Breastfeeding... how often

[Hyggeandhugs]

Hello everyone

So I'm attending NCT classes and asked the question 'how often should I expect to feed in the first few days and after a few weeks?'.

My wonderful teacher believes in responsive feeding and so wouldn't be drawn on even a ballpark figure and so that's why I've come here. It's my first baby and I know absolutely no one else with babies and so I genuinely don't know. In terms of getting my head around what to expect it would be good to know if it's likely to be every 15 minutes or every three hours as I have literally no concept of it.

I totally understand that every baby is going to be different, but maybe you could just let me know for maybe the first 4-days and maybe 4 weeks + how often did your babies feed and for how long?

First baby fed every 3 hours during the day, then clusterfed (ie one huge long feed with only very short interruptions) from 7 pm to 11 pm. Sometimes even longer. Tbh I should have tried a dummy, I think some of it was just for comfort.

Second baby fed every 3 hours.

Third baby fed every 2 hours.

There really is no answer. Depending on day/ mood/ tiredness, my LO at both those ages might have done one hour-long feed then slept for four hours, or been snacking on and off constantly. Or anything in between.

I'm 2 weeks in with my second baby, and it has been fairly variable overnight so far. During the day it is 2-3 hours, but have had a couple of evening cluster feeding sessions of 4-5 hours long, and then hourly overnight. Whereas last night was 3 hourly, and hopefully this will be the trend going forward!

I was told by midwives to make sure to wake baby 3 hourly for feeds (as they are so sleepy they will sleep through in the early days), just until the first weight check to make sure they are getting enough.

Hi! First time mum and been breastfeeding for 5.5 months now. In the early days she fed every 3 hours or so, sometimes for 10 mins or sometimes for 40. I was totally baby let and watched for hunger cues. When we got home we got into a cycle of feed, wake window, sleep for 3 hours. It was great, meant I got a few hours sleep at a time! At 4 weeks she was stretching longer throughout the night (5/6 hours) and feeding every 2-3 hours during the day. At 5.5 months she sleeps through the night with the odd night feed here and there and feeds every couple of hours during the day. She boobs a lot if she’s teething as it comforts her. Personally I absolutely love breastfeeding. I did a lot of courses and research before, expressed colostrum from 37 weeks which I think helped our journey be a success (because my milk came in quickly even though I had a section) and I never experienced any pain because I knew what to look for in a good latch. There are some amazing breastfeeding support groups on fb I’ve learnt so much from I can link you to if you want?

Best of luck in your feeding journey. It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever love!

The feeds can go on a long time at the beginning while you're getting established - so saying 10 feeds per 24 hours (just as an example) means nothing as a feed could last an hour, or 3 hours, or ten minutes, so the gap between feeds might be three hours or half an hour...

Babies get more efficient at feeding as they get bigger and stronger and as your milk supply becomes fully established and efficient. At first they feed a lot (many are sleepy in the first 24 hours and create a false idea they'll be placid and only feed briefly every 4 hours but this usually changes radically once they get over the shock and exhaustion of birth and get hungry and alert). You do get babies who have to be woken to feed, but they're not the norm!

I'd say every two hours round the clock and constantly from about 6pm to 11pm (cluster feed) from about 3 days until 6 weeks was the average for my 3 babies, though I had one very efficient feeder who went 3 hours from the end of a feed to the start of the next and fed quickly too - so it'd be a half hour or 20 minutes feed, then 3 hours sleep, then another feed etc. My other two - didn't.

Its worth the investment of time at the start as after 6 or 8 weeks breastfeeding becomes incredibly easy and efficient (for most women and babies - if it doesn't its likely your baby has a tongue tie or a latch issue and worth getting all the help you can from a lactation midwife or the La Leche League.

