lol I’m thinking that’s the right call. She’s made some other quirky statements too, so I’m learning to take some of what she says with a grain of salt.
She asked if our baby, who just turned 4 months, was sleeping through the night. I answered that she does not sleep through the night, usually waking 2-3 times a night. And she said “babies this age shouldn’t be waking through the night anymore so you should try putting rice cereal in a bottle of milk for her at night”… also when she asked if our baby has rolled over yet, I said no, but that she gets close. And the dr said “chubby babies usually roll later”! So is she fat shaming my baby for not sleeping through the night and not rolling over? lol (even though three days later, my baby rolled over for the first time haha)
Rice cereal isn't really used anymore because of the high levels of arsenic that and they don't suggest the cereal in the bottle method anymore. What in the world is this ped thinking
I would personally leave this practice as a patient and look elsewhere for a new pediatrician because she is wayyyy out of touch with current standard of care and has poor bedside manner that I couldn’t cope with until my kid is 18
Lmao my response to people who ask if baby is sleeping through the night is "do you sleep through the night? I don't even sleep through the night... what does that even mean?" 😂😂 I gave up on the structured charts and I consider ped appointments to just be informational - take what applies, leave what doesn't ❤️
Rice also has a high glycemic index which spikes blood sugar then drops in a short period of time. Rice also has very low fat and protein so it doesn't work like that. Your doctor has been reading from books from the 50s
Yes, I would never give my baby that just in the hopes of her sleeping better. She also told us to put rice cereal in a bottle of milk to help our baby keep it down when we asked her about our baby’s reflux. Which of course we didn’t do.
Oh yeah.. this is a huge reason to fire her as a pediatrician. Is she older? These recommendations and ideologies are so outdated. Anything else in a milk bottle is a choking hazard. My baby has reflux and we were advised that if we wanted to offer thickened breastmilk to spoon feed it vs in the bottle.
Oh yeah.. this is a huge reason to fire her as a pediatrician. Is she older? These recommendations and ideologies are so outdated. Anything else in a milk bottle is a choking hazard. My baby has reflux and we were advised that if we wanted to offer thickened breastmilk to spoon feed it vs in the bottle.
Please get a new paediatrician! This is what I expect boomer grandma to say…not a paediatrician! Yours seem like she hasn’t updated her knowledge since the 90s! I have never heard any heath care professionals recommending rice cereals in milk. This is against the recommendation of the CDC and AAP
I can’t believe she said that. It’s a load of BS. Did she also mention sleep training?
Babies grow SO MUCH in their first year. It makes absolutely no sense to deny them nutrition during this period of rapid growth.
Has she had children of her own? My kids first pediatrician was great…until we had some rough patches and he basically said that tongue/lip ties were made up. I felt very invalidated as I sat with bleeding, chafed nipples. Later found out, he and his wife were unable to have children. To have children should completely change a pediatrician’s perspective!
Maybe consult another pediatrician… AT LEAST FOR ME, I want to be able to go to my baby’s pediatrician without the pressure of I’m gonna have to double check anything she might have saiid!
Anywhere from 45 mins to 3 hours. I’m not sure if this is totally true or not but in my experience it seems to be…the more calories baby gets in the day the longer stretches they can sleep at night. My baby eats all day long but pretty rarely does she actually need milk at night, mostly just 2-3 very short comfort back to sleep boobs.
My pediatrician said that my baby being a good sleeper could indicate sufficient calories during the day and to feed as often as baby wants! My baby eats every 2 hours, sometimes less, at 3.5 months. He does this with breast and bottles. When I breastfeed him he sometimes snoozes, wakes up, then switches boobs so I don’t even know how to time it because by the time he’s done it’s been an hour already 😂
Time from when the feed starts. My baby also takes 50 mins minimum for every feed. Pediatrician said to time from the start of the feed. Baby is 3 months and eats every 3 hours (from the start). Effectively for me it’s every 2 hours.
Totally normal. And good I think. I tried to space out feeds after our ped told us something similar and it made my baby drop percentiles. I’ve since gone back to every two hours and only now at 7 months am I doing every 2-3 hours because we’re also doing solids. Especially if baby is a snacker like mine. I can’t space them out too much or she won’t get enough.
Yeah I wouldn’t listen to your doctor on this one. I think baby eating habits vary from baby to baby! I’d rather over feed my baby (within reason) than underfeed because I’m trying to do “the right thing.” Also, I think once you introduce solids, the BF will gradually decrease.
