How many breast feeds a day

[SassyPants87]

6 week olds will feed around 6-7 times a day and is not interested in feeding any more than that. However everywhere I have read says they should be having between 8-12 feeds!
how often does/did your BF baby feed? He’s having plenty of wet and dirty nappies

No hard and fast rule all three of mine were different and all ebf
wet and dirty nappies and no signs of dehydration/ excessive weight loss are the main things

Early days we were aiming for 10 feeds a day when under care of lactation consultant. So would wake to feed if that was dropping.

Is he too sleepy to feed more often or happy, awake and content?

i have never heard anyone aim for a set number of breastfeeds

@FusionChefGeoff he’s happy, awake and content and already falling into a routine of feed-play-sleep

Similar here at 8 weeks - I'm trying not to get to hung up on how many times/how long...

Depends how much they feed in one go - some snack more than others meaning more feeds.

Entirely depends on the baby. None of them have read the rule books, little shirkers.

I did three hourly through the day and then they dropped the night feeds at 8 weeks and were sleeping 12 hours at 12 weeks.
I didn’t do demand feeding.

On demand but it was 2-3 hours to start with as she was quite small (6lb 3 but very scrawny) and had jaundice. I was advised to not go more than 3 hours until she was bigger but she wanted more than that anyway. But some of that was supply building and I also think she had to work hard to get milk out (we had no latch issues but I couldn’t express a drop and never leaked a drop so think it was harder work for her)!

The bigger babies in my NCT went longer though as I recall.
I found it changed so much though in those first 4 months. We had spells on near constant feeding at times then bigger gaps. It’s best to trust your instinct. If the weight gain is good and they are content and well hydrated then it’s all good. As long as no health issues that warrant professional input then don’t compare them.

I never counted, just fed on demand.

Mine demand fed, around 12-15 on average, cluster feeding at times

DS got stressful at about 4/5 months and a friend who had a really stressful time with feeding earlier said she was told 8-10 feeds is "normal" and 12 + for putting on weight faster. I never counted otherwise but there was a patch where he lost weight/wasn't gaining. Well I sort of counted by time as DD just fed hourly so 12 ish a day for a loooong time, she did put on a lot of weight as a baby -didn't "follow her line"

if he is having plenty of dirty and wet nappies, is putting on weight and is happy, you're doing an amazing job. All of mine have been exclusively breastfed and all were different, but I'd have loved to have been doing less feeds at 6 weeks!

Honestly there's no set number, as long as they have plenty of wet and dirty nappies. And as long as his heel prick test result came back fine you don't need to wake to feed.

Mine are 12 and 9 now - both EBF but totally different patterns
DD1 couldn't ever get her to take more than 6-7 feeds per day but each feed was quite long (45mins or more), she kept this up until she started sleeping through at about 6 months when they dropped to around 4 feeds a day.
DS2 fed about 10-12 times a day but could empty each boob in about 5 mins! He started sleeping 12 hours through the night at about 5 weeks old but he still crammed all his feeds in through the day.
Both happy healthy babies who are now happy healthy kids.
Relax, listen to your babies cues rather than a textbook

I was told 3 hours from start of one feed to the start of the next feed until they regained their birth weight.

OP - as long as they are following their weight curve it’s fine.

The 8-12 times per day is only in the initial few weeks when you're getting your supply in.

After that it's much more variable!

A lot. Probably 15-20 feeds a day