Breastfeeding intervals...how Often?

I had to re-read your post because I kept thinking how lucky you are! A lot of breastfed kids eat every 1.5-2 hours, so 3-4 probably sounds pretty good! That's really pretty normal eating for an infant, so I wouldn't expect it to become less frequent anytime soon unless he drops some night feedings in the next few months.

Also, and you may already know this, no need to rush into starting solids. Waiting until 6 months is recommended, but you can delay past that without adverse affects to your baby's health. Your milk is all he needs for the first year!

Good luck!

I'd say you're pretty lucky already. My daughter nursed about every 2 hours until she was close to 6 months old, and then gradually it became less frequent after we introduced solids. Some babies nurse even more frequently than that.

It depends on your child. I've would start with the every 2 hours and then in a 1.5 - 2 months every 4. But I have heard of babies eating every 1-2 hours constantly, for months and still being hungry.

Every 4 hours will last for awhile. Eating more in the evenings because your producing less.

Have fun and good luck.

3-4 hours?!?! I would consider myself lucky. When I was breastfeeding my last baby he wanted to eat every 1-2 hours. I felt like I had a kid growing out of my boob he was there so frequently. I would assume that the older he gets the less frequent his feedings will become. Until he hits a growth spurt, then feedings will probably increase.

Congratulations on the new love of your life! I'm sure you've heard this over and over (I know I have), but every baby's different. You've probably also heard how lucky you are that you're 9 week old only eats every 3-4 hours rather than every two! My baby girl was a lot like yours, eating every 3-4 hours. She'll be one in a week and still eats every 3-4 hours, but now it's solids and snacks. It will certainly seem easier when he stops nursing at night and when you introduce him to a bottle so someone else can take a turn or he can hold his own bottle. If you're interested in getting him to sleep through the night sooner rather than later, I found the book "On Becoming Babywise" extremely helpful! Good luck!

I know you have lots of responses, but to add: think of it this way...adults eat every 3-5 hours! Granted not at night, which is the part he'll eventually grow out of, but til then feed away! I do think it's very important to ween them off night feedings around 6-8 mths or so, if not sooner. They need to learn self soothing (not crying it out neccessarily) and healthy sleep habits. Good luck, and pump and hand off feedings if it gives you more time away!

I breastfed my daughter until she was 14 months. Unfortunately I think that every 3-4 hours at 9 weeks is awesome. My daughter was still nursing every hour or so at that age. Sounds like you are pretty lucky. The first few months are hard but you get used to it rather quickly. I don't think they ever get any further apart than 3-4 hours until they are introduced to regular meals and water or juice.

I am sure you will get a lot of feedback on this. Keep feeding as long as you can, at least to 6 - 8 months. You will have times as he grows where you will feed more frequently, as that is the way nature helps you produce more milk as he is going through a growth spurt. Usually that settles down to a more normal schedule after the growth spurt. Funny thing is, he is right on time for that first growth spurt - at 8-10 weeks. Sometimes during that growth spurt you think you are nursing them all the time!! :) But just keep on responding to the hunger, as long as it has been a few hours, and it will even off again. You are giving your child GREAT immunities that are important for the rest of his childhood, as far as resisting disease and also allergies. Children who are put on milk products, even formulas that are milk based, are more likely to have allergies. When you move from breast feeding to formula, consider Soy formulas with the vitamin fortifications similar to milk based formulas. This will ensure that your child is less likely to develop allergies. This is also one of the best reasons to stay with nursing as long as possible.

There is also a caution to wait as long as possible to introduce solid foods, as it will change his nursing desire. If you want him to be able to sleep longer at night, then it might be OK to feed cereals later in the evening. I would wait until 4 months or so, as long as he is satisfied with the nursing, and you are able to give him the milk he needs by breastfeeding.

I breastfed my daughter until age 13 months, and her feedings never lengthened out, except at night. In fact, every so often, for a couple of weeks at a time, she would feed every two hours. (I think she was going through growth spurts.) Adding solid foods didn't change anything for me. I know how you feel. It felt like forever!