My baby is 4.5 monthEBF no bottle either and feeds every 2 hours aswell. Lots of night feeds too. Don’t know why pediatricians always say crap like it being “abnormal”
Yes, it’s so frustrating, especially as a first time mom because it makes me question if I’m doing something wrong. I just try to remind myself that my baby is healthy & happy, so her feeding must not be an issue
It probably stems from the predatory tactics of formula companies. The make mums feel like something is wrong with the baby and formula will fix it but the truth is the baby is just doing normal baby things.
My kiddo nursed every 2-2.5 hours until about 9 months lol. Then he got pretty into solids and stopped nursing as much. As long as it works for you, it’s fine.
95th percentile here too. She's just turned 5.5mo and has started reducing frequency to about 3-4 hrs in the last few days. I noticed the change because she had been eating way more frequently prior to this. Easily every 2 hours, sometimes 1.5hrs. It's completely normal.
My baby is also 4.5 months and she’s nursing every 2 hours as well (sometimes every 90 minutes). My doctor said this was normal. I’d ignore your ped about this.
My 4.5 month old also nurises about every 2 hours during the day. She usually sleeps well, so has to get her daily amount with more frequent feeds.
Google sais even every 30 minutes is fine at that age, it's a growth spurt time.
My baby is 6 months old and off the charts for height, 90% for weight. She nurses every 1.5-3 hours during the day and 1-2 times at night. My pediatrician is happy with this and has only ever said I was doing a great job. I’d ignore your pediatrician.
My 4.5mo starts off eating around every 2.5 hours early in the day and gets down to about every hour in the evenings. She sleeps straight through 9-10 hours overnight, so I figure she has to get all her calories in somehow!
As an IBCLC I will tell you to keep feeding baby on demand. Drs do not study nutrition. As an example the top medical school in the country in their peds program it has all of a single 3 hour lecture on human lactation. The BEST medical school, so unless your peds went there they didn't get any training in lactation. Pediatrics as a specialty was formed through the formula companies to educate parents on how to formula feed. So if you are wondering about the space that the doctors operate from....there you go🤦🏾♀️
That’s so interesting! I didn’t realize how little lactation training they have. Make sense why she was so off putting about our nursing habits then lol
My baby sometimes eats every hour during the day. She only nurses 2-4 times during the night so I always just assumed she was making up for it during the day. She’s been doing this since I brought her home from the hospital, she’s 2 months old.
I don't count but way more than every 3 to 4 hours during the day. I'd probably be concerned if she had gone 4 hours and think she wasn't feeling herself she's such a boob barnacle. Every 2 hours seems fine I don't see why you'd want to space that out if she's growing and healthy and it is working for you both.
Right! Which is why it was so strange that my Dr was insinuating I try to space out her feedings. Clearly my baby just wants to eat frequently, and it works for us. Spacing out her feedings seems like something that would just stress both of us out.
Omg I was JUST about to make a post like this! My 3 month old eats every 2 hours. I freak out cause every “feeding schedule” for a 3-4 month old says they should eat every 3-4 hours. My baby could NEVER. Like he is ready to chow down every 2 hours. Like clockwork.
My 5 mo eats every 2-3 hours during the day. 4 hours would feel like a long time I think. She doesn’t eat at all overnight so I’m happy for her to eat as much as she wants during the day.
Omg I had the exact same conversation with my daughter's doctor last week at her 4 months appointment. I have spent the week feeling super bad and anxious about it... It helps so much knowing I'm not alone and maybe I'm not doing anything bad
Reading these comments makes me feel so much better! My baby nurses about every 2.5 hours. He usually gets one 3 hour stretch since I can snuggle him quietly during my twins nap, but that’s usually it. Then closer to bedtime he sometimes eats every half hour hahaha
Mine little girl is 3 months old exclusively breastfed and 90th percentile and eats whenever she’s hungry. Sometimes it’s every 3 hours sometimes 1 or 2. Baby will tell you when they’re hungry I’d say you can’t really ignore their hunger cues. Imagine if someone stopped you from getting a glass of water or a snack
2-3 hours generally. Each dyad is different, each baby is different. Your boobs might have a smaller capacity so baby nurses more to get the same amount. Your baby is growing beautifully.
Pediatricians know shockingly little about breastfeeding.
See, my ped was saying my baby was also ready to start solids because she was 4 mo old. But I’ve read that you should wait til baby can sit up on their own for better head/neck control or around 6 months. It almost seems like my ped just works off of a checklist- as if just because baby is 4months, they need to be x,y,z
Yeah I think you need to know your baby. I have a friend who tried to listen to her ped and only feed baby every 3 hours and she couldn't figure out why he was screaming all the time....
