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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

'he should be going much longer than 2 hours between feeds' is what i keep getting told, my ds is 9wk's and b'fed. Should he be?

48 replies

papaya · 19/05/2008 21:44

he was 8lb8 at birth and at nine weeks he is now 15lb1ou. He is a v long baby. I have NO issues feeding him every 2 hours, I have come to accept it, the odd time he may go 2 and a half hours. He still wakes 3-4 hourly at night at well. I dont care, in fact i function well on lack of sleep and i like to be reminded during the night he is there and wants to feed from me. I have no issues with his feeding pattern until comments from friends, some family members and some strangers raise there eyebrows at the 2hourly feeds, and the fact he still wakes frequetnly during the night...
"oh i couldn't be doing with that...." is what someone said today!!
DS is such a good boy,and comments are beggining to annoy me, but I dont know what to say back. Its the 1st time i have successfully b'fed, does 2 hourly seem too much? I am now questioning whether he maybe should be gong longer? Deep down i don't think it should matter at this age should it??

OP posts:

BouncingTurtle · 20/05/2008 08:22

Ds is feeding every 2-3 hours, even at night and he is 20 weeks.

Tell them to feck off thanks for the advice. Have they spoken to your ds and told him he shouldn't be feeding that frequently? Maybe that'll work
(I get this all the time, so feel for you)
Agree with other posters, all babies are different. You do NOT have to justify your babies feeding frequencies to anyone.

ChairmumMiaow · 20/05/2008 08:48

DS is 4 months (was 15lb9 a couple of weeks ago). When I'm around he feeds about every 2 hours during the day, and goes for stretches of between 2-4 hours (and once 5!) at night.

He does go much longer when DH takes him for a long walk, or SIL has him but when I'm around its rarely more than 2 hours or so, but so what - he generally waits till I get home or stop somewhere to ask for his food, so he's a helpful little chap.

Ignore the interfering sods, and keep going :-)

merryberry · 20/05/2008 09:02

ds1 did 2 hrs daytime 3 hrs nighttime until 6 mths. lovely boy, grew very well, i didn't mind too much, seems completely normal to me.

cosima · 20/05/2008 09:09

my baby does this and he is 14 weeks, he is the most contented little soul, never cries, and turns hardened 'i never want kids - sers' into little soppy kitties. I am in sync with my baby's sleep patterns so doesn't bother me, only prob is my dh gets tired but he sleeps on the couch if he has a busy day at work. just carry on

christmaspixie · 20/05/2008 09:18

Papaya, you're doing a great job, it's no one else's business!! DD1 used to feed day and night every 2-3 hours till about 6 months!! Don't know why so many people want to put their babies on to routines instead of watching for their hunger cues.....you know your own baby and know when he's hungry. I think you're doing just the right thing!!

Eirlys · 20/05/2008 11:33

Christmaspixie beat me to it - it's none of their business!!

My 8wk old ds is very similar to yours - I 've been lucky to escape those comments by being very vague:

How often does he feed?
-oh every few hours or so
-I don't like to time it, I don't want to get too anal about these things (this isn't true, I do check the time)

Does he sleep through the night?

as well as can be expected for a young baby
well, it chops and changes depending on circumstances (you can then go into detail on what happened on each day of the week and how that affected sleeping patterns and people's eyes will soon glaze over).

I also tell people he needs to feed from me regularly because I have so much milk - bringing your actual breasts into the conversation should put some people off this line of interrogation.

merryberry · 20/05/2008 13:57

now imaging your breasts sitting there having a nice chat...i think i'm delirious with tiredness!

NotABanana · 20/05/2008 13:58

I fed all mine 2 hourly until 6 months.

nickytwotimes · 20/05/2008 14:02

just to repeat the others, 2 hrs is great. My ds was 2 hrly on a bottle at that age!

nooschmoo · 20/05/2008 22:24

papaya my DD is now 7 1/2 months & was bf for the first 5 months - she fed between 1-2 hoours all the time during the day - kind of little but often, and that worked fine for us - i think as long as you and DC are happy, who cares what anyone else thinks?! good luck!

