How often and for how long?

[tambo1976]

My little chap is still breastfeeding like a trooper I'm very pleased to say!

He is BF approx 2 hourly and I actually hear him gulp now, my boobs have got bigger and his poopy nappies have changed again to what they looked like when he was drinking expressed breast milk. I do however still give him bottles of formula every 4 ish hours but he now only drinks about 4oz instead of 6 so we are definitely heading in the right direction. I always offer him both boobs before his formula and he drinks for about 10 minutes in

tapatalkin

 

[HL28]

First of all I love your signature lol!!! Right I probably still feed my nearly 5 month old atleast every 2 hours and probably even more sometimes. Ifor example I was at a group this morning for 1 & 1/2 hours and prob fed her 2/3 times. Remember it's also a drink so sometimes can just need thirsty. When baby actively stops sucking I latch mine off. But wait a few minutes because sometimes they just have a break. Feed bulbs as often as you want hun. It will increase your supply and then if you are wanting to stop formula I'm sure you'll get there. Remember evenings they cluster feed so just feed every ten mins if they want. You can't over feed a BF baby. Huge well done also keep at it. It gets soooo much easier xxx

 

[HL28]

Excuse typos!! On my phone!!

 

[Nikkiportia]

I feed on demand. Mine feed about every 2-4 hours, it really does depend.sometimes it is even every 30mins when cluster feeding! Theyngo longer at night.
Length of feed anywhere from 10mins to 30mins, but have been known to sit on me for 90mins!

 

[tambo1976]

Wow! I didn't realise it was so much more regular than formula feeding! I'm used to going about 3 1/2 to 4 hours between feeds. I'm glad I asked now lol, I'll definitely put him to the breast more often now I know.

What about through the night? Should he go for longer?

Thanks for your responses by the way x

tapatalkin

 

[tambo1976]

90 minutes?!

So I'm assuming then that BF will pretty much take a lot more time than formula.

I'm not complaining though! I'm so chuffed were actually doing this after I thought BF was done and dusted :&

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[Nikkiportia]

Yep, it definately takes more time! Catalina is on hourly feeds tonight and not giving me a chance to fill up again, before she empties it! Add in Santiago on the other side and you can imagine what i spend most of my time doing, lol!
Its worth it though hon, im chuffed for you that Sott has started bf again, it does get easier as the weeks go on!

 

[HL28]

Hun how old is he? They can take a while to feed in the beginning but my little feeds 5-10 mins at a time now. It's on demand so when my baby has a winge I latch her on. Xxx

 

[Nikkiportia]

Wss, it def gets quicker as the weeks go on, i just find they have the odd day here and there when they want to feed constntly! Just getting the supply up i guess, and during a growth spurt

 

[knopk@]

At first my boy was constantly on but now he can go up to 4 hrs, in this weather though they tend to.have a drink ie short nursing session to get the foremilk.
How many bottles a day do you offer as a top up? I started off with 3 top ups -2 oz each. Then i would only make 1 oz and spend lota of time doing skin to skin and feeding. Then i dropped tops ups one by one.
Remember,.it takes couple of days for your supply to.catch up.so do.it gradually. Its totally poasible as i.have done it. My little chunk is now 14 lb 12 oz at just over 10 weeks and is thriving.
Well done hun!

Tapatalking so cant see signatures

 

[Cynderella]

Id start fading the formula out maybe 1 feed less every few days, your supply will soon boost

Could be the heat and needing more of a drink which he will be getting x

 

[tambo1976]

He is 9 and a half weeks old, I think I am offering him to much formula as top ups tbh. Every 4 hours I'm offering him 4oz, gonna drop doing it so much and offer him the breast more. Old habits die hard lol and after expressing for 6 weeks then formula feeding for nearly 3 weeks I'm just used to making bottles lol x
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[Cynderella]

Lol know what you mean.

Maybe go cold turkey during the day and feed on demand then top up before bed until your happy ??

 

[mrswoody]

Hey lovely,
Firstly how amazing that your little man is re-establishing bfing!!! So pleased for you both as I remember reading how much it meant to you.

I would say the same, offer less formula over the next few days and he will soon get more bm and eventually not need the top up.

At that age I think M was feeding every 2-3 hours and every 4-5 through the night.

LO will get quicker at feeding over the next few weeks though, we are now down to 5-10minutes but I have a fast flow and she is a guzzler so she get what she wants super quick.

xx

 

[tambo1976]

Lol know what you mean.

Maybe go cold turkey during the day and feed on demand then top up before bed until your happy ??

Yeah I think that sounds like a good idea, he does definitely have a much bigger appetite of a late evening so I think the formula will have to stay around for the foreseeable future. I kinda tried cold turkey today but he still ended up having 2 3oz bottles and a 5oz bottle but it's still quite a big reduction x

Hey lovely,
Firstly how amazing that your little man is re-establishing bfing!!! So pleased for you both as I remember reading how much it meant to you.

I would say the same, offer less formula over the next few days and he will soon get more bm and eventually not need the top up.

At that age I think M was feeding every 2-3 hours and every 4-5 through the night.

LO will get quicker at feeding over the next few weeks though, we are now down to 5-10minutes but I have a fast flow and she is a guzzler so she get what she wants super quick.

xx

Thank you! It really does mean so much to me

I'll just be glad when my supply is back fully because that's the only issue now. He is feeding like a professional lol, you'd never believe just a few weeks ago he wouldn't latch without having a screaming fit!

I'd love to get to the point your at, 5 to 10 minutes sounds perfect x



tapatalkin

 

[Cynderella]

Speak to your health visitor or a bfing person Cos there is tablets you can get for helping milk supply... X

 

[tiggy85]

Wow, your doing super Hun, well done to you and your boy. I think you doing the right thing phasing out the formula feeds so your supply can increase. Remember they can often drink more from the bottle than from the breast as its easy and they don't have to work for it!

In terms of how often and how long the feeds last I remember at10 weeks he was feeding 9-12 times over 24 hours which equated to every two hours day and night with some cluster feeds in evening and with one or two 4-5 hour stretch at night. Now he is 6 months and on 3 solid meals he has 6-7 feeds a day which is still every 2 hours In the day but has started going 10-12 hours without a feed at night.

He has always been a short feeder as I have an over active let down and fast flow and he likes to guzzle quickly......he also shoves his solids down his mouth as quick as possible too. But he used to feed for 15 -30 mins and now some of his feeds are 3 mins but does a long 20 min morning and evening feed!

They can go longer between feeds as they get older but Luca didn't really do that, he just dropped his night feeds and continued to feed frequently during the day. Which im more than happy with. I don't think I have a huge storage capacity which is likely to limit my ability to carry bigger feeds IYSWIM

 

[BunnyN]

LO has spent over 3 hrs nursing a few times, I always have way more milk the next day so I guess its her way of asking for more.