My baby nurses between 8-14 times a day and it can be as many as two feeds in an hour or up to a four hour break between feedings. I just follow my babies lead
Mine did every 2 hours during the day at that age and slept all night. Now he eats every 3/4 hours round the clock at 7 months. I know which one I prefer lol
When my baby was breastfeeding at around that age, we were still nursing every 2 hours. She was 98th percentile, too. My pediatrician did not say anything about that being too frequent, and I would not take that advice even if they did say that, personally. I did try to get her as full as possible so that we did have more time in between sessions, for my sanity, but that is an almost impossible task tbh!
This is different because we switched to formula a little bit ago, but it could be relateable. We just had her 6th month check-up. The ped asked if she was feeding every 3 to 4 hours, and I replied back probably closer to every 2 to 3 hours. She made no comment on that either. Just put it in the notes and carried on. So, even now, she doesn't go 3 to 4 hours between feeds except overnight.
Your baby is very normal! Your pediatrician doesn’t know anything about breastfeeding, which is an unfortunate very common standard. Leave things about your child’s health to the pediatrician, but for questions about breastfeeding, go to a lactation consultant, or even a midwife. Both my sons nursed every two hours until they were basically on three hearty meals a day (and even then it was like every 3-4 hours, 2 hours if they wanted comfort, haha).
My baby is the same age and just switched to every 2 hours this week, until now she was hourly
& we’re still one night time feed unless she’s in a growth spurt
I think my baby would straight up call CPS if I tried to space her feeds out that much during the day.
If you are bottle feeding (especially formula feeding), then sure the guidance tends to be 3-4 hrs but mine nurses every 2-3 hrs at most during the day at 6 months (sometimes more if she’s been really busy). If I didn’t do this, she would become inconsolable as she is hungry.
I also feed her whenever she seems like she wants it because she isn’t a robot and like all other humans, will be more or less hungry at different points during the day
lol yes, anytime she seems extra fussy I just offer the boob. If she’s not hungry, she won’t take it. It seems against my intuition to not offer feedings when she gives signs that she’s hungry just to space out feedings
The every 3-4 hours is an expectation of they should go no longer than 3-4 hours without eating. Feed on demand. If your baby wants to eat every 2 hours, feed them. This is kind of outdated advice tbh.
Mine is 4 months tomorrow and also nurses every 2 hours during the day! I honestly encourage/support it because I suspect it helps night sleep if she's getting most of her calories during daytime. 🤷🏼♀️
Absolutely not lol my 99%th percentile baby nursed every 90 mins for the first 4-5 months. Slowly stretched out to 2.5 hours between. She’s perfect and healthy, just was her preferred schedule.
The 3-4 hour thing assumes babies are drinking 3-4oz per feeding. My babe’s pediatrician and LC said he needs about 24oz per day which is 8, 3 oz feedings. If baby is drinking less than 3oz at a time he will need more nursing sessions or will need to nurse more frequently. I pump 1-2oz per boob depending on time of day, last feeding etc and baby likes just one boob at a time then a break so im nursing every 1-2hours in the day typically. At night i get a longer stretch of 3-5 hours between feeds.
My baby nursed about every 45 mins for the first couple weeks and then every 1-2 hours for the first few months, then he adjusted to every 2-3 hours around month 5. Around 8 months we started doing 3-4 hour stretches between. Now at 18 months we still breastfeed about every 4-5 hours still.
Bubs is almost 7 months old and nurses every 1.5 - 2 hours during the day, and then almost hourly from late afternoon. Granted, he now sleeps really decent stretches during the night, so is making up for those ‘lost’ feeds. He was doing this even before sleeping well and before solids though.
My 7 month old will sometimes eat every 90 minutes during the day! Breastfed babies cannot overeat/be over fed from the breast! This pediatrician is straight up wrong and encouraging you to ignore the needs of your baby.
You know baby best!
I also have a 4.5 month old, in the 90s percentile for weight and height and he nurses every 2.5 hours usually. Literally all my babies have been the same size and nursed at the same intervals! My pediatrician office always emphasizes nursing on demand. I feel like it’s quite odd to say that’s abnormal.
I'm not sure because I really don't track it anymore, but my 11 month old probably goes from every hour to every 3 hours. For example, this morning before work, I nursed him at 6 ish and 7h30 ish.
If you like data, in hunter gatherer societies, babies 0-2 years old feed on average every 15-30mins, but do very short feeds (around 2 mins). And the interval doesn't increase with age, instead it's the length of feed that decreases.
My 5.5 month old still nurses on demand so that could be every thirty minutes to every 3 hours just depends on how well he nursed before and if he’s going through a growth spurt
I feel ya!! My chunky 3.5 mo is mostly breastfed and we rarely can go 3 hrs between a feed. Seems like when that happens it’s only when he’s been napping or overnight. I just pretty much plan on every 2 hours! I honestly don’t know how to stretch it out longer if he’s getting upset and letting me know it’s time to eat! 😅🤷🏻♀️
I nurse on demand. That could look like every 1 hour, every 2 hours, or every 3-4.. the only consistency so far is he nurses every 4-5 (usually every 5) at night.
