Full feed in five minutes?

[Dillybear]

My DD is three months old and she is combination fed - breastfed except one dreamfeed bottle of formula. She’s a chubby, healthy baby.

Usually, her feeds were between 10-15 minutes, with a longer feed before bed. However, in the last couple of days she’s refusing to feed more than five minutes for quite a lot of feeds (not all, she’s still doing some between 10-15 minutes). She seems to stop and just chat, smile at me, look around. I’m worried she’s not getting enough milk, but I can’t get her to take more! Is it possible for her to get enough milk in five minutes? If not, what can I do?

Thanks so much in advance.

If she is weeing, pooing and gaining wait then she is getting enough milk. Have you tried burping when she come off and then offering her the other boob?

If she's pooing, peeing and gaining weight (look up NHS advice on quantities) then she's probably fine.

As babies grow, they become more efficient at removing milk from the breast, so this could be another reason for the reduced time. Also different stages of development will mean they take more or less milk. It's rarely static.

@Selfsettling3 I do try burping her and offering the other breast. That used to work well and if she was chatting during a feed it usually meant that she needed winding. But in the last few days she’s just getting upset and refusing.

She’s weeing lots still but she used to do a huge poo every other day, and that’s reduced over the last week or so. She’s only had three poos in ten days and the quantity isn’t as much.

It's definitely possible. My DD used to feed for 20-40 minutes, then at around 3 months the feeds suddenly just got shorter. I thought she was just getting distracted, but her nappies and weight gain were still fine so I guess she just got better at it.

My DS has always been a quick feeder. From birth his feeds have generally only been about 5 minutes. He's 5 months old now and generally done in 2 minutes. And he's a proper chubster. It's good in some ways but I do miss being able to sit down and relax for a bit while feeding 😂

Thanks @Spam88 that’s really helpful to know. She’s still having some longer feeds and treated me to two huge poos yesterday so I’m guessing she must be having enough!

My 7mo is such a speedy feeder! 5-10 minutes and done. I was really worried at first because dc1 used to take at least 40 mins (20 mins on each side) but 7mo has gained weight well and seems very content so I'm assuming he is just more efficient.

Same as pp. My dd1 would take ages to feed. Dd2 however was a 5 minute feeder from birth. The midwife and HV were concerned breastfeeding wasn't going well with dd2 until she was weighed and had gained a load of weight in her first 7 days.

As long as she seems content and weeing/pooing etch I wouldn't be concerned.