BF at regular times? When will this happen..or never?

[MissusRabbit]

DS is only 5 1/2 weeks old and seems to have no pattern to his feeds. I think he just snacks too much and often doesn't feed for more than 5mins. Sometimes he'll feed every hour or less, sometimes he can go up to 3 or 4 hours (early part of night).

Was their an age when your LO settled into a more regular pattern of feeds?

I'm trying to space some of his feeds out a bit to get him to take more but not always having much luck. For example he fed at 11am today then had a nap and fed again at 2pm - i thought he'd be starving but only fed less than 5mins....and is now wanting a feed again.

I'm all for feed on demand but this is a bit daft sometimes i think - 5mins here and there (weight gain is great btw)

Hi there i have 3 girls, the youngest is 6months, and i'd say chill until they're about 10 weeks, and then expect a bit of routine.

I say this because i've spent the first 3mths with each of mine stressing that they are not in a routine etc etc and then we hit 3mths and it becomes bliss!

I'm sure newborns need those first 10weeks to settle into the world.

Congrats by the way ;)

Thank you.

DD was great at feeding and regular but i can't remember when this happened. DS1 was a flippin nightmare but poor thing was ill for months....

Well, dd is 9 months and nothing even resembling a routine yet I'm afraid! I mean today she has probably fed about 3 times for between 1 and 5 minutes each time and that's it all day. Yesterday, she had three feeds of over twenty minutes each as well as numerous 'snack' feeds.
Now, I have never really encouraged any kind of routine so perhaps that is why, but I personally find it easier to just go with it. It depends on how tired she is, whether she's feeling poorly, how busy we are, where we are and I'm sure a whole host of other things.

Sorry if that doesn't really answer your question but I have found that for me it is much easier just to go with the flow. I guess it depends on personal circumstances and preferences.

DS1 fitted into a nice routine fairly early on but ds2 never did in the whole 9 months he was breast feeding which was frustrating but he fed in a totally different way to ds1 only five to ten mins at a time and much more frequently

Again dd is 10months and no routine but her feeds only last 5mins now so I don't mind so much I know ds did get into a routine but I think it was fairly late.

bump

Very curious to know about others experiences with this....

My DS is nearly 5 weeks and although there is no routine we are getting a pattern. I wake him for a feed at 6am as this works with my other children. He'll have another suck at about 8 before we leave for school then a feed around 10 ish, a lunch time feed, one when we get back from nursery at 2.30, another after school pick up at about 4 then on and off for most of the evening until 9ish then a bottle of EBM at 11 and a feed about 3/ 3.30 am.

My DD didn't have any real pattern of feeds until she was about 3 months. When she was 4 months I put her into a 4-hour routine just out of curiosity (and to give my own day a bit of predictability, given that her naps were still all over the place), and that suited her just fine. So I wouldn't worry about it too much at this stage. I obsessively kept a diary of her feeding times for the first 3 months, perusing them for patterns, but... there just weren't any.

DS1 was a every 3 hours to the minute baby. DS2 is also every 3 hours, in that he lets go every 3 hours or so.

I just go with it TBH, I don't wake him unless I have to be somewhere and only offer the breast if he isn't asking if I know I am going to be walking for a while afterwards. Haven't quite managed to do the out and about walking feed very well.

He is like my personal little liposuction machine, so I am not going to interfere, is lovely seeing the fat rolls transfer from me to him.

Morloth - "He is like my personal little liposuction machine, so I am not going to interfere, is lovely seeing the fat rolls transfer from me to him."

I love this comment, my Ds has been one of those too! He is 7mo and I am at least 1 stone lighter than pre pregnancy which I have been very shocked about and feel very lucky. The wee man has thighs like tree trunks though

As to routine, he started wanting fed around every few hours at about 5.5 months I think, after his mad spell of waking up all the time at about 4 months.

He is spacing things out a little more already now, after a few weeks on solids.

I still feed him on demand though so there are a few unexpected ones and little feeds before some naps/bedtimes.