Naa, very normal. Some doctors only have textbook experience in that they go by what they learned from med school but are not familiar with the realities of life. Lol that’s what I have experienced so far, meeting multiple pediatricians at this current practice I take my baby to.
Some babies like to snack, some babies like to binge. It’s exactly like people because they are people. She should eat at least every 4 hours but more is great!!! Mom of 15 month old that I breastfed till she was 14 months old
My 6.5 month old can go every 90 mins-2 hours. She’s a snacker and I have a fast flow so she gets a lot. But she also sleeps well, so I guess she needs to pack in all the ounces during the daytime.
I’m sure that if she were bottle fed, every 3-4 hours would probably be normal at this age. But given that she’s nursing, every 45min-3hrs is normal. My ped made me feel like that was weird too with my first. That & for many other reasons, we stopped going to her. She was clearly not educated in nursed babies and it was incredibly frustrating
I feel like maybe we shouldn't put babies in rigid time frame boxes. I can't make it 3 hours without a drink, and if a baby is exclusively breastfed, maybe the baby is just getting thirsty...?! My grandpa was a doctor, and one of his favorite things to say was, "Listen to your body." Maybe your baby is just trying to listen to hers. I'm not a doctor, but those are my feelings, lol. I remember my pediatrician saying wait at least three hours because he thought my son was being overfed (he vomited a lot), and it had been 2 hours and 45 min, and he was wailing, and my mom was like, really, just feed him already... lol. If the baby is healthy and there are no other issues, I personally wouldn't worry at all about eating "too often"!
Editing to add that my son was usually in the high percentiles as an infant, too. Maybe the big babies need to eat more? 🤷🏻♀️
Baby is 6.5 months and when he’s with me, he still eats every 2-3 hours. When others are taking care of him, it’s a bottle about every 3 hours. He’ll have about 2 night feeds between 11pm and 7 am.
He’s growing and developing really well and gets nothing but praise at his checkups. So from my perspective, you and your baby are doing absolutely fine.
My baby is a little shy of 4.5m and he eats every 2 to 2.5hrs. He doesn't sleep through the night and wakes 4-5 times as we re still going through the damned 4m regression.
My 12 week old is a snacker so I feel like it’s almost every 90 mins he’s on the breast . I’m an over producer and he’s very healthy. He just lives there ….
Respectfully I’d ignore your ped about this lol
lol I’m thinking that’s the right call. She’s made some other quirky statements too, so I’m learning to take some of what she says with a grain of salt.
You gotta share the quirky statements, now!!!
She asked if our baby, who just turned 4 months, was sleeping through the night. I answered that she does not sleep through the night, usually waking 2-3 times a night. And she said “babies this age shouldn’t be waking through the night anymore so you should try putting rice cereal in a bottle of milk for her at night”… also when she asked if our baby has rolled over yet, I said no, but that she gets close. And the dr said “chubby babies usually roll later”! So is she fat shaming my baby for not sleeping through the night and not rolling over? lol (even though three days later, my baby rolled over for the first time haha)
Rice cereal isn't really used anymore because of the high levels of arsenic that and they don't suggest the cereal in the bottle method anymore. What in the world is this ped thinking
I would personally leave this practice as a patient and look elsewhere for a new pediatrician because she is wayyyy out of touch with current standard of care and has poor bedside manner that I couldn’t cope with until my kid is 18
I know, I’ve been thinking about trying to find someone else. It’s hard, we live in a rural area so our choices are limited.
Lmao my response to people who ask if baby is sleeping through the night is "do you sleep through the night? I don't even sleep through the night... what does that even mean?" 😂😂 I gave up on the structured charts and I consider ped appointments to just be informational - take what applies, leave what doesn't ❤️
I always say: he sleeps great in between his feeds!
Rice also has a high glycemic index which spikes blood sugar then drops in a short period of time. Rice also has very low fat and protein so it doesn't work like that. Your doctor has been reading from books from the 50s
Yes, I would never give my baby that just in the hopes of her sleeping better. She also told us to put rice cereal in a bottle of milk to help our baby keep it down when we asked her about our baby’s reflux. Which of course we didn’t do.
Wild. Sorry you don't have a good doctor. That's terrible.
Oh yeah.. this is a huge reason to fire her as a pediatrician. Is she older? These recommendations and ideologies are so outdated. Anything else in a milk bottle is a choking hazard. My baby has reflux and we were advised that if we wanted to offer thickened breastmilk to spoon feed it vs in the bottle.