Shitemum · 20/05/2008 22:27

Tell them all to bog off!
If you are genuinely happy with your LO's feeding and sleeping it's nobody else's business, is it?

egyptianprincess · 20/05/2008 22:39

hi papapya
i really like your name. we called our dd (6 weeks) Maya, mostly so her nickname could be Papaya. MY DD is also a big girl (9 pounds at birth) and very tall. She is also feeding about every two hours during the day and every 3-4 hours at night. Unlike you though I am not coping well. In fact it just makes me want to quit breastfeeding. I know this probably makes me a terrible person but I find all the feeding so draining and feel that because ALL my energy goes into it I don't have the energy to play and talk to DD as much as I would like. Today I almost cried because all I seemed to do was feed. I feel like I'm not enjoying DD as much as I did for the first couple of weeks where she was happy to feed every 3 or 4 hours. How does everyone cope and stay positive (sorry for the hijack).

tori32 · 20/05/2008 22:45

Sounds like you're doing a fab job with that fantastic weight gain! Keep going as you are. You and he are happy so why try to fix it if it isn't broken, as they say. My dd2 is 8wks and will go between 2-3hrs depending on where we are, awake or sleeping etc. He will say if he is hungry. I have stopped my dd2 from comfort sucking though which she does if she falls asleep on the boob iyswim. I was feeding every 1.5-2hrs last week but realised it was trapped wind making her cry- not hunger.

tori32 · 20/05/2008 22:50

egyptianprincess stay with it, it does get better . I felt the same because I spent all my time feeding dd2 and had very little time to play with dd1. It has settled down this week. At 6-7wks my dd2 must have been going through a growth spurt. She was 10lb at birth as well. I have become more used to her needs now and don't feed her just because she cries. I check everything first before feeding- quite often a burp/nappy change/cuddle calms her, so I realise she isn't always hungry Now she happily goes 2-3hrs and a long stretch of 6-7hrs in the evening. She also feeds better and longer when she does feed now.

TinkerbellesMum · 21/05/2008 00:00

I coped by remembering it wasn't forever and not looking at it as a problem. For three days we did 45 on, 15 off day and night. I just saw it as part of what we had to do and everything else can wait.

Ceolas · 21/05/2008 00:08

Sounds like you're doing a great job!

turtle23 · 21/05/2008 09:43

papaya-seems as though we're going through all the same things. Hang in there, we'll all look back on this and smile in the not too distant future. Next time someone says that to you, offer for them to have him for four hours with no food supply.

Greedygirl · 21/05/2008 12:01

My DS feeds every 2-3 hours during the day, always has done. I have also had comments about the frequency but I firmly say that I don't mind and it isn't a problem and smile sweetly. I don't know anyone who goes more than 2-3 hours without a drink or a snack (I don't go more than half an hour!) so why should a tiny baby (who is aiming to double their birth weight by 6 months) be able to? You sound like you are doing a fab job.

blondiep14 · 21/05/2008 12:09

My DS has suddenly gone from 2.5hrs to 3.5-4 hrs between feeds.

Strangely this worries me more !!

ShowOfHands · 21/05/2008 12:13

I don't understand. I really don't. Where does this belief come from that because a baby has been on the earth for a certain number of days we should start to restrict its fundamental needs according to some arbitrary guide set by complete strangers?

My dd fed 2 hourly for 7 months, day and night. All this 'she should be sleeping through' made me extremely cross. So, I could wake up and have a drink of water if I desired it but dd shouldn't? What about thirst in the increasing heat? Yah boo sucks I say.

egyptianprincess, I found that a sling helped enormously during the day so dd could just snack as and when and I could get on with things. I also co-slept so would snooze through the night feeds and dd would help herself. And don't be afraid to say sod the housework. It gets so much better I promise you. Don't feel terrible or guilty. I bet you're doing fabulously.

Original poster

papaya · 21/05/2008 20:56

thanks so much everyone, so good to hear this is ok and seems to be normal. I find it hard that people who comment havent actually breastfed, and why are people so interested in commenting when both he and I are so contented??! So please i posted, I feel so much better for reading all this!!

OP posts:

Greedygirl · 21/05/2008 20:59

Glad you are feeling better Papaya. You are not alone!

Blondie - ikwym, if DS goes longer than usual I become a bit of a pest !

FifWoo · 22/05/2008 21:20

My first dd fed every 2-3 hours for the first 10 weeks and I bottle fed!! She just wanted fed, then she started to sleep right through the night!! Ps a lot of other people tell fibs about how long their baby goes between feeds same with how long they sleep for like it makes them better parents

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