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Infant feeding

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

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Original poster

BF: 4months old, 6 feeds a day

14 replies

wombleprincess · 20/02/2009 14:13

breastfeeding roughly at 7,10,1,4,7,10.30 ie roughly every three hours then a long gap in the night.

according to guides etc litte one should be on 4 or 5...? is this correct?

OP posts:

arthymum · 20/02/2009 14:24

My DS was feeding the same as this at 4 months (except he fed at 1am and 4am as well, as 10.30 feed made his sleep worse so we dropped it!) Now at 6 months it is just starting to change and I think he will drop a feed as he's not very hungry at morning feeds (he has just started on solids too which will change things gradually).

I think they are all different - some will feed a lot more and some a bit less. If your LO is doing well on those feeds, I wouldn't force a change - it's not that many for a 4 month old, I don't think.

MrsBadger · 20/02/2009 14:24

bfing on demand with weight gain, wees and poos all fine, yes?

if so then that sounds fine and much less than my dd at that age

ignore the 'guides' and follow his lead

Seona1973 · 20/02/2009 14:26

my ds was bottle fed and still had about 6 feeds at 4 months. He didnt sleep through the night either. Sounds fine to me especially if your lo isnt on solids yet. He only went to 5 feeds at 8 months and then down to 4 feeds at 9 months

Original poster

wombleprincess · 20/02/2009 14:28

poos definitely fine!!

OP posts:

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 20/02/2009 15:03

My DS is nearly 7 months and on solids now as well as BM. He is still having anywhere between 5 and 9 feeds a day. I expect that any book would say he should be on fewer by now, but I don't know because I don't read them.
If you have a happy and healthy baby then just go with whatever he wants

DreamingAboutSleep · 20/02/2009 15:11

Wombleprincess, am so glad someone has posted about this as my DD is 15 weeks and feeding roughly the same times (also at 1am and 4am). Have been reading BW book and beginning to worry!!

Arthymum, I may drop 10.30pm feed to see if it makes a difference to my DD as she will often wake properly after this feed and takes ages to go back off.

Am now putting the book down and moving slowly away.........

BeautyandtheBreast · 20/02/2009 15:22

my bf 18 week old feeds pretty much every 3 hours day and night - but she is thriving so I'm just going with it for now

Mij · 20/02/2009 15:27

DD fed pretty much every two hours until she was well over 12mths. As long as everything else is good, as pps have mentioned, and you're happy, there's absolutely no problem.

Also bear in mind that feeding behaviour isn't linear - a babe may have an 'every 3 hrs-ish' pattern for several weeks and then suddenly increase ready for a growth-spurt. Or drop a feed and then start waking for it again, because of growth or illness, or even learning something new (particularly the physical stuff like rolling, crawling, walking...) In my limited experience a new pattern always emerges after a few days.

Sod the books - how do they know how hungry your babe is at any given hour, on any given day, or how much s/he is having at each feed? Sounds like you're doing marvelously, both of you

tiktok · 20/02/2009 16:29

Baby Whisperer book is pretty poor on breastfeeding...as is any book which tells mothers how often their babies 'should' be feeding. What rubbish

I might as well come round to your house and tell you you should not have more than x cups of tea or coffee a day, or drinks of juice or whatever.

KERALA1 · 20/02/2009 16:35

You have my sympathy. 18 week old here who feeds for hours and I mean hours. Its beginning to drive me crazy. Cant complain as she usually sleeps from 11ish to 7am (long mya that continue) which is fantastic but was reduced to tears yesterday by the constant feeding.

Ho hum roll on the next phase.

CantSleepWontSleep · 20/02/2009 20:01

I have a 4 month old. He feeds when he's hungry, regardless of whether it's 10 mins since he last fed or 3 hours (very rare to go that long!). I don't count how many feeds he has.

Ignore stupid guides and be guided by your baby instead .

notcitrus · 20/02/2009 20:25

That's similar to what mine did at 4 months. At 5 months it's roughly 7 feeds a day, annoyingly back to waking after 4 hours or so.

I gave up on the books seeing as A is determinedly tracking the 50th percentile, which means no-one can criticise his weight gain! Anyone want an annotated copy of Gina Ford (wwhere I've written 'bollocks' or 'evidence?' after almost every statement)?

SnowlightMcKenzie · 20/02/2009 20:37

Mine's 5 months now, at 4 months I reckon on around 14 feeds a day unevenly spaced and for different lengths of time.

LOL at notcitrus's book!

Rhian82 · 24/02/2009 22:31

Lol, wish I'd read that, I worried when DS (4 months) started only having 5 feeds in a day as I was used to 6 or 7 and worried he wouldn't get enough!

(He's back up again now though, apparently sleeping through was a 1-week experiment thing he didn't fancy sticking with!)

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