How long does your baby feed for?

[ManyMonkeys]

Dd 3 weeks old tommorow, and at 9 days she was re-admitted to hospital as she lost alot of weight (she was 6lb at birth, and dropped to 5lb 3oz) so im extra cautious about her feeds i guess. When she's at the breast she feeds for about 30 - 40 minutes and she is sucking for 99% of the time, is this a good way of judging how 'much' she is getting?? is it long enough do you think? she hasnt been weighed for almost a week so i cant judge with that at the moment.....

does she have alert periods? lots of wet and dirty nappies?
And how often does she feed? New babies often prefer frequent shortish feeds to fewer longer ones.

Yes, she has lovely very alert periods and plenty of wet and dirty nappies, she goes about 2 hours at MOST between feeds. I think with all that, that she must be ok, but then, i thought she was ok when she ended up in hospital i dont want to get obsessive, but i guess in some ways i cant help it!!

Hi ManyMonkeys - do you have a good breastfeeding cafe you can go to - they can check your latch and give you some tips?

My baby also dropped weight (which was not picked up for a while) and it was very hard going for me to get the feeding up - if I had not have gone to a breastfeeding cafe with qualified midwives then I think I would have struggled and struggled.

You can't really go on how long - my baby fed very slowly - sometimes 80 minutes plus.

Lots of Little and often feeds might do it as Mrs Bagger has mentioned - Kellymom website is worth a look.

Good luck and feed feed and feed.

Thanks zippyzapper!! im going to have a look for one now. Someone on here found a breastfeeding support group for me but when i rang they said they dont do it anymore typical, theres isnt much of anything near me sadly.

Mine feeds between 15 - 20 minutes per breast for a long feed and can do anything from a couple of quick sucks to 5-10 minutes for a "snack" feed. I have a fast flow which we are trying to manage (can express 100ml in about half an hour - I think this is quite fast ?) so she gets what she wants very quickly. She is 16 days old and has gone from 7lb3 to 7lb11 today