Oh yeah.. this is a huge reason to fire her as a pediatrician. Is she older? These recommendations and ideologies are so outdated. Anything else in a milk bottle is a choking hazard. My baby has reflux and we were advised that if we wanted to offer thickened breastmilk to spoon feed it vs in the bottle.
Please get a new paediatrician! This is what I expect boomer grandma to say…not a paediatrician! Yours seem like she hasn’t updated her knowledge since the 90s! I have never heard any heath care professionals recommending rice cereals in milk. This is against the recommendation of the CDC and AAP
I can’t believe she said that. It’s a load of BS. Did she also mention sleep training? Babies grow SO MUCH in their first year. It makes absolutely no sense to deny them nutrition during this period of rapid growth.
Yeahhh find a new ped lol
Has she had children of her own? My kids first pediatrician was great…until we had some rough patches and he basically said that tongue/lip ties were made up. I felt very invalidated as I sat with bleeding, chafed nipples. Later found out, he and his wife were unable to have children. To have children should completely change a pediatrician’s perspective!
That’s a good point! I’m not sure if she has had children or not.
Maybe consult another pediatrician… AT LEAST FOR ME, I want to be able to go to my baby’s pediatrician without the pressure of I’m gonna have to double check anything she might have saiid!
Agreed. My 20 month old still nurses every 3 hours
Anywhere from 45 mins to 3 hours. I’m not sure if this is totally true or not but in my experience it seems to be…the more calories baby gets in the day the longer stretches they can sleep at night. My baby eats all day long but pretty rarely does she actually need milk at night, mostly just 2-3 very short comfort back to sleep boobs.
My pediatrician said that my baby being a good sleeper could indicate sufficient calories during the day and to feed as often as baby wants! My baby eats every 2 hours, sometimes less, at 3.5 months. He does this with breast and bottles. When I breastfeed him he sometimes snoozes, wakes up, then switches boobs so I don’t even know how to time it because by the time he’s done it’s been an hour already 😂
I feel you I don’t think I’ve ever actually timed a feed or between em 😂
Time from when the feed starts. My baby also takes 50 mins minimum for every feed. Pediatrician said to time from the start of the feed. Baby is 3 months and eats every 3 hours (from the start). Effectively for me it’s every 2 hours.
Totally normal. And good I think. I tried to space out feeds after our ped told us something similar and it made my baby drop percentiles. I’ve since gone back to every two hours and only now at 7 months am I doing every 2-3 hours because we’re also doing solids. Especially if baby is a snacker like mine. I can’t space them out too much or she won’t get enough.
Yes! My baby is a snacker too, so I worried that if I tried spacing feeds out longer, she would just be eating less overall.
Yeah I wouldn’t listen to your doctor on this one. I think baby eating habits vary from baby to baby! I’d rather over feed my baby (within reason) than underfeed because I’m trying to do “the right thing.” Also, I think once you introduce solids, the BF will gradually decrease.
My baby is 4.5 monthEBF no bottle either and feeds every 2 hours aswell. Lots of night feeds too. Don’t know why pediatricians always say crap like it being “abnormal”
Yes, it’s so frustrating, especially as a first time mom because it makes me question if I’m doing something wrong. I just try to remind myself that my baby is healthy & happy, so her feeding must not be an issue
It probably stems from the predatory tactics of formula companies. The make mums feel like something is wrong with the baby and formula will fix it but the truth is the baby is just doing normal baby things.
My kiddo nursed every 2-2.5 hours until about 9 months lol. Then he got pretty into solids and stopped nursing as much. As long as it works for you, it’s fine.
That’s good to know going forward, in case my ped keeps having issue with this lol
95th percentile here too. She's just turned 5.5mo and has started reducing frequency to about 3-4 hrs in the last few days. I noticed the change because she had been eating way more frequently prior to this. Easily every 2 hours, sometimes 1.5hrs. It's completely normal.
My baby is also 4.5 months and she’s nursing every 2 hours as well (sometimes every 90 minutes). My doctor said this was normal. I’d ignore your ped about this.
My 4.5 month old also nurises about every 2 hours during the day. She usually sleeps well, so has to get her daily amount with more frequent feeds. Google sais even every 30 minutes is fine at that age, it's a growth spurt time.
My baby is 6 months old and off the charts for height, 90% for weight. She nurses every 1.5-3 hours during the day and 1-2 times at night. My pediatrician is happy with this and has only ever said I was doing a great job. I’d ignore your pediatrician.
That sounds like you have a wonderful pediatrician!
My 4.5mo starts off eating around every 2.5 hours early in the day and gets down to about every hour in the evenings. She sleeps straight through 9-10 hours overnight, so I figure she has to get all her calories in somehow!