If you plan to wean him and introduce formula you wont have to nurse as frequently (but every 3-4 hours is already pretty nice!). I am introducing formula once a day with my 3-month old right now & it's nice to have a feeding when I can wear a shirt! :)

Its funny how something so small dictates life sometimes. lol I have a 4 week old, and though this time I am not breast feeding, he still eats whenever he wants too. You are lucky that it is every 3-4 hours, because my baby is a snacker, where he drinks an ounce or two every hour, then might have more in one sitting. It sure feels like all I do during the day is feed the baby. Your baby will probably start to nurse more as he grews, then it will taper off. My son that I did breast feed, he had a massive growth spurt (he grew 2 inches in 2 weeks) and he ate every 1/2 to 1 hr. Luckily I was able to start solids on him. Once they get on solids the breast feedings do taper off too, however it could still be every 3-4 hours he wants to nurse, but the feeding wont last as long. Good Luck!

My daughter (now over 3)was exclusively breastfed until she was 6 or a bit older months. She did feed every 4 hours from birth for 6 months...thus of course didn't hold true when she started sleeping overnight at 3 months old (except during a major growing spurt at 4'ish months)

Good luck and power through. It is so worth it now and down the road!!!

R.,

The bigger your baby's tummy gets, the more it can hold. When you introduce him to cereal, he will feed less often. Honestly, 3-4 hours is a really good stretch. Mine never went more than 2 hours at that age. Also, you can expect the nursing times to get shorter. Right now I am guessing he goes for about 20 minutes each time; that will go down to 6-10 minutes.

The more solids they eat, the less they will nurse. At 9 months, my baby was nursing 3 times a day and having sippy cups of water and formula to supplement and 3 meals + a snack everyday. I generally wean at about 12 months when they just nurse once every night.

I know right now you probably just feel like a milk cow; that all you do with your baby is sit around and lactate all day. I felt that way with my first baby, too. To be honest, I kind of got bored with my baby at first. I promise this will pass. When I had my fourth baby, I loved the excuse to sit and do nothing but nurse all day because I was used to running nonstop.

Good luck,
S.

At nine weeks, that's not very frequent at all! When my babies(I have six} were nursing, they could nurse as often as every hour when in a growth spurt. Exclusively breastfeeding is a smart idea until they are at least three- four months old. And then usually introducing only cereals mixed in a bottle with breast milk until they are six months. Be cautious about your own diet as well- everything you eat will be in your milk. If you are eating healthy- so is he. If your milk is healthier, he will get more of the nutrients he needs, and not be hungry as often.
Nursing time is also a great time to slow down and enjoy being a mom- don't fight it, enjoy it. It passes by much too quickly.

G. L. ( full time preschool teacher and mother of six)

My son is 5 years old now, and the other one is 16, but I can remember my youngest always had to be fed! if your on 4 hour intervols, your at about average! Feel lucky, I had to feed almost every 2-3 hours, and he was the slowest eater! Good luck! Angela

Sounds like you're both doing great. This is totally normal. Even formula-fed babies eat at this interval the first few months. You don't want to let 4 hours go by without breastfeeding your little boy. They have tiny tummies, and breast milk being so easy to digest, goes through their system very quickly. During growth spurts they'll want to eat more frequently (again this is true with formula fed babies) so don't be surprised if in a week or two he'll start to increase his need to eat. Then around 6 months or so, he might start to wake up more frequently to eat, and if he's showing other signs of readiness such as reaching for food, being able to move his head away (to show he's full) then he's probably ready for solids then. I recommend checking out www.kellymom.com for any breastfeeding questions, it's an awesome resource!Here's another site: http://www.llli.org/FAQ/frequency.html

This questions was a wonderful find because my daughter and I had to overcome many of the same obstacles. She is the same age as your son. I've also been wondering about the feeding schedule. Glad you asked and got all these wonderful answers. This was very, very helpful for us.

Good for you in making it passed those first couple months of breastfeeding, which are the hardest. I exclusively breastfed both my daughters as babies, and the 3-4 hour intervals sound lovely. ;-)

One thing that really helped me was to learn how to nurse while the baby was in the baby-wrap sling. That way, while baby nursed, I still had two hands free and could go about "chores", or dancing/playing with an older child. Good luck to you!!