It's all a bit of a blur for me but DD fed roughly every 2-3 hours during the day and then cluster fed all evening. At around 3 weeks, we had a few days where she cluster fed during the day too. It wasn't easy but I do look back at that period fondly. My husband kept me topped up with drinks and snacks and I got through a lot of box sets. It's hard but it gets so much easier.
I'm nearly 10 months in now and I love it.
All the best! X

I'd say every 2-3 hours but could be more or less frequent. I fed on demand but did wake to feed until DD regained birth weight as she was very sleepy so watch out for that. Join lots of breastfeeding groups on Facebook and get as much help as you need - good luck

My ds was every 1.5-2 hours for the first 3 months, cluster fed in the evenings. Yet he never fed for long, one midwife said he was an excellent and efficient feeder, so he like short regular stints. Only now at 6 months is he regularly going every 3/4 hours.

Every baby is different

I'd day every two hours on average and with a feed taking 40ish minutes it feels a lot more frequent than that.

I was told until they regain their birth weight to feed every 3 hours timed from the start of the feed. My girls would feed for about an hour at a time at the beginning. For the first 6 months they would feed for hours at at time from 6/7 ish until 10/11ish.

There really isn't an answer, sorry. Babies are all different. Mine was feeding every 1 hour to start with except for when she sometimes slept longer, and took months to be down to only feeding every 2 hours, and even then that wouldn't be consistent (sometimes needed feeding again after 30 mins). Evenings she cluster fed and there were some days when all she wanted to do was feed too! Try not to fixate on the timings and just feed them when they need to be fed (ie any time they're getting fussy pretty much!). It's easier to just go with the flow if you can.

Every 2-3 hours for up to an hour a time as they're sleepy at first. Now my 6 week old takes between 10 and 45 minutes

When I had my babies, we were told 10-12 times minimum in the first few weeks. Don't let them sleep more than 3 hours without a feed in the first couple of weeks until they have regained their birthweight and you can see they're thriving , then you can let them sleep longer at night if they want.

They probably peaked at about 15-20 times a day especially with cluster feeding, but after the first 6-8 weeks we got into more of a routine, they had both sides at each feed and regular naps and probably went 2-3 hours.

In the early weeks for us, every 2-3 hours for 10-15 mins, but with a big cluster feeding session from about 7-11.

The cluster feeding then mostly went, but feeding became more sporadic in the day. Sometimes every half an hour. Sometimes every 4 hours.

By 6m, it was usually again every 2-4hrs in the day, and at night, every 6m (i kid you not...) To 2hrs. Usually it was pretty much cluster feeding from around 3am.

That changed when we put her in her own room, but day feels were getting more gradual until just a few a day, night ones were anywhere from 5-15 times a night until about 18m. Then 1-5 until 2, when she started sleeping better.

DD was on a feeding plan due not latching & poor weight gain. These are the things I wish I'd known before hand.

• New babies only need tiny amounts to start with (a few ml) but 24hrs after birth that quickly ramps up to more like 50ml/feed. Then up to 70-90ml/feed.

• I only know volumes because I was pumping. New born feeds need to be at least 15min of active sucking/drinking to 'count'.

• Feeds are timed from the start of one feed to the start of the next. So say baby starts a feed at 11am next feed in 3hrs would be 2pm regardless of how long they fed for/how long it takes you to get that milk in (in our case up to 2hrs 🤦‍♀️).

• Once established DD fed every 2-3hrs in the day and 4-5 hours overnight. In the hardest days I topped her up with formula during a middle of the night feed to help her sleep longer - this worked well to keep me rested and didn't ultimately affect my ability to feed her exclusively bm.

• Kelly Mom and La Leche League have great online support resources. LLL also have telephone helplines which really helped me & for free!

• We had a tough start but got to exclusively bfing and I fed till 16 months. It was SO worth it in the long run. Equally, you'll know when the time is right to stop and that is OK.

• None of this matters if your baby is content & gaining weight well 💚

GOOD LUCK! 🍈🍈💐

Hi, firstly congratulations 🥳

My little boy has just turned 5 weeks and I've found that the breastfeeding journey has been really varied.

He has settled a little bit now, but initially he was on the breast every 1-2 hours. Sometimes he would have a good feed and other times he was just suckling and wanted it for comfort.

