Help - number of time feeding 3 months old baby

[kelly_l9]

Hi all

Just wondering how often do you breast feed your 3 months old baby during the day ?

I always want to breast feed my baby once every 3 hours but it seems almost impossible since he's hungry every 2 hours during the day ... Is there any suggestions to increase the duration of the feed?

So each day, my feeding schedule is something like:

7AM, 10 AM (and then every 2 hours afterwards), 12AM, 2PM, 4PM, 6PM and then another one around midnight.

Thanks.

Kelly

[Areca]

Why do you want to stretch his feeds out? Has someone told you he should only 'need' to feed every three hours? All babies are different but it is now a well known fact that the feeding every 3-4 hours rule that was popular years ago sabotaged a lot of breastfeeding relationships. Some babies feed every hour, some every 2, some every 3 or 4. They are all different but all you will be doing by making your baby wait until it's been three hours is have him be hungry, risk jeapordising your supply and also likely mess with his sleep patterns as he will need to make up for his lack of breastmilk during the day to stay full and grow.

If it's just a recent thing, it's likely just a growth spurt and if you offer the breast everytime he asks for it it will sort outself out after a few days.

My 9 month old feeds like this - 6.30-7am, 8am, 9am, 10.30am, 12pm, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 6pm, has a bit of dinner (she's not keen on solids and dinner is the only time she will eat something), 8pm and up until three days ago she was then feeding every three hours through the night.

[kaybee]

Feeding your bub 6-8 times in a 24 hour period is perfectly normal. My DD only fed 5x a day until she was 2 months and then went to six then at 3 months went up to 7. Only now that she is not waking up so early in the morning (think it's coz it's still dark) that she sometimes only has 6 again.

All babies are different, my DD developed her own routine of feeding every 3 hours during the day and not at all during the night, after a few months. At times when she was going thru a growth spurt or teething, that changed to being every 1-2 hours, you just have to go with the flow. I know when it's like that it can be exhausting, but it's not for ever.

If you bub is hungry & crying then feed him!

[Tici]

Hi Kelly ,

My baby is 3 months old I feed her every hour from 7am till 10pm, thats just what she seems to want.
Sometimes it can be every 2 hrs.

[sja]

My 3 month old feeds about 7 times a day, usually with 3-4 hour gaps. A week ago he spent a few days feeding every 2 hours, but he'e back to 3 hourly. It must have been a growth spurt, because afterwards every person I saw talked about how much bigger he'd gotten in a week.

You could try slowly stretching the feeds out 10 minutes at a time. Then he might take a bigger feed. When he's hungry and it's only been 2 hours, wait 10 more minutes before you feed him. Don't let him get so upset that he's crying, but if he's just mouthing, then it can wait a bit longer. See if he'll take a bigger feed that way. Then hold out a bit more at the next feed.

Also, avoid things like feeding him before he's due for a nap because you don't want him waking up early because he's hungry. Just put him to sleep. If he wakes and is still tired, feed him quietly and let him go back to sleep. I find that it's only been 2 hours and I give the baby a feed just because I need to go out and don't want to feed while I'm out, then he won't go as long between feeds. So the next feed will then probably be only a couple of hours afterward.

Keep in mind that he's sleeping really well at night, so all these feeds during the day might be helping him do that. My baby sleeps from 9pm to 7:30am, often with 2 feeds at night. So if you start feeding every 3 hours, he might be up more at night.

[monkeytoes]

My 3 month old feeds at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm then sleeps until 4am for a feed.

I always think if they're sleeping well at night time let them feed as often as they want during the day

[MummaBear03]

I was feeding mine at 6am, then 8am then hourly until 6pm when she went to bed, she slept a full 12 hours at that age so no night feeds. Just go with what the baby needs and your body will provide for baby's needs

[Hollywood]

I recommend demand feeding at any age, as 'timed' feeding seems to only suit bottle fed babies. Demand feeding is best for your supply, and will probably make for a happier baby.