4 month old STILL feeding every 2 hours during the day.. I know its been asked before, but when will it end???

[SydneyB]

Is it possible that my DD will always feed 2 hourly until I wean her? I've been waiting for SO long for her to space her feeds and she just won't do it. Also 5 x 40 mins naps a day. She can only stay awake for 1.5hrs without losing it so after a feed and 1 hr tops of up time its nap time and then feed again. Also means, I can't go very far without stopping to feed her.. She sleeps brilliantly at night though so is this just the pay off?

It may well be. As she is getting older you may actually be able to distract her for a while before feeding her which may space feeds. To be honest my babies probably fed two hourly at this age too - my advice would be just to stop checking the time when she feeds. It was the best piece of advice I got when babes were young smile]

I just feed her whenever she wakes from a nap so that I know she's fed and she always takes some. In fact, DD has never refused a feed and has always emptied every bottle given to her (she has EBM last thing at night from DH)! If I let her go more than 2 hours, especially late in the day when she's tired and grumpy, she goes mental and cries if the milk doesn't come through quick enough. But she's cruising along quite happily on the 50th centile so I guess its not doing her any harm. I have to go back to work in 3 months so something will have to give then!

3 months is a long time SydneyB. She will be on solids by then and will also be far more interested in the world around her than only the boob! Sounds as though you are doing a great job

This is normal behaviour SydneyB - many adults like to drink or eat something as often as this, and if she were a toddler with words, you would not refuse a drink/snack/cuddle when she asked as often as this, either

Things will be different when she is 7 mths. She will be able to have other drinks and snacks, for a start.

Mine fed every 2 hours in the day until they were 6 months old. I do wonder if I sometimes misread the signs but they would always take a breast feed. DS1 eats loads now!!

My dd fed 2-hourly until she was over 12 months, so yes it is possible.

But she soon started feeding really quickly, and I just fed her wherever I was, so it just became part of daily life.

Thanks for the reassurance all. I think I often misread the signals as sometimes I do put her to the boob when she's woken up assuming she might be hungry and she gets angry with me. I was just thinking that its so sad that it takes so long to get the b/f going well. Well, in my case it has taken until about 4 months to feel totally comfortable and confident about it and I have to stop when I go back to work in 3 months time. Experts out there - is it possible to keep one feed, say the morning feed, going without your supply diminishing completely? I'm just not prepared to be expressing at work but think it would be lovely to keep the closeness for a while especially as DD will be nursery 4 days a week (something I can't really bear thinking about now).

When I cut down my bf. I kept one morning feed going for a good while until I weaned dd off bf completely. I always seemed to have enough milk to satisfy her in the morning. So, from that I'd say it's possible, and it's really nice to know that even if you can't feed her all the time anymore when you go back to work she still gets all the goodness from your breastmilk.

Regarding the feeding every two hours. Heck, how do you get things done during the day? Does she sleep through the night? For how long. She obviously wants/needs all this milk but have you tried, say feeding her every three hours and then let her feed longer. It might just happen that it'll all level out, i.e. she has to wait longer between feeds and thus takes more at the next feeds and thus can wait longer ... IYKWIM. My dd fed app every four hours at your dd age and it worked fine. I couldn't have coped with feeding every 2 hours.

I'm a big fan of routines, I know it's a dirty word here, but it worked for me. I would try to put some sort of shape into the day so that she knows what comes when and in what order. Your breastfeeding is well established, so it won't hurt the milk supply.

Good Luck !

Thanks for that Rochwen - will def try and keep one feed going if I can.

You see she may feed every 2 hours but only takes 15/20 mins so its not THAT bad. And she is on some kind of routine - I do EASY so she knows what order things come in but a more definite routine than that really isn't for me. Kind of like to follow her lead where I can. Also she does nap - not that conveniently - 4 or 5 x 40 mins nap - and she does sleep 7 to 5/6ish so in many respects I have it very easy. If its not doing her any harm and is 'normal' at this stage am happy to keep doing it to be honest!

Sydney, you may be able to keep bf her on demand on the days when you are at home with her without needing to express at work.

I went back to work when dd was 12 months, so bf was very well established and did express for first few weeks just in my lunch hour. This was enough for my boobs to adjust.

After that I just fed her before and after work on work days. And on home days she fed as normal (every 1-3 hours). Still working fine now.

that your dd sleeps so well at night. Mine has been a nightmare!