Transitioning from 3-4 hourly feeds, when, how? (BF)

[Crazycatlady]

My DD is 3.5 months and exclusively BF, fed on demand from day 1 and moved happily into a 3 hourly feed routine.

She has started to show signs that she's ready to space feeds out a bit more (not being that hungry after the usual 3 and a bit hours, sleeping longer for lunchtime nap before waking for food, taking longer/better feeds when feeds are more spaced apart).

Here's a typical feeding day for DD, if it helps...

6.30-7am - wakes - doesn't want to eat immediately
7.15-7.30am - first feed (usually quite short)
10.15am - second feed (usually quite hungry as breakfast not that long a feed so gap between these feeds a bit shorter)
1.30pm - lunch feed
4.45pm - afternoon feed
6.45/7pm - bedtime feed then down to bed by 7.30pm
11pm - dreamfeed
3am ish - night feed

My question is, how and at what age did you transition your BF babies onto 4 hourly feeding? Did you do it gradually? And if so, how, without totally messing with bedtime? Or did you just decide one day that LO was ready and go for it?

I know I would struggle to get any greater length of time between first and second feeds, but would like to stretch out the remaining feeds a bit more as I'm ending up bunching feeds quite close together towards the end of the day which is working ok now but I know in the next few weeks she'll be ready to space things out a bit more - do you think feeding at 2pm with bedtime feed at 6pm would be too much of a shock to the system at her stage/age? I don't want her to end up more hungry overnight!

All thoughts welcome and would love to hear how it's worked out for others...

Mine voluntarily went for 4 hrs between breastfeeds when I was around sometime after their first birthday... Both were still feeding 2 hrly by day at 6-8 months. But then, we're quite baby-led and not really into timed routines, so perhaps not what you're looking for .

No that's interesting Grendle, thank you. Were they still feeding that regularly at night too?

I guess the reason I'm wondering about it now is I've heard from various sources that by 4 months-ish many babies are ready to go to 4 hourly feeding and if they don't there's a risk of ending up with snacky feeding, not taking full feeds and then it starts to mess with naps/sleep etc...

If DD isn't ready then we'll leave things how they are, but wondering how others might have helped their babies along the way or have not needed to?

I'm with grendle on this one just fed my babies when they wanted and also let them sleep when they wanted I wasn't into the set routine thing as I think it changes too often as they grow and develop

both of mine fed pretty much 2to 3 hrly in the day and a couple of times a night. I also found with ds2 who was weaned at 6 months that his feeding frequency increased when he hit 4 months as he got bigger
the snacking thing is a bit of a myth as the milk just changes to meet the feed frequency once feeding is established. Mine were both very efficient and only fed for about 5 mins but fed often
if you want to do the routine thing then hopefully someone else will come along or you could look at gina ford but imho routine and baby led bf don't really go together

I also just fed my babies when they wanted feeding and the amount they wanted. I don't remember ever timing the gaps between feeds.

I personally find it very hard to go 4 hours between food! and can't understand why it seems to be so important to get a baby to do so.

Babies need feeding little and often, and have never heard of a 'risk' of snacky feeding.

The only time mine went 4 hours between milk feeds was after they'd been on solids for a while.

We're already in our own routine (couldn't stomach GF or BW), so not looking for advice on that but really keen to hear from others whose babies started to show signs of needing to go longer between feeds and whether they transitioned gradually or in one fell swoop from 3 to 4hrs, and how their babies responded to the change?

But it's equally helpful to hear completely different experiences.... thanks andiem and Grendle.

I find with DD that if she snack feeds we have all sorts of problems with wind, waking a lot more at night and waking up from naps very early through hunger so a tighter schedule (within reason) suits both of us.

Flibb - I also find it hard to go 4 hrs!! Maybe it's just not necessary? I'll be interested to see what the consensus is here...

DD was a snacker for ages, but now she's on more of a schedule she seems so much more satisfied from her feeding, is a lot jollier in general, more comfortable with less wind, is sleeping MUCH better and is a lot less vomity.

My 5 month old DS still feeds every 2 hours, 8 times in the day but sleeps 7 hrs at night.

If your DD seems happy and satisified then I wouldn't be trying to change it!

I have always demand fed, so never tried to engineer their timings - just fed when they were hungry. So sometimes they would want feeing after 2 hours sometimes after 4.
I am the same though. Sometimes I am fine between breakfast and lunch, sometimes I need a snack. I wouldn't deny myself food (if it were there) just because it hasn't been a set time. If I'm hungry I'm hungry!
So equally, if my baby seems hungry I feed them. Trying to get them to ignore their hunger signals isn't setting them up for healthy relationship with food (IMHO).
But thats just how I do things!
I'm rubbish at routines!

My DD is just about 6 mths and still feeds every three hours in the day. I would perhaps look at it the other way and still feed every 3 hours and look at getting rid of the middle of the night feed. Perhaps this is a possibility?

thanks all - feeding every 3hrs doesn't seem to be working now as she isn't quite hungry enough to take a full feed - more like every 3 1/2 hrs, but my question is more about how you manage to fit this into a day without pushing bedtime too late (she's ready for bed at 7) but also making sure you have a feed right before bed... here goes:

7am, 10.30am, 2pm, 5.30pm - then bedtime feed would only be an hour later - I can't get my head round this which is why I posted to see if anyone has had a similar problem or just moved straight to 4hourly which fits more easily into the day? (although I agree 4hourly seems a long time to go without at least a drink...)