Now he usually has a feed every 2-3 hours and then has a sleep (in the day). At night time he actually has more awake periods and he can be on the breast anywhere from 5mins to 2 hours depending on his mood and whether he is having his whinging hours 😅

I agree with everyone posting that each baby is different. All I would say is that if you are exclusively breast feeding, that it will be frequent and you will need to be prepared to offer it to your baby at any point in the day. I've had three EBF babies and they have all been similar but different. All of them had days where I felt like all I did was feed, and other days where they slept for hours in between. It's impossible to predict or manage so it becomes part of your life, your routine for a while. It's lovely, exhausting, rewarding and requires a big commitment! As each month passes they do it less frequently, and between 6 - 12 months they will be gradually weaned onto food so you hardly need to give them any milk at all.

I wish you luck in your breastfeeding journey, and I would prepare to watch a few box sets during feeding in those first few weeks!

In the first few months ds fed roughly 12-20 times in a 24 hour period.

My 3 have all been pretty typical breast feeders I reckon. In the early days they were about every 3 hours for about 30 mins (less for one) with a massive cluster feed in the evening (roughly 7-10pm for all 3 I mine) until 6 weeks. They then were more likely every 2 hours during the day (but we dropped the cluster feed thank goodness!) until about 4 months. Then a bit drop off as they became suddenly stronger and more alert. Another drop off at 8ish months (they started food at 6 months, but I didn't notice a drop off in feeding until they are properly established).

I personally massively preferred breast feeding to bottle feeding (mix fed my preemie twins as they were initially too weak to breastfeed). Its difficult in the early weeks because nobody can help you, by in the long run its so much less faff!

Good luck with your journey.

I was a very responsive breast feeder and we both loved it. It was har door the first 6 weeks but so able. Fed for 17m in the end. I tracked almost all feeds on an app (started tracking about a week after they were born) and our spread looked like this in the first month and then at 9 months

They say at least 8-12 feeds per 24 hours, but they won't necessarily be evenly spaced. Sometimes babies will have a really big feed and then sleep for 2-3 hours and sometimes they will feed on and off every 10-20 minutes for a few hours in a row (that's common in the early evening and is called cluster feeding). Cluster feeding might happen every day or just occasionally. One day it might last an hour, one day it might last several hours.

If you can just expect to clear your schedule and basically feed, change nappies, sleep when you get a chance and eat food (prepared and cut up by someone else!) while holding the baby and get a shower every so often, you'll be well prepared and you probably won't worry so much about feeding intervals. They feed so much and all around the clock that it does tend to be this limited in the early days. I found it helpful to have a comfy place set up for feeding with easy access to entertainment (for me: internet, netflix and one handed computer games!)

Do you have any breastfeeding peer support groups near you? You could go there before the birth, they are usually welcoming :)

I found Charmian Mead's book really useful because I basically had no idea what I was doing and no prior knowledge of babies!

It has week by week feeding/sleeping routines written up so when you're feeling a bit out of control you can refer back to it.

It is a routine though, not feed on demand, and I know that's not for everyone. But for a novice like me, I needed some structure! I basically studied it like a Bible before giving birth.

Forgot to say what it's called, it's the '7am to 7pm Sleeping Baby Routine'.

@MGee123

There really isn't an answer, sorry. Babies are all different. Mine was feeding every 1 hour to start with except for when she sometimes slept longer, and took months to be down to only feeding every 2 hours, and even then that wouldn't be consistent (sometimes needed feeding again after 30 mins). Evenings she cluster fed and there were some days when all she wanted to do was feed too! Try not to fixate on the timings and just feed them when they need to be fed (ie any time they're getting fussy pretty much!). It's easier to just go with the flow if you can.

This! My baby is 3 months now and just now she is sort of getting out of the cluster feeding.First week i think she was feeding every hour a little

It's not that NCT teacher isn't being drawn and 'believes' in responsive feeding, it's that this is the best advice now and it can sometimes be just sit on sofa with one or both boobs out most of the day. It will change, often. There is no one size fits all, but with BF, generally, the answer is offer boob for everything