriate wet and dirty nappies I'd say don't worry. The times between feeds sound great/normal for this age.