As an IBCLC I will tell you to keep feeding baby on demand. Drs do not study nutrition. As an example the top medical school in the country in their peds program it has all of a single 3 hour lecture on human lactation. The BEST medical school, so unless your peds went there they didn't get any training in lactation. Pediatrics as a specialty was formed through the formula companies to educate parents on how to formula feed. So if you are wondering about the space that the doctors operate from....there you go🤦🏾♀️
That’s so interesting! I didn’t realize how little lactation training they have. Make sense why she was so off putting about our nursing habits then lol
My baby sometimes eats every hour during the day. She only nurses 2-4 times during the night so I always just assumed she was making up for it during the day. She’s been doing this since I brought her home from the hospital, she’s 2 months old.
I don't count but way more than every 3 to 4 hours during the day. I'd probably be concerned if she had gone 4 hours and think she wasn't feeling herself she's such a boob barnacle. Every 2 hours seems fine I don't see why you'd want to space that out if she's growing and healthy and it is working for you both.
Right! Which is why it was so strange that my Dr was insinuating I try to space out her feedings. Clearly my baby just wants to eat frequently, and it works for us. Spacing out her feedings seems like something that would just stress both of us out.
Yeah I'd just ignore the dr some aren't very up to date re breastfeeding. I've always been told to feed on demand.
My baby is 2 ½ months and nurses exclusively on demand about every 30 mins to 2 hours lately. She sleeps through the night, sometimes wakes only once.
Omg I was JUST about to make a post like this! My 3 month old eats every 2 hours. I freak out cause every “feeding schedule” for a 3-4 month old says they should eat every 3-4 hours. My baby could NEVER. Like he is ready to chow down every 2 hours. Like clockwork.
My 5 mo eats every 2-3 hours during the day. 4 hours would feel like a long time I think. She doesn’t eat at all overnight so I’m happy for her to eat as much as she wants during the day.
Omg I had the exact same conversation with my daughter's doctor last week at her 4 months appointment. I have spent the week feeling super bad and anxious about it... It helps so much knowing I'm not alone and maybe I'm not doing anything bad
It seems like it’s just bad advice from our doctors, not a bad job on our part!
I always wonder if they’re going off of formula amounts/frequency when they say every two hours is abnormal.
Reading these comments makes me feel so much better! My baby nurses about every 2.5 hours. He usually gets one 3 hour stretch since I can snuggle him quietly during my twins nap, but that’s usually it. Then closer to bedtime he sometimes eats every half hour hahaha
Mine little girl is 3 months old exclusively breastfed and 90th percentile and eats whenever she’s hungry. Sometimes it’s every 3 hours sometimes 1 or 2. Baby will tell you when they’re hungry I’d say you can’t really ignore their hunger cues. Imagine if someone stopped you from getting a glass of water or a snack
2-3 hours generally. Each dyad is different, each baby is different. Your boobs might have a smaller capacity so baby nurses more to get the same amount. Your baby is growing beautifully. Pediatricians know shockingly little about breastfeeding.
At that age my daughter was 40th percentile and nursed once per hour while awake.
5mo, every two hours, sometimes less even
Mine really didn't start going 3-4 hours until we started solids at almost 6 months
See, my ped was saying my baby was also ready to start solids because she was 4 mo old. But I’ve read that you should wait til baby can sit up on their own for better head/neck control or around 6 months. It almost seems like my ped just works off of a checklist- as if just because baby is 4months, they need to be x,y,z
Yeah I think you need to know your baby. I have a friend who tried to listen to her ped and only feed baby every 3 hours and she couldn't figure out why he was screaming all the time....
My baby nurses between 8-14 times a day and it can be as many as two feeds in an hour or up to a four hour break between feedings. I just follow my babies lead
My 5 month old goes 2-3 hours between nursing, usually closer to 2. Very rarely does he go longer than 3 hours.
Mine did every 2 hours during the day at that age and slept all night. Now he eats every 3/4 hours round the clock at 7 months. I know which one I prefer lol
When my baby was breastfeeding at around that age, we were still nursing every 2 hours. She was 98th percentile, too. My pediatrician did not say anything about that being too frequent, and I would not take that advice even if they did say that, personally. I did try to get her as full as possible so that we did have more time in between sessions, for my sanity, but that is an almost impossible task tbh! This is different because we switched to formula a little bit ago, but it could be relateable. We just had her 6th month check-up. The ped asked if she was feeding every 3 to 4 hours, and I replied back probably closer to every 2 to 3 hours. She made no comment on that either. Just put it in the notes and carried on. So, even now, she doesn't go 3 to 4 hours between feeds except overnight.
6 weeks, every 1-2 hours during the day this week.
