How long/often does your 12wk + bf baby feed?

[HollieZ]

Hey!

I’m in the process of returning to exclusively breastfeeding with my 13wk old 🤞 I have been mostly pumping, with 1-2 bf a day. We got off to a rocky start with feeding as he was poorly and has mild tt.

He’s now able to feed without a shield. I can hear him swallowing milk through much of our breastfeeds and he’s refusing bottle top ups which makes me think he’s getting full?

However he only feeds for around 6-13mins. I worry particularly when it’s just 6-7m. He then goes 2-3hrs between feeds.

I think if he was hungry he’d be unsettled whereas he plays/snoozes happily between feeds. But it just seems such a short time to feed! We were ebf from 2-6wk so maybe I’m just used to newborn feeding. Would be interested to know how long it takes other 12wk ish babies to feed?

I’m so used to knowing exactly how much milk he’s had that it’s disconcerting not being able to see the volume of milk he’s getting!

Will be purchasing some baby scales to make sure he’s gaining ok.

Thanks!

PS I’ve asked for this to be moved to infant feeding 🙂

DD only ever fed for 5 minutes. If he's happy between feeds abs gaining weight, he's getting enough

Ah thanks! That’s helpful.

We had such a difficult time before, lots of crying and green bloody poos. It’s made me paranoid!

So glad to be rid of the shields and not having to express so much. It was tedious!

Ds2 is 10 months now and is sometimes done after 2 minutes. At 3 months about 5-6 minutes would have been normal for us.

Woah 2 mins! That’s impressively efficient!

I express after he’s fed I’m only getting a maximum of 30ml so that’s reassuring 🙂

Wow, i wish my little one would only take 10mins to feed! She is 4months and does 30mins bfing then a 2oz formula top up. Plus winding, each feed takes around an hour. 😖 She feeds every three hours during the day pretty much to the minute. She was an IUGR baby and we also had lots of feeding issues - she's only on the 2nd curve so need to get those calories in her!

When we were under the infant feeding team, the advice was if gaining weight on the correct curve and plenty of wet / dirty nappies then we shouldn't worry.

One note on baby scales is that it can be counter productive to weigh too often. Do you have a baby clinic drop in you could go to instead?

I think they're all different by the sounds of it, but I remember being told when DS was born that anything from 5 mins to 45 mins is normal. I wish DS was done in 5 minutes ...he's 3 months and it's more like 15-20, but that's more efficient than he was when he was smaller so that's a positive at least! Oh and sometimes he does come off / sleep after 5-10 mins but without a doubt he will wake up and want more 5 mins later!