Feeding on demand

[ReallyLilyReally]

When did everyone stop feeding on demand? DD is 12wks and seems to want the boob every hour. She's gaining weight and sleeps through 50/50, so she's not starving, but just constantly hungry. Should I start trying to space her out a bit more? She feeds more frequently now than when she was a newbie.

Bump

Mine is 18 weeks and I'm still feeding on demand. Haven't really thought about trying to establish a feeding routine to be honest (too busy trying to not die from sleep deprivation ) so watching this with interest.

I always fed on demand until I stopped feeding. Feeds naturally spaced out and bunched up as required by the baby.

Still on demand at 7 months but it's definitely less frequent through the day and the feeds are 5 minutes rather than 40 like they were at the start.

I think with BF it's always on demand because we can't tell how much they've had?

I’m not sure I have ever stopped - he’s 20mo! They do up their demand for growth spurts, teething, developmental stages, illness etc and this passes when they move to another phase

That's so reassuring! We're going to start switching to formula for the daytime feeds shortly as my husband is taking over when i go back to work (from home) and I'm wondering how well that will go down!

Is she actually hungry or is she using you for comfort? Could you try a dummy if she's not actually hungry/feeding.

She's definitely swallowing so im assuming hungry. DH and i both hate the idea of a dummy, she's babbling all the time now and it feels like just sticking something in her mouth to shut her up when she's communicating with us.

She's still in 4th trimester and her stomach will be very small still. She needs to feed frequently in the day if she's sleeping all night as well- they do need to feed 8-12 times per day. That doesn't really change as they get bigger, but the composition of BM does

What's your plan for pumping to reduce engorgement or maintain supply?

She's been sleeping really well so i think you're probably right. At the moment I'm pumping first thing for the freezer supply and then through the day if i have time between entertaining the world's cheekiest baby. When I'm back to work im going to pump throughout the day to maintain supply because i want to keep feeding her morning and bedtime. She's not entirely happy with the whole bottle thing yet and I'm concerned that she's going to struggle to get what she needs from the freezer supply and the EBM as she's not very efficient, so we'll be topping her up with formula to make sure she doesn't turn into the Incredible Shrinking Baby.

Do look up paced feeding

Kellymom has lots of resources for this sort of thing

If you're working at home and pumping anyway, baby will soon become more efficient than the pump and you might find it quicker and less of a faff to schedule say 2 hours feed break

Depends on what your work is