Breastfeeding more than 2 hourly is pointless as their tummies don't empty - any truth to this??

[TheBlonde]

Feeding more than 2 hourly is pointless as their tummies don't empty - any truth to this??

Yesterday my 5 week old wanted to feed every hour - it was that or cry so I fed her

MIL who is a paediatrician is adamant that feeding frequently is pointless

MN Jury - Who is right?

not true. Go with what your dd wants. very frequent feeding is normal at this age.

BS

mine both fed almost constantly at that age, cruel to deny them food when they're asking for it

i'm not an experienced bfer - only managed a few weeks, but all my friends bfed and said it was almost constant for first 6 weeks till their supply got going. my ds was ff by that stage and he needed fed every 2.5 - 3 hours max

if their tummies don't empty, where does the poo come from??? breastfeeding is not simply feeding, though, sucking is for comfort too and being close to mummy....if you are happy ,then carry on..might be having a wee growth spurt, often one around 5 - 6 weeks

Your MIL is being very clinical. I would agree with Lulumama, yiur baby is finding her way in the world and getting to know her mum.

And her evidence of this is where?. As a pead I would expect her to be able to back her statement up with sources and studies...if she cant then she is talking bollox

i don't even understand what she means, tbh. i thought grazing was what was being recommended for adults. how can their tummies not empty, is the baby just going to blow up like a water baloon?

She is spouting
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Their tummies are the size of walnuts and b/milk easily digestible thus need to feed frequently. Furthermore,the suckling is stimulating your breasts to produce more milk and maintain a steady supply.

Limiting time on the breast at this stage can scupper your chances of maintaining breastfeeding succesfully.

A paediatrician does not a breast feeding expert make.Ask her how much breast feeding training she had had.

Dear God, a paedeatrician

Agree with moondog. Love the spelling"!"!

Its fine to feed as often as you and baby want to.

Its almost as silly as what my friend said the other night. That when babies bf whilst they are falling asleep they are not getting any nutrients as they are not actually drinking.

According to my MIL I'm spoiling my ds 11weeks by feeding when he wants! Apparently if I keep giving him his own way he'll always want his own way, pmsl at her btw.

Well, my DD's first paed said that they get 80% of their requirements in the first 5 minutes of sucking and going over 10 minutes for a feed makes them burn more calories than they ingest. Shame about that pearl of ignorance, because she was quite holistic and good with other things.

IME paeds know nothing about nutrition. the one I have now is not much better but at least she realises it's better to keep quiet on the nutritional advice, especially after she told me that DD had to eat meat because there is no other iron source . I casually printed a list of non meat iron rich foods off internet and brought it in. She hasn't mentioned DD's diet to me since.

The motto is, when paediatricians give nutritional advice of any sort IGNORE IGNORE IGNORE.

Oh dear Lord preserve us from people who think their qualifications make them experts on everything under the sun even when they haven't bothered to research the question under discussion...

All babies are different.

Your 5 week old baby knows when she's hungry, not your MIL.

Thus, your 5 week old knows more than a paediatrician.

OMG I can't imagine what it would be like having a paediatrician for a mother in law - how do you cope?

Bad enough having a MIL who is a farmer ...

Your paed mil is assuming that
i) all babies are exactly the same in their digestion and their needs
ii) that this identical-ness is driven by the clock
iii) that every baby feeds to bursting point when he feeds, and does not, at times, take variable amounts
iv) that the only point to feeding is to get milk in (that is, not for comfort or contact or pleasure
v) mothers make milk and let down the milk at exactly the same rate
vii) that her ignorance of normal feeding behaviour is not going to be spotted by you

my baby is four months and still feeding every hour or so during the day. Doesn't seem pointless to him or me!

methinks your MIL is assuming that bm and formula are digested in the same fashion.

feed your baby when she cues for it.

I have been bowled over by the amount of utterly crap advice I have recieved about BF from people who have absolutley no experience of it let alone expetise about it!!! Tell MIL to b**r off and let you get on with it...if she wants to be useful while you're feeding she could make you a nice cuppa and get you a biscuit!!!

Sorry, I'm feeling rather ruthless today!

this might be the sort of info she's basing her statement on, but I think she's a little misguided in her applying it to a baby on a growth spurt.

a) (as has already been pointed out) you don't know how much went in at the last feed and whether or not the stomach was filled

b) (ditto) sucking is for comfort too

c) just because the stomach isn't completely empty doesn't mean the baby isn't ready for a top up. (why, I'm sure my stomach isn't empty, but I'm quite sure I need this twix...)

d) the research is based on limited numbers, so prob not a great number of growtspurting kids included

My hv also said not to feed too frequently (she said to aim for approx 3 hourly obviously looking for signs of hunger etc and not being too strict on this).. She said that by feeding too frequently dd would just be snacking and getting foremilk instead of getting through to the hindmilk. Not sure how valid that is.

dd (now 5mths) still prefers to snack - she has reflux so I just let her feed when she wants for as long as she wants - she just screams if she's not interested!!!

your hv is also talking bollocks littlemisslate. the whole snacking thing is a nonstarter where bf babies are concerned. your hv doesn't really understand how foremilk/hindmilk and therefore bf works.

Thanks everyone
I shall continue to ignore her then