How long does your r week old feed for/ go between feeds?

[AldiNappies]

Hello, I have a healthy 4 week old DD. She was 50th percentile at birth, lost weight in first week but was a little over her birth weight by day 14. At a recent weigh in she was still in 50th percentile so all good I think. However it would be good to get some reassurance on amounts and lengths of time between feeds. DD is a bit irregular. Sometimes she feeds every 90mins, other times she can go 4 hours between feeds. Mostly she feeds for between 10 and 16 mins with the odd shorter and occasionally some really long feeds of 30 - 40mins.

How long do other people's babies feed for/ go between feeds at a similar age?

Have had my confidence knocked today. Thought I was doing just fine but now questioning if she should be feeding for longer and have longer gaps between feeds. My DD was 8 days early and all her NCT counterparts were late/ are being formula fed so I don't have a good point of reference.

Any advice gratefully received. Feeling pretty rubbish right now. Thanks in advance!

Sounds fab that she is following her centile line :) continue feeding on demand, it will vary due to growth spurts etc and the need to increase supply- their stomachs are teeny tiny at this point and it's interlocked with comfort etc so just follow her lead and respond to her cues. A pattern may start emerging in time, but try and relax about it if you can, and if you're still worried might be worth seeing if there's a BF support group locally.

Thank you Sandybval! Helps a lot to hear that. Deep down I know she is just fine but another person's comments can really make you doubt yourself in the post birth haze

Sounds absolutely normal. She's doing great, and feeding times and intervals sound like mine and most other breastfed babies I know at that age. Feeds may be even closer together or seem continuous at times, especially during growth spurts / cluster feeding, if you do get this (not everyone does) remember thats normal too, it can be really easy for your confidence to be knocked when you and/or others around you aren't familiar with breastfeeding norms. As the PP poster said just keep following her lead. And well done!

Totally normal!

Thanks so much all. Feeling a bit better now,!

Sounds perfect. It's really hard when friends kids are bottle fed on a schedule as bf babies take much longer to get into a sort of pattern. Keep going you are doing great.

Sounds absolutely normal and healthy well done on getting this far. One of the hard bits, it gets easier!

My little one could only manage about 90 mins of awake time at that stage (and sometimes only an hour if something exciting happened!). She’d generally feed once or twice during that awake period, then sleep anywhere between 40 mins to 2 hours. It wasn’t until about 10 weeks that she started to stretch out and have a more “regular” schedule.

Mine fed for a lot longer but her latch was rubbish, so I don't think a comparison is healthy.

Her weight gain is on track and as long as she's having enough wet and dirty nappies then she's feeding enough :)

You know your baby best. Feed her whenever and as long as she needs it, and don't worry about what others say.

Thanks all for the reassuring messages. Has helped to put my mind at rest. Luckily for me she is generally an easy baby and she has put on weight well and does have lots of wet and dirty nappies. I think we are ok, just need to keep on keeping on and not worry about other opinions! Thanks again!

If she is growing and having wet and dirty nappies she is fine.
FWIW I have breastfed 3 babies and they were all very different.
DC1 fed briefly and 4 hourly almost from day one and certainly by 4 weeks.
DC2 fed slowly and every 90 minutes for the first few months ie almost non stop.
DC3 was much more sporadic but at 4 weeks was feeding 3 hourly but with clusters of a few hours in the evenings( and sometimes other times of day) .
All normal.