Peace,
Angie

Actually every 3-4 hours is pretty good. I exclusively breastfed my son for the first year of his life. He nursed about every 2 hours for the first 2 months or so, which was quite a commitment! Then he went down to every 3 hours, then 4, etc. eating more at a time. Then you can start adding cereal into his bottles of breastmilk, then onto baby foods. It's not too bad really. Good luck...

Hi R., I know you're getting exhausted at this time. I always had the hardest time in the third month. Just feel out what your doc thinks. We go to a very relaxed family doctor who told us to start cereal once a day at 12 months which doesn't sound like much but it was always a welcome move to another era. This allowed us all to sleep more at night and my son really needed more substance. Good luck and remember this will all end soon enough. My daughter is now 2 and makes it all worth it with her awesome personality.

Wow, 3-4 hours? That's a great baby. He'll feed that often not just until you introduce some food, but for quite a while after food and beverages. He'll nurse more often when he's teething or sick.

Babies don't nurse just for food, they also nurse for comfort. If they get hurt they want to nurse, if they are sleepy they want to nurse...

Are you ready to be flexible? Because flexibility is the hallmark of the nursing mother. Go with the flow and don't wish it away so soon. It will be over before you know it and you'll never hold him that much again even though you may want to.

If you are in pain nursing (9 weeks is still in the hard stage) know that it gets easier very soon and you won't even be watching the clock any more after while.

Advice: Get a beautiful children's chapter book (Charlotte's Web, Winnie the Pooh) and read out loud to him while he nurses. It will give you something to do with your mind and he will be smarter in the end just listening to stories as he relaxes.

I found that nursing was less tedious when I let go of the things I would rather be doing and used the time as a chance to connect with my baby. Reading to her really helped - when I had two kids, I read to both of them while nursing. That way I didn't have to worry about what my oldest was doing at the same time.

I agree with everyone else - every 3-4 hours is great for a 9 week old! My daughter was every hour on the hour at that age! Once my daughter started having 3 meals a day is when she dropped down to nursing 4 and now 3 times a day. Hang in there - the hardest part of breastfeeding is the first couple months! It only gets easier from here on out!

Hi! I suppose this varies per child.... I breastfed my baby without any supplements at all till he was 4 months old. He nursed about every 2-2.5 hours. Needless to say, he grew very quickly! I thought this would change when I introduced cereal, but NO change! He was a very active child. 3-4 hours sounds pretty decent!!!
Good luck!

Hi R.
I breastfed my baby too - and still am - she is almost 10 months old. In the beginning months I just let her nurse whenever she wanted. Somedays it was hourly! They go through growth spurts all the time, they are growing so rapidly, they need all that good super-human-baby-food! They also cluster feed during the day. So my advice - is to not worry about the timing of it, follow your babies demand and you will settle into your own personal schedule. Just feed him when he's hungry! I started introducing solids, rice cereal, when she was 5 1/2 months old. It is recommended by most everything that you exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months. There is a lot of great books out there anf on-line resources to support nursing Moms -

I have a 7 month old who has been exclusively breastfed and now also has 2-3 solid meals as well. He eats anywhere from every 3-5 hours. I think it really depends on the baby though!

That is how often I am breast feeding my son. He is 3.5 months old now. He does NOT sleep through the night either. Which is a bummer. He has gone for 4-6 hours at night, but normally I can set my clock by his tummy. I just got the book Baby Wise so we will see what tips I can pull from that.

I still feed my nearly 11 month old every 2-3 hours. I do this because I am trying to keep my supply up. I went back to work full time right after my 6 weeks and right around 6 months my breast milk supply really tapered off to the point my son wasn't getting enough and didn't gain weight between a visit. So we started adding formula and nursing hard core. And pumping two to three times at work. We gave our son baby cereal in the 5th month, but introduced most food starting the 6th. With all of this said and done, at 11 months he doesn't like to nurse as much now with us feeding him more solids. I would say he could probably nurse every 4 hours and have food as well or a snack. Breast milk digests easier than formula so they need it more often. I remember my lactation consultant telling me that breastfed babies should be nursed still like 8-10 times a day and that was around the 8 month mark.