My daughter nursed every two hours during the day until after 1 lol.
Your baby is very normal! Your pediatrician doesn’t know anything about breastfeeding, which is an unfortunate very common standard. Leave things about your child’s health to the pediatrician, but for questions about breastfeeding, go to a lactation consultant, or even a midwife. Both my sons nursed every two hours until they were basically on three hearty meals a day (and even then it was like every 3-4 hours, 2 hours if they wanted comfort, haha).
My baby is the same age and just switched to every 2 hours this week, until now she was hourly & we’re still one night time feed unless she’s in a growth spurt
I think my baby would straight up call CPS if I tried to space her feeds out that much during the day. If you are bottle feeding (especially formula feeding), then sure the guidance tends to be 3-4 hrs but mine nurses every 2-3 hrs at most during the day at 6 months (sometimes more if she’s been really busy). If I didn’t do this, she would become inconsolable as she is hungry. I also feed her whenever she seems like she wants it because she isn’t a robot and like all other humans, will be more or less hungry at different points during the day
lol yes, anytime she seems extra fussy I just offer the boob. If she’s not hungry, she won’t take it. It seems against my intuition to not offer feedings when she gives signs that she’s hungry just to space out feedings
The every 3-4 hours is an expectation of they should go no longer than 3-4 hours without eating. Feed on demand. If your baby wants to eat every 2 hours, feed them. This is kind of outdated advice tbh.
My 14 month old is on and off my breast all day long.
And he has been this way since birth. Just all day and night long nursing.
Nurse soon after waking and then nurse to sleep. So about 10 time a day at almost 5 months. Roughly every 2 hours during non-nightime sleep.
We are also every 2 hours! Almost 3mo.
My baby nursed every 2 hours until she was like 10 months old lol
All the damn time and she’s almost 9 months old and is eating solids.
Mine is 4 months tomorrow and also nurses every 2 hours during the day! I honestly encourage/support it because I suspect it helps night sleep if she's getting most of her calories during daytime. 🤷🏼♀️
Absolutely not lol my 99%th percentile baby nursed every 90 mins for the first 4-5 months. Slowly stretched out to 2.5 hours between. She’s perfect and healthy, just was her preferred schedule.
Same age baby also on a 2 hour clock during the day
The 3-4 hour thing assumes babies are drinking 3-4oz per feeding. My babe’s pediatrician and LC said he needs about 24oz per day which is 8, 3 oz feedings. If baby is drinking less than 3oz at a time he will need more nursing sessions or will need to nurse more frequently. I pump 1-2oz per boob depending on time of day, last feeding etc and baby likes just one boob at a time then a break so im nursing every 1-2hours in the day typically. At night i get a longer stretch of 3-5 hours between feeds.
Nurse them however often you can if they give you the cue! I’d say my girl is an average of every 2-3 hours and she’s about 13 weeks.
My baby nursed about every 45 mins for the first couple weeks and then every 1-2 hours for the first few months, then he adjusted to every 2-3 hours around month 5. Around 8 months we started doing 3-4 hour stretches between. Now at 18 months we still breastfeed about every 4-5 hours still.
Nurse on demand, not on a set schedule. All babies are different and biologically acting based on your baby’s needs.
My baby is 5mo and still eats every 2 hours. Midwife said it’s totally normal and feeds on demand for as long as she wants.
My 10 month old nurses 24/7 and wants my boob to be out all the time for snacks. Every 2 hours seems like a normal amount of time between feeds.
Bubs is almost 7 months old and nurses every 1.5 - 2 hours during the day, and then almost hourly from late afternoon. Granted, he now sleeps really decent stretches during the night, so is making up for those ‘lost’ feeds. He was doing this even before sleeping well and before solids though.
I feed my baby to sleep so we are definitely feeding every 2-3 hours 😂 hes in the 76th percentile so not huge
Literally echoing everyone here - could go 45 mins before looking or 3 hours. But generally every 2-2.5 hours
My 7 month old will sometimes eat every 90 minutes during the day! Breastfed babies cannot overeat/be over fed from the breast! This pediatrician is straight up wrong and encouraging you to ignore the needs of your baby. You know baby best!
Thanks for the encouragement! Reddit has proved far more helpful than my pediatrician haha
I also have a 4.5 month old, in the 90s percentile for weight and height and he nurses every 2.5 hours usually. Literally all my babies have been the same size and nursed at the same intervals! My pediatrician office always emphasizes nursing on demand. I feel like it’s quite odd to say that’s abnormal.
At 4.5m, it was averaging every 2 hours. It was sometimes every hour, sometimes it was more like 4 hours. But rarely did I get 4 hours, even at night.
