How often do newborns feed??

[justanotheryoungmother]

Hi everyone,

I'm pregnant with my first (24 weeks) and I'm planing to breastfeed (or at least try) but I was just wondering how often I'm going to be whipping my breast out for the first few weeks and when they start to feed a little less often?

Thanks for any insight

It is so variable my DD was not a good breast feeder and would feed every 2 hours and 15 mins to 4 hours but each feed lasted 2 hours. My friend baby feeds in 10 minutes.

How the hell do you do this with a toddler as well??

Mine is 4 weeks and feeds about every 2 hours on average. Sometimes it's every hour though and sometimes he goes longer (3-4 hours) at night. Basically, there are no rules and each baby is different. There will also be some mad cluster feeding sessions where it's essentially constant for several hours at a time. Remembers Day 2 and cries.

Sandy - Paw Patrol, Postman Pat, and lots of story books.

Depends, is the unhelpful answer. You won't know til your baby is here. Ds fed constantly. I mean literally all the time with the occasional break for sleep but I couldn't put him down or he'd wake

Friends ds - she has to wake him every 3 hours to feed.

My DD had tongue tie so would feed pretty much for 12 hours straight in the evening, and every 45 mins in the day, until it was snipped at four weeks. At four months she can go about five hours without a feed sometimes, although it's usually more often. You get used to feeding in public if you have to.

Ha ha thanks Quilliam, I thought that might be the case!

Sandy -my eldest was only 15 months when next born. Eldest still fed also so ended up tandem feeding often or reading 101 books

Early weeks it was every 2 1/2 hrs (approx - varied from 1.5-3 hours) about an hour at a time. Then started going longer at night. Then moved to less in the day but every 2 hours at night, and then about 3/4 times a day and 2 times at night. Play it by ear!

Early weeks it's almost constant. Get partner/ mum/ friends to look after and feed you and do the minimum needed around the house. You'll want to sit in bed or on the sofa and just feed (and enjoy bonding!) oh and make sure you keep choccies by the bed for night time feeds, and get people to bring you tea and cake/ snacks during the day. You'll get thirsty and hungry! Evens out to every 2-4 hours after the first few weeks. Good luck and enjoy it

24/7.
Stop thinking of it as 'feeding' and 'whipping your breast out'.
Your baby has been in the womb, food on tap. The graduation to 'mealtimes' is a slow process.
At first your baby will want to be touching you day and night, able to suckle freely for a few minutes every 20 minutes or so, or possibly wanting to suckle continuously through the day and night.
This is because your baby is pre-programmed to survive, and to do so s/he needs you - your body-warmth, the milk your body provides, the emotional comfort and physical security of your presence.
Expect to be in constant physical contact for at least three months, then with miniscule breaks.
It's a big change from 'normal life' but it's worth it.

Constantly in the early weeks. It settles down but can still be hourly or 2 hourly with a bf baby for a long time.

A bf baby should be nursing at least 8-12 times in 24 hours. They nurse for hunger, thirst, tiredness, comfort, temperature regulation, because they need a poo, because they need a cuddle etc etc.

Depends on the baby, but more than you expect. We used to say 'he can't be hungry! But its been 10 whole minutes, ok then...' as mentioned, ff babies only feed for hunger where bf babies feed for lots of different reasons. Which is hard in the beginning but later on means you have a solution to lots of different problems

About every 1-2 hours.

And, despite this, expect the first thing the Health Visitor to say when she comes to see you both to be "I think he's hu

Sorry, the baby posted!

Expect HV to say "I think he's hungry, have you fed him recently?", even when you fed him 15 minutes prior.

DC was prem and because I was very ill in ICU for days (severe pre-eclampsia) I wasn't allowed to b/f. DC was on special formula for very early babies, and fed every 2 hours for about the first 4 months. Somewhat galling when they take an hour to feed, and then you only have an hour to rest before it starts again. DC is now a healthy, tall, beautiful 10 year old - so it's worth it, just persevere and repeat this mantra "It won't last forever!!!". Best of luck, and enormous congratulations.