Sorry, but 3-4 hours is VERY normal for breastfed babies. He may become faster during the interval (my guys had it down to 7 minutes), but all three of my babies ate every three hours on the dot almost the whole time they nursed. Breastmilk is so much easier for them to digest that they can do it faster. Don't expect the same things that bottle feeding mommies talk about.

Just remember that you are doing the best thing for your baby BY FAR! It's a bit of a sacrifice, but it's totally worth it. Don't quit now. You're doing great and you've gotten past the hardest part (those first 6 weeks!)

Also - be prepared for a growth spurt at about 3 months. You'll think that you can't keep up with him because he will want to nurse ALL of the time. This is just his way of increasing your milk supply to meet his growing demands. And the marathon nursing will be over in a few days.

Good luck!

Hey R.. You are doing such a wonderful thing for your son, keep it up! I know right now it can feel like you are breastfeeding all the time. A 3-4 hour interval is actually really good, most babies are closer to 2 hours. My daughter will be 1 next week and she still nurses close to every 2-3 hours. It can be longer during the day especially if we are out and about and of course it's closer together at times while we are home. They do become much more efficient at it though and may only nurse for a few minutes at a time. I alternate breasts using only 1 per feeding which has been very easy for me. Good luck! Breastfeeding has become the favorite parts of my days.

Every baby is different. Both of my kids nursed every 2 to 2 1/2 hours even after I had introduced solids.

Be sure you are eating a well-balanced diet with lots of milk, chocolate milk won't hurt a thing. Your milk needs to be very nutritious so that it is more filling for him. You definitely can begin giving your little boy some other food, such as a little runny cereal. Try it before he goes to bed and it should help him sleep longer at night. If he just doesn't like cereal, try some vegetable or fruit baby food. I don't what the hang-up is now-a-days on giving babies solid food. I raised 6 children and gave them cereal at 6 weeks-not very much at a time. I nursed all of them for 5-6 months and 3 for longer than that. Good luck! It is a very satisfying feeling to nurse a baby!

Hi, R..

The first thing to keep in mind is that each baby is unique when it comes to frequency and duration of nursing!

That said, most babies to stretch out their sessions as they get older (3 - 4 hours is common). However, they will nurse more frequently for a variety of reasons - growth spurts (more frequent nursing stimulates you to produce more milk - feedings slow up again when your body has "caught up" with your baby's demand); illness; teething; heat (baby might be thirsty just like we are when it's warmer); etc.

I nursed my four-year-old and currently nurse my seven-month-old (still exclusively). There are days I feel like the "milk wagon" but they don't last long in the grand scheme of things. Enjoy this closeness will you have it. :)

Yep, until he gets onto solids at around 6 months and starts using those as more nutrition and less learning, you will nurse every 3-4 hours. One thing I found that helped if I was feeling worn out from nursing so much was to pump and have dh give him a bottle once a day. Just to give you a bit of time, but don't forget to pump to keep up your supply.

Every 3-4 hours, huh? Well, my three-month old still nurses every 2-3! She's my third child and four hours was about the most any of mine could go for the first year (except at night when they would go 6-8 after a while).

I found that wearing my babies helps them to go longer when I need them to and pumping is always an option if it's the liberty you want.

Once you start solids you'll nurse a LOT less. I started the first foods at 3 months because he was so hungry all the time. I also supplemented with formula mixed with rice cereal. That helped a LOT. That way my husband could feed him too.

We have no food allergy history so I was pretty safe starting him so young. I figured he was interested in what I was eating and was able to sit up by then so we tried it.
It became a highlight of the day! Take lots of pictures. You'll be glad you did.

I hate to break it to you, but the bigger he becomes the more OFTEN he'll want food. My daughter is 5 months old now, still being exclusively breast fed, and sometimes the gaps between feeds are only two hours! Just enjoy the contact time :)