How Long Does It Take You to Breastfeed?

Call LeLeche League for help and lots of good information about breast feeding. They even have support groups for mothers.

I'd suggest trying just one side per feeding. I did this with my second child and she was much easier to feed and slept better than my first. One sided feeding lets you you get to the rich milk. Plus there is a time savings to not switching in the middle of the feeding.

I had one DD that nursed long & slow, 45 min + and little one now, since birth has been Miss Speedy Nurser, 5-maybe 10 minutes & she's done. I never thought she got enough, but she's consistantly high weight. I guess they all nurse at their own pace.

My babies nursed for 45 minutes right after birth. By two months of age it was down to about 20-25 minutes, and by four months of age they only nursed for 15 minutes. We went 15 months, and by that time my boys only nursed 5 minutes at a time.

My son takes anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes and he is 13 months. At night he takes about 45minutes if he falls asleep. In the early morning he takes maybe 20-25 minutes and his daytime nursing he takes like 10 minutes. He used to take an hour as a newborn and ate every 2.5 hours so like every hour and a half I would be putting him back on me. It was hard because I have 2 other kids. Once he was about 3 months he started to get faster and faster 45min then 30 then 20 then 10 if he stays awake. My kids are older than your daughter though so they didn't want me to play with them and they can do a lot for themselves,so I just bought snacks that didn't require me to get and juice boxes they could get themselves. I also have a small chest and I don't think that makes a difference in milk flow. My son just ate slow and I didn't know what to do so I just let him do his thing because I too wanted to nurse badly and didn't want to give up. I am not sure how to make a baby eat faster. Does your hospital have an LC I thought they were free, I called the consultants at my hospital a million times starting out and I only told them my name. Good luck!

A couple thoughts...storage capacity does "exist," and sometimes moms can feed more frequently to accomodate as needed. However, that might not be what's going on. Does your baby feed with his eyes open? That's the sign of active feeding. How about swallowing? Do you hear 20+ in a row with a letdown, then a brief pause and more swallowing? And how about weight gain? We look for babies to to gain at least 7 oz per week minimum. These things together (in part) signal a good feeding. For moms I work with, 45-60 minute feeds is a red flag, particularly when combined with infrequent swallowing.
A. (mom & IBCLC)

Up until 3 months old, it takes awhile for the newborn to be proficient with it's latch, to become more efficient with suckling and to get into the groove with Mommy's groove. Long nursing times at this point is very normal. When they are older (about 1 years old) and still nursing this long, it's usually because they want that Mommy-Baby bonding time because they may feel they aren't getting it from other areas.

Small chested means nothing... not all infants and toddlers will be speedy nursers, some want to take their time, relax, re-0charge and bond with Mommy. Mommy should take this time to ALSO relax, re-charge and bond with baby. Take a nap together, read a book while baby is nursing, pump the other breast if you will be needing a supply in frozen storage soon...

Why not have your almost 3 year old in a daycare setting for soon to be Pre-K 2 or 3 times a week? That would greatly lower your stress levels and help your daughter be ready to start Pre-K when she's old enough. They also have Moby Wraps and similar wraps that allow you to wear your baby with easy access to the breasts so they can nurse when they feel the need to, while Mommy has 2 hands free and can walk around unfettered.

That sounds about right to me. As they get older, it doesn't take as long. It seemed like it took FOREVER in the first six months or so, but my daughter (turning one next week!) now only takes about 5-10 minutes for an "awake" feeding. The nap feedings (before a nap) maybe 30 minutes. Sometimes the last feeding takes an hour...sometimes, 20 minutes, it just depends.

I kind've had the same guilt over neglecting my older daughter, so we just came up with things we can do together while I'm feeding her sister. Sometimes, it's just watching a show together. Sometimes we read. Sometimes we play games that only require talking, etc. :)

