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Infant feeding

20 wk old still feeding every two hours. Normal?

16 replies

albanyd · 03/10/2018 21:27

My little boy is 20 weeks old and EBF. He is still feeding every two hours both day and night. Occasionally he'll go for three hours if he's exhausted and sleeps for a bit longer than normal. Some nights he's every 90 mins. Is this normal??

He has a cows milk allergy so I've given up dairy and can't use a normal formula (doc has just prescribed special formula but haven't started it yet)...

OP posts:
Spam88 · 03/10/2018 21:31

Mine still fed every hour and a half during the day until I stopped breastfeeding at 1, although nights weren't quite as bad (eventually). Sounds normal to me though :)

albanyd · 03/10/2018 21:33

Oh good, thanks. Smile
I don't particularly mind the time I was just worried he wasn't getting what he needed.

OP posts:
indigo13 · 03/10/2018 21:36

Normal Smile

RandomMess · 03/10/2018 21:39

Shock not normal for my 4 BUT they're all different!

feliciabirthgiver · 03/10/2018 21:48

Yep every two hours for both of mine although they did start to stretch longer during the night at about 20-25 weeks.

buddy79 · 03/10/2018 21:50

Yes I think this is normal, although a bit wearing! My son fed every 1 1/2 hours daytimes and either cluster fed for 5+ hours then slept, or fed every 3 hrs at night, until a good 6 months and even then it was just daytimes that eased a bit. Sorry! I think some babies just luuurve feeding....

Shelley54 · 04/10/2018 09:03

DS2 is also 20 weeks and it’s rare we go 90 mins in the day without boob. We still feed a lot in the evening but he does go long stretches overnight and I know what I’d rather. It only feels weird to me when people say their breast fed babies go four hours in between feeds. Then and only then I wonder what we’re doing wrong!

Holimay · 04/10/2018 09:09

Yep just hit 6 months here and that's our rhythm. Gotta get big!

Bumblebee321 · 04/10/2018 09:19

im afraid it’s completely normal. My son was EBF and would feed every 2 hours up to around 1 but even after that he was still feeding every 2-3 hours till he was around 18 months. Some BF mums I know saw an improvement once they started weaning so things might improve at that point.

Tatama · 04/10/2018 09:27

My 5 month daughter has been feeding every 2 /3 hours day and night for the last 4 weeks. Everyone I asked just said it’s normal and it goes on for months and months and there is nothing I can do. 2 nights also I decided that I was not going to feed her the first time she woke, it took a while to get her to sleep but she did eventually and then woke 3 hours after that, which meant for the first time in a month she slept 6 hours without a feed! Last night I was planning to do the same, but I didn’t have to, her first wake was 6 hours after! Im going to try and get her to sleep tonight without feeding that one too. I hope this is the start of it getting bettter!

albanyd · 04/10/2018 15:23

Keep us posted TATAMA- I'll be interested to see how it goes for you both!

OP posts:
NationalShiteDay · 06/10/2018 17:17

I'm gonna go against the grain and say not normal, especially in the night!

Mine was doing this but I read this book and it has made a HUGE difference. I can get 3/4 hours straight sleep at night now, which is still shit but much better!

Tatama · 10/10/2018 12:02

Hi, so it’s been going well, we have had one bad night and that was because I accidentally woke her when coming to bed myself, and that seemed to set off the 2 hour wakes again! Since cutting out the first 3 hour feed. She has gradually been going longer and longer without a feed in the night. I find If I hear her stir earlier if I get to her quick enough and give her cot a little rock she falls right back to sleep. Last night she went 8 hours without a feed, which was the best yet. I do think it’s normal for babies to do this, especially around 4 months, but bad habits seem to start quite quickly, and I was convinced after 4 weeks it was a sleep association rather than actually being hungry.

Erio · 15/10/2018 09:38

I'm going through this now with my 19 week old daughter. She feeds 2-2.5 hours in the day. At night she will sleep 7-11 feed, then wake at 1,3,5... I've tried leaving her to see if she will resettle herself, I've tried a dummy, the only thing that really works is a feed! Plus I'm aware, it is the easy option too because she has a 5 minute feed and goes straight back to sleep! She's been like this for 5 weeks so far... Shock

NationalShiteDay · 15/10/2018 15:30

10 weeks here. It's hell

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