How often should I breast feed?
During the first few weeks you're advised to feed your baby according to their early feeding cues rather than try to introduce a feeding routine. Your baby is your best guide - they'll let you know how much they need. Try to pay attention to your baby rather than the clock when feeding and you may soon begin to notice a pattern emerging. Feeding on demand means feeding to your baby's hunger cues and not feeding a baby each time they cry. Babies will cry for many reasons aside from hunger, so it's important to learn your baby's individual cues.
Early feeding cues can include: stirring or body wriggling, head bobbing or turning the head or cheek to one side, turning the head side to side, tongue-darting, eye-darting, "star fish hands", and hands up to the face or mouth. Late hunger cues may be crying and grizzling. It is better to feed your baby on their early cues, especially when they are newborns, which will often be shortly after waking, because they are most active and receptive at this time to feed.
Frequency of feeding
The duration of feeds will vary during the day with a short feed lasting 5-10 minutes and a long feed lasting up to 45 minutes or more. Sometimes babies want a long feed to satiate hunger and other times a shorter feed for thirst. Duration of feeds will shorten as babies grow and become more efficient at removing milk from the breast.
Your composition of milk changes during the day, which may make some babies want to nurse more frequently or longer at a certain time. Breast fed babies will also "cluster feed" sometimes, which means feeding in close sequences at a certain time of day. This is not reflective of a "low supply" but rather the way new babies influence your milk production, and get their nutritional needs met. They will also want to feed more frequently or exhibit cluster feeding patterns for a growth spurt which can happen at any time, but commonly occur around 7-10 days, 2-3 weeks, 4-6 weeks, 3 months, 4 months, 6 and 9 months. They usually last for 2-3 days but may last up to a week or so at other times.
- Typically, a newborn will feed every 1½ -3 hours with many feeding 2-2½ hourly for the first few months.
- The average breast fed baby will feed around 8-11 times in 24 hours for several weeks after birth.
- Some breast fed babies will maintain a 2-3 hourly feeding pattern for the first few months. This is normal because not only does breast storage capacity vary but also babies' stomachs are small, they self-regulate their feeds, and human milk is readily digested to meet their rapid development.
- Night feeds are an important part of this design and help to maintain your milk supply. It is very normal for babies to continue to wake for night feeds for at least the first 6 months.
However, it's worth remembering that any pattern may prove to be short-lived. As your baby goes through varying growth spurts, and continual developmental changes occur, their appetite and consequently their feeding habits will change. But the more you feed, the more milk you'll continue to produce, and you'll find your body automatically works on a supply-and-demand basis adapting to their needs.
A good sign your baby is getting enough milk is if they're alert. If you're at all worried speak to your health care professional, or give one of our expert team of advisors and experienced mums a call on 1800 438 500.