Sorry, only just come back to this, but to answer your question, no my babies didn't go on consistently feeding 2hrly at night for that long. At 4 months one slept for a 6-7hr stretch and the other one was still cluster feeding in the evening, but then going 5-6hrs followed by around 3hrs. Both had times at which they reverted to feeding more frequently at night, e.g. at times of developmental change (4 months, 6 months, 9-10 months and 13-14 months... ish).

I didn't feed by the clock and actually overnight found it really helpful not to have a clock so that sometimes I simply couldn't remember what had happened by the morning .

Some mums do get on well with routines, though breastfeeding usually works best if it is the baby who falls into the routine themselves. Breastmilk is digested very quickly. By 3.5 hrs since her last breastfeed her tummy will have been empty for some time, so I am not quite sure about your logic about her taking a full feed . Do remember that breastmilk is food, drink and comfort. Sometimes I want a cup of tea and a biscuit, other times a 3 course meal. Babies are no different , it's just that all their food and drink is in the form of breastmilk.

I like your idea about not having a clock in the bedroom Grendle! I'm always straining my eyes to read the time in the middle of the night, then usually wishing I hadn't...

And you've reminded me of the very logical point that breastmilk is digested quicker than formula... 3 1/2 hrs seems to be doing the trick at the moment, with slightly less between the morning feeds - and it seems she's solved the problem herself of how to fit that many feeds into the day, by waking up earlier , I don't function very well at 6am, but DD's delightful smiley little face seems to pull me through!

Thank you for your advice . I'm going to relax about it now, given that things are likely to change again in a week!

Crazycat, my DS is 5 months and I have never managed to change from 3 hourly feeds to 4 hourly, but like you I kind of thought that by this age it would be 4 hours ish. I also still feed him at night, sometimes once, sometimes twice and occasionally three times. Although I don't stick to a rigid routine, there is a pattern more or less:

7.00 ish - wakes up but not hungry usually (making me think he doesn't need one of his night feeds)
Then feeds at 8, 11, 2 and 5.

He has his bedtime feed at about 6.45, and I have always thought that this is quite close to his 5.00 feed. I guess what I probably need to do is try to drop a night feed so he will be hungry when he wakes up at 7, then I could feed him at 10, 1, 4, then there would be a bigger gap until his bedtime feed. However, I have no idea how to go about dropping a night time feed cos at the moment he will only go back to sleep if he is fed, so I just feed him! I realise none of this is helpful to you, but just wanted to say I understand your dilemma!!

I don't have a set routine cos it gets thrown off everytime we go out and do something. I do however do whatever I can to have DD bathed and in bed for 6pm and she'll usually sleep til about 2 or 3 am (this is only a recent development in the last 3 weeks or so) and she wakes up at 6am most mornings. During the day I offer her a feed when she wakes up from a nap, before she goes down for a nap and anytime in between if she seems to be looking for it. She definitely 'snacks', lots of short-ish feeds but that's the way she wants it! I've been trying to teach her to sleep without needing a feed by making sure she's awake when I put her back in bed, not because I think feeding to sleep is a bad idea but because getting up 6-8 times a night was draining the life out of me!
DD started off feeding every 2-3 hrs and then stopped taking it quite so often when she was about 17 wks, or if I tried she'd feed a bit and then stop so I just left it and offered it again later.
This probably doesn't help at all, I think if your DD is showing signs of not wanting to feed when you're offering then just try again later...but then I can't really remember the question now. One thing though - if you were to drop a feed, I wouldn't drop an afternoon one cos that's stockpiling for the night I reckon. Sorry...this is a silly ramble and I'll be off now

I think you are right to relax - some days your baby will be hungrier/thirstier than others. I have noticed that DS (9 months) is wanting BFs a little more regularly the last few days where it's been warmer - clearly he is thirsty. I just go with what he wants, if I sit and analyse it then I can see a pattern, but that pattern changes every week or couple of weeks.

DS has dropped feeds when he's ready to and not before, I personally don't think it's something that you can force.

Also worth bearing in mind that you will be hitting the 4-month growth spurt soon so I wouldn't do anything for the moment that might encourage your supply to drop, otherwise you'll only have a harder time getting it up again!

Wah, yes the 4 month spurt... good point. I've been keeping half an eye on the 4-5 month thread that's been running, and reading occasionally with trepidation!

Juan - I did Pick Up Put Down to drop the (many) night feeds we were having down to just a dreamfeed at 11 and a nightfeed at 3. Took two nights of gradually stretching from 3 to 4 hours apart and some intensive PUPD, but she did settle back off to sleep relatively easily outside of those feed times which shows a lot of it was just habit rather than actual hunger.

DD has also fed more frequently (3 hourly) and for longer these last couple of days, must be the warm weather (or the start of that growth spurt, eek...)

thanks everyone