i nursed all 3 of my kids forever, they all did that at some points and not others, they all were different... i know its hard, mine are all close together too, it wasnt easy..... just do what you are doing, sounds like you are doing a great job... and see what happens when he starts solids, i bet it will start to speed up. all of my kids wound up taking about 5 or 10 min mostly. .......meanwhile, try to find places where you can go that she can have fun and be safe and you can sit and nurse. the 1st summer when i had my 3rd, i had a newborn, a 2 year old and a 4 year old, all day, and the baby nursed cooooooooonstantly. it was a little crazy... i joined the local childrens museum, it was perfect. we were there like 4 times a week... there were little classes and i could sit in the back with the baby, there were all kinds of rooms with doors that closed, we could go to any of the music rooms or the blocks or the bubbles or the tot area (the best) and the littles could play while i could sit with the baby, plus an outside that was all enclosed and nice comfortable shady chairs. so perfect, that place saved me. ....nice dressing rooms are great for nursing when you are out and about, keep something for your daughter to play with and go into the dressing room. chances are the mirror is enough to keep her happy. remember that she will need you more than the baby does right now in certain ways. i just think that the baby will be fine if you put him down for a while and give your daughter some extra. thats what i tried to do when i could. not easy, i know, but i felt like even a little of extra special means so much to the older kid/kids..... get some help and go on a little date with your daughter when you can :)

My DD would take 45 min.-1 hr each side when she was a newborn... then after a 1 hr. break she was hungry again. It was constant! I eventually started pumping and feeding her from a bottle out of desperation. When she was roughly 3 months old, I started offering her the breast again, and she took right to it. She would nurse 10-20 minutes each side. NOW (she turned 1 year today) she will nurse for 10-20 minutes total.

I don't think it has anything to do with your bust size though... My 'normal' size is a 32 A. (Hubby and I are LOVING this breastfeeding size boost!!! LOL!)

Don't worry u are not alone. I have been in this same situation with my son(2.5 months). I also have a toddler and feel as if I don't give her enough attention. My son eats and eats and eats I had to talk to his doctor about it and asked if maybe he just isn't getting enough to eat. My son also would eat for 45 mins to an hr per feeding. My doctor told me that babies only get milk like the first 15 mins and that's why they suggest u switch sides after about 10 mins. My son doc also suggested only letting him nurse for like 20 mins and then wait for about an hr and then feed again if he still hungry. This has been sooo much easier for me. If I were u I would just nurse for 15 or 20 mins at a time and u can do one or both sides. If u do both sides split the time in half on each side(for example 20 min feeding, do 10 mins on each side). And if he's hungry again in an hr then feed him. Breastmilk is digested at a faster pace then formula. It has been very hard for me to get used to feeding him every hr or 2 but at the same time I know he needs it.

I hope this helps. Please keep us updated.

I too had two hour feeding marathons. I asked and asked and finally met one other mother who experienced this. I was feeling so alone! For the first 4 months, we were 9 hours/day on the breast and it never took less than an hour. I didn't get my first 30 min feeding until she was almost 5 months! With the help of watching proper suckling on Kellymom.com and the help of an excellent lactation consultant, we determined she had an infective suck. When they do this they exert too much energy trying to feed and it can really stifle healthy weight gain. Mine took 4 weeks to regain her birth weight. It was scary and intense and we had to solve it by limiting her time on the breast to 30 min, then I pumped to get the milk out for her and syringe feed or bottle fed her my expressed milk. It took months for her to wake up and learn to breast feed efficiently. Your daughter sounds like mine and it was an issue of her ineffective suck, not my breast. Honestly, 40 min at three weeks sounds awesome. I would fear more two hour feeding sessions too, its rough. Its not okay to feed for two hours when you have other children to tend to. Just know if if happens to you again, it likely the suck, not your breast and you can pump and supplement with your own breast-milk until they get the hang of things. If your lactation consultant does not instill you with confidence by giving a clear diagnosis and plan to fix things, find another one. But again I say, 3 weeks 40 minutes sounds like what most moms experience. Looks like your going to have a better time bf this baby.

I nursed all three of my kiddo's, and had different experience with all three.
I do not think breast size has anything to do with it.
Can you feel when your milk "lets down" ? I could always tell with my first, not only could i feel it, but his jaw movements changed and at times it almost sounded like gulping. If I were you I would try pumping some to increase your supply, also maybe try giving pumped milk in a bottle and try different flow nipples. I will say it seemed usual for me to spend a lengthy period of time nursing. I was never very good at having my little ones on a "schedule" I always did the feed on demand thing...
Good luck!

My kids have never nursed for longer than 20 minutes. EVER. I'm nursing our 3rd baby (he's almost 8 months old now.) Usually it's only 10 to 15 minutes ever 2 to 4 hours.

In the beginning (somewhere between 1-2 months, I can't really remember anymore), it took up to an hour per feeding with my daughter, and often 1.5 hours with my son. By the time they were each a couple of months old though, it sped up significantly, to 30 minutes or less.

My daughter is now 6 months old and I would say an average feeding is 15 minutes, but can be anywhere from 5-20. She eats approximately every three hours during the day.

After the first 4-8 weeks, if it hasn't sped up for you, I'd talk to your doctor, the pediatrician and/or a lactation consultant. It shouldn't be that long once he gets the hang of it.

good luck and congrats on your new baby!

I think so much of it has to do with speed of let down. Once we got the hang of nursing, I could pump 6 oz per breast in about 15 minutes. I had friends that took 45 minutes to do the same thing. So my babies never really nursed for more than 15-20 minutes. Babies are also more efficient than pumps. I don't know if there's anything that you can do to change it. Good luck!

That sounds right to me in the beginning, but it should get much faster as they get older. I think maybe first 6 weeks, baby was on breast 45 minutes, then off for 1 hour 15 minutes, repeat. But eventually my baby would eat 15 on each side and be good for 2 hours. Also if you need a break pump a bottle. babies down those in a matter of minutes. HTH

Typically 45min-1hr for nursing and then we had "marathon burping" which lasted anywhere from 30-60 minutes. (First burp right away... keep patting and reading -I caught up on a lot of novels while nursing- and an average of 45 minutes later BWRaaaaaaaaAAAAAWP! ginormous earth shattering kaboom of a burp. As long as we did marathon burping: no gas/colic/GREAT sleeper. If we skipped the marathon, then he'd be fussy by the *end* of the day and wake up all the time at night/ get lousy sleep).

My mum nursed all my siblings... no marathon burping with them, but typically at least an hour nursing. I ranged in age from 2-9 when my mum was nursing (I was the oldest). I'm sure I pestered her from time to time (I'm a 'pesticating nuisance' -a term of endearment/honesty)... but I never felt neglected. I got 1:1 time when the baby was napping. If I wasn't entertaining myself as a toddler, I got to watch a special movie. As more sibs came, I played with siblings and it was "our" special time.

An unpopular vote for TV:

We watched a LOT of TV as kids compared to "kids these days". I watched at LEAST one movie every day as a child. Looking back, probably that was to negate 1 nursing session with my sister/ to keep me entertained. I loved movies so much... I moved onto books (because books are like 10 movies in one!). My mum made that transition VERY seamless... and she did it with all of us. "Don't you wish you knew MORE? Don't you wish you knew what the hero was thinking when that happened???"

We ALL know parents who don't give a rat's patoot about their kids and just plug them in all day every day. That's VERY VERY different (in my not so humble opinion) from using the TV deliberately as a tool by parents who DO care deeply about their kids. 2 hours a day takes care of 2 nursing sessions.

Another 'trick' my mum used was to put the older kids and younger kids down for naps at different times. It DID tie her to the house, but it also kept her from being overwhelmed. Baby needs to nurse...okay, it's naptime for the older ones! The older kids sleep while she read and nursed, then the baby sleeps and she got to play with us. When I quit napping (at 3ish) when my brother was born, I still had to go lay down for 'quiet time' while my sister napped. I'd wait for the sound of the music box, which is when I 'could' get up...aka when she laid my brother, and then later my sister down. By 5, of course, I was in K.

((Added: We were part of a lactation study. From a few weeks old to 9mo when I lost my milk and had to switch to formula kiddo was nursing apx 20oz each feeding -not a typo- 20. Long nursing does not necessarily equate to ineffective nursing.))

My third grandchild is nearly a month old now and my daughter said she's nursing all the time. It usually takes 45mins to an hour. Sometimes the baby then doesn't need to nurse for several hours but other times in an hour or two. She varies the nursing as described by another poster by just nursing 10 or so minutes on each side and then nursing again in an hour or so.

She also pumps and lets someone else feed her with a bottle a time or two during the day. She's done this from week one. Baby accepts both equally.

She's very large busted. I doubt that breast size has anything to do with it. I suggest it has to do with the baby's ability to suck which improves with practice and time.

My daughter was a long nurser, too, despite me being an F cup when she was born. Today (at 22 months) she is thin, but eats almost as much as my almost 5 year old. I guess she just has high metabolism. So, I try to do stuff with my son while nursing. We read books, do puzzles, play games, just about anything that we'd normally do that doesn't involve much movement. Everyone just adjusted to this being normal. Good luck finding a balance between the two kids. I know that it has been a challenge for me, but the kids love each other, so I'm glad to have 2.