How long per day do you spend breastfeeding

[MaisieMolly]

Just interested really. I use a tracking app, my baby is 7 weeks old and I feed between 4-5 hours per day total. Most feeds are 15-20 mins on each boob. What about everyone else? Will it get quicker?

Feels like 24/7 at the moment. Three-week-old DD wants to be on my breast constantly!

Definitely it does and then they need less milk and more food. My DD only feeds 4 times a day now but still through the night and other than feeding to sleep it’s down to about 10mins for both boobs.

Yes it gets quicker. My twins are 5 months now and much more efficient at bf. Saying that, twin 2 is poorly so has been attached to me for much longer the last few days!

Depends - when DS was first born and had a severe tongue tie, it was almost twelve hours a day (1.5hrs per feed, every 3 hours).

Tongue tie snipped at 6 weeks (long waiting list) - 4 hours (30 mins every 3 hours). That tongue tie release was bloody life-changing.

When he was six months old - 2-3 hours (20-30mins, six times a day).

Eighteen months - 30 mins (bedtime feed to sleep, maybe a quick feed if he woke up overnight).

I would say it gets quicker. My 3 month old is a snacker and 5 minutes is a good solid feed for her. Feeds every 2-3 hours. Don't know how she is staying on her growth curve lol!

@MsChatterbox my 3mo is exactly the same. He’s a little and often kinda guy. He sleeps terribly though and I’m wondering if the two are linked.

I’ve got an 8mo - maybe 60-90 min/ day

Sounds about what ds was feeding at that age. He reduced to roughly 2 hours a day for quite a while and now at 9 months he totals 30min with 3 meals as well.

It def gets quicker. Newborn I tracked and it was also 4-5 hrs per day. Now at almost 5 months he feeds 1-5 mins at a time max, and tend to just have a longer 20-30min feed before bed. So probably 1hr per day now

@Betsyboo87 mines an awful sleeper too sometimes every sleep cycle throughout the night!! She can do longer as has randomly done a 7 hour stretch and a couple of 5 hour stretches but they are an anomoly!

Happy to hear it gets easier! Does this happen gradually or was there a day when it just clicked?

Gradually and then one day you will suddenly realise that you can’t chilli on the sofa and watch while you breast feed. By the time I chose a programme to watch she has finished and want me to play with her.

From birth to about 6m, 5-10 mins total every 3 hours in the day and night. Sometimes a cluster Fred for an hour or so in the evening

6-9m slightly less during the day but would snack so night, a minute on, 5 minutes off, repeat.

9m-16m, less in the day again, by 16m virtually no milk in the day, still mostly every 3hrs at night with occasionally longer and often shorter.

17m -18m (now) has rediscovered boobs in the day and so feeds more than as a newborn, but only if I'm around. Still on average every 3hrs at night.

I have a 5 week old and averaging 3.5 - 6.5 hours per day. The number of feeds per day has decreased from approx 20-30 feeds per day to 13-20 times. Feeds have gotten longer. Think Im learning that he doesn't always need feeds, sometimes a change of environment helps i.e 20 mins on bouncer or play mat. He was constantly feeding at first and cluster feeding has been hard.

Good luck!

Hi everyone, my daughter is 6 weeks old we started feeding her at the clinic with formula because she wouldn’t take breast easily,she was crying being fussy and not taking any milk.I was pumping my milk and trying every time to get a good latch and continue with breastfeeding but that didn’t happen.At home when we came I was struggling with her to manage to accept the booby but I was failing every time and we ended up with a bottle in our hands each time.I was so pro breastfeeding and this made me feel so disappointed.Unfortunately I had my mother in law in the house for the first two weeks, she was forcing the bottle as a better solution.This gave me little time to spend with my bb on the breast.After this whole situation I started having the bb constantly on my breast and slowly slowly she started sucking and eating from me.Bottles became less and less witch made me so happy.Now I am breastfeeding almost all day and I am wondering is this normal?does she get enough milk or is she hungry and that’s why she keeps eating?am I torturing her because i want her to take the human milk??sometimes she is so fussy on me and I wonder..does it get better?will this marathon get better at some point???

@Latebloomers - yeah it’s normal. They go through growth spurts on and off as they grow. When breastfeeding the way they get you to produce more milk is to feed more. It should settle