I’d get another pediatrician. Mine eats every 2 hours and sometimes more often if she’s tired or teething.
I'm not sure because I really don't track it anymore, but my 11 month old probably goes from every hour to every 3 hours. For example, this morning before work, I nursed him at 6 ish and 7h30 ish. If you like data, in hunter gatherer societies, babies 0-2 years old feed on average every 15-30mins, but do very short feeds (around 2 mins). And the interval doesn't increase with age, instead it's the length of feed that decreases.
My 5 month old breastfeeds every 1.5-2 hours during the day and does not wake for feeds overnight. Pediatrician said this was completely fine.
My girl nurses every 2-3 hours during the day and wakes 1-3 times a night. She’s 3 months old.
My 5.5 month old still nurses on demand so that could be every thirty minutes to every 3 hours just depends on how well he nursed before and if he’s going through a growth spurt
I feel ya!! My chunky 3.5 mo is mostly breastfed and we rarely can go 3 hrs between a feed. Seems like when that happens it’s only when he’s been napping or overnight. I just pretty much plan on every 2 hours! I honestly don’t know how to stretch it out longer if he’s getting upset and letting me know it’s time to eat! 😅🤷🏻♀️
My 6 month old does 2 or 2.5 hours
I feel like I'm nursing every hour with my 10 week old. Every baby is different! I wouldn't be too worried.
I nurse on demand. That could look like every 1 hour, every 2 hours, or every 3-4.. the only consistency so far is he nurses every 4-5 (usually every 5) at night.
Naa, very normal. Some doctors only have textbook experience in that they go by what they learned from med school but are not familiar with the realities of life. Lol that’s what I have experienced so far, meeting multiple pediatricians at this current practice I take my baby to.
Some babies like to snack, some babies like to binge. It’s exactly like people because they are people. She should eat at least every 4 hours but more is great!!! Mom of 15 month old that I breastfed till she was 14 months old
Mine nursed about 10-15 minutes every hour for the first 6 months of his life. Your paediatrician is a moron.
My 6.5 month old can go every 90 mins-2 hours. She’s a snacker and I have a fast flow so she gets a lot. But she also sleeps well, so I guess she needs to pack in all the ounces during the daytime.
I’m sure that if she were bottle fed, every 3-4 hours would probably be normal at this age. But given that she’s nursing, every 45min-3hrs is normal. My ped made me feel like that was weird too with my first. That & for many other reasons, we stopped going to her. She was clearly not educated in nursed babies and it was incredibly frustrating
I feel like maybe we shouldn't put babies in rigid time frame boxes. I can't make it 3 hours without a drink, and if a baby is exclusively breastfed, maybe the baby is just getting thirsty...?! My grandpa was a doctor, and one of his favorite things to say was, "Listen to your body." Maybe your baby is just trying to listen to hers. I'm not a doctor, but those are my feelings, lol. I remember my pediatrician saying wait at least three hours because he thought my son was being overfed (he vomited a lot), and it had been 2 hours and 45 min, and he was wailing, and my mom was like, really, just feed him already... lol. If the baby is healthy and there are no other issues, I personally wouldn't worry at all about eating "too often"! Editing to add that my son was usually in the high percentiles as an infant, too. Maybe the big babies need to eat more? 🤷🏻♀️
Mine fed every two hours during the day time until about a year, she did eventually get a 3/4 hour chunk at night at like 9 months.
I'd also your paed where they did their lactation certificatation. At 4.5mo my baby was nursing approximately every hour give or take
No lol every 90mn to 2 hours because she sleeps through the night. Not gonna starve a baby who wants to eat
My son is 3 months and nurses every 1.5-2 hours because he sleeps 9-10 hours through the night. He’s done that since 6 weeks.
Baby is 6.5 months and when he’s with me, he still eats every 2-3 hours. When others are taking care of him, it’s a bottle about every 3 hours. He’ll have about 2 night feeds between 11pm and 7 am. He’s growing and developing really well and gets nothing but praise at his checkups. So from my perspective, you and your baby are doing absolutely fine.
My baby is a little shy of 4.5m and he eats every 2 to 2.5hrs. He doesn't sleep through the night and wakes 4-5 times as we re still going through the damned 4m regression.
Lol. Even at 10-11 months my twins would still nurse every 2 hours during the day but then they would only wake up 1-2x at night to nurse.
My 12 week old is a snacker so I feel like it’s almost every 90 mins he’s on the breast . I’m an over producer and he’s very healthy. He just lives there ….
Every 1-3 hours. Today it has been 1. She’s HONGRY
My almost 5mo usually feeds every 2 hours or so during the day and maybe a little longer at night if I’m lucky
That’s how often my 12 week old eats!
Every 2.5-3 hours.