my baby's still feeding every 2 hours, is this normal??

Hayley - posted on 10/14/2009

i think she's definitely full cause she just doesn't want any more after like 5 minutes, she's not interested.

Melissa - posted on 10/13/2009

she mite not be getting full so she has to eat more often

Hayley - posted on 10/12/2009

hey, yeah she does still take the dummy, is obsessed with it!! she's slowly starting to feed every 3 hours so things are lookin up! she does love most of that raffertys garden stuff, i just feel bad though cause she hates pretty much anything i make!! she is not into vegies, spits them at me, but everyone says just keep trying and eventually she'll come to like them. during the day i don't mind the feeds, it's mainly just at night so i can get some more sleep! i'll just keep slowly giving her more and more solids and hopefully that'll help. thanks for the advice though, it's great to hear what other mum's are doing!

Natalie - posted on 10/12/2009

Hey Hayley,
I know every baby is different, but Jett has 3 meals a day, of a morning he has porridge from Raffertys Garden its banana flavoured, i also mix in some fruit whether it be pears apples whatever, i found that the plain fruits are not substantial enough to fill him, have you tried the Apple Custards? Jett also takes a bottle every 3 -4 hours of 180ml, has full jar at lunch of some sort of custard then for dinner i give him a hot meal, if milla doesnt like the veges and meats, raffertys garden has a selection which includes alot of fruit in the mix with the veges, for instance the sweet potato, and carrot meal has about 70% apple in with it as well and he seems to love them!. Also since being on 3 meals a day and his second stage formula which is thicker Jett is in bed by 7pm and wakes at about 6am for brekky, I have read that after they are 6 months maybe sooner for some babies that milk just isn't enough and they need to have meals.. Like i said every baby is different but maybe try milla on some more substantial and thicker jars of food and see how she goes for that night? Does she still take her dummy?

Akita - posted on 10/10/2009

My first girl was shocking when it came to feeding. She wanted to feed every hour on the hour, and it drove me daft in the first week or so. I stretched it out to every one n half hours by 6 weeks but the pattern had been set. She was a Snack & Nap baby from there on in.

The huge problem I faced was not so much my own feelings of "this isn't right" but the constant feedback from health professionals. "Baby knows best", "Let baby decide when and how often to feed", "Be guided by your baby, not the clock".

This was the dark side of Demand Breastfeeding.

By 10 months she'd stretched it out to every 3 hours, then decided she'd had enough. By this stage postnatal depression was so deeply entrenched that being suicidal seemed perfectly normal.

She is now close to 4 years old and her sleeping patterns are still bad. She's better, so she will sleep through the night now, but it took a lot of hard work to get her out of the frequent waking patterns.

Bub number two is a different story. I said to hell with the health nurses and followed my own instincts. She's 7 months old now and feeds every 3 to 4 hours depending on if she's having a hungry day or not. She also sleeps through the night (7pm to 7 am) and only wakes one or two nights a week.

Hayley - posted on 10/04/2009

that's what i worry about when i go back to work, how is she going to go but everyone says if she's starving she'll take the bottle!!

Korene - posted on 10/04/2009

I nurse my daughter and she goes about 3 hours between feedings. She does do well during the night, but sometimes I do have to comfort her. She eats some solids, but breastfeeding is her main nouishment. When I went back to work, she refused a bottle, but after a week she started to take one, not as much as if she were nursing, but enough to tide her over till I got home.

Hayley - posted on 10/03/2009

yes when i feed milla during the night i don't think she's even that hungry either, it lasts like 2 minutes, i think it's just to comfort her. i'll have to try that trick at night and hopefully we might have some luck. thanks!!

Julie - posted on 10/03/2009

I feel your pain - my son refuses the bottle as well and won't let me go anywhere for more then a couple of hours because he needs to eat. Now 3 of the 6 meals he has during the day are solids with breastmilk in between so it helps spread out my time, but at night I still don't get much sleep and his feedings then have shortened as well. I have been told that he could be wakening from nightmares and just needs to be comforted/held not necessarily fed everytime he wakes at night at this stage b/c his feedings are so short he really isn't hungry he's just using it as a pacifier. (and some nights this works) So by lengthening the time between feedings at night by getting my husband to get up and comfort him instead of me (so that he can't smell the milk) he will eventually learn to sleep longer. I'm hoping this works and that it helps you out too. Good Luck from a fellow prisoner of breastfeeding/bottle rejection!

Hayley - posted on 10/02/2009

so nice to hear someone else with a similar problem! she's always been a quick feeder (like her feeds have always lasted only 10-15 mins) but in the last couple of weeks she feeds for like 5 minutes at the most and both my boobs are still full!! i have started feeding her solids, just some apple in