Hunger cues in 4 month old

[AngelDog]

DS is 15 weeks and exclusively breastfed. In theory I feed on demand but he's not very good at telling me when he's hungry, so in practice I offer him a feed him every time he wakes up, most of the time when I'm trying to get him to sleep (it's often the only way to get him drowsy) and any other time he is crying.

Do other people have this problem? Any suggestions as to how I might be better able to tell when he's hungry before he hits the shrieking stage? He seems to go from happy and showing no signs of hunger to yelling at the top of his voice on the few occasions he does actually get properly hungry.

He used to root around, move his head from side to side, try to savage anyone's arm/shoulder/chest, suck his fingers etc, but now he doesn't do them.

His weight gain has been staggering very good so I have no worries about whether he's eating enough.

Well then. he's not giving hunger cues because he's not getting hungry, because you've fed him already.

If you want to see his hunger cues then try not feeding him when he wakes up

It sounds like you're doing a fantastic job!

Yes, it was rather a silly question to be asking! But even if I've not fed him for ages he doesn't do many. Although after sleeping 11 hours last night he definitely told me he was hungry once I picked him up.

But then we were out this morning, he wouldn't take anything before we went out, and by the time we got back it was 5 hours since the previous feed (which had been the first of the day) and he still hadn't given me any hunger cues at all, even when I held him.

If I don't feed him when he wakes from a nap, he doesn't seem to indicate any dissatisfaction until he starts crying. Maybe I just need to assume that crying is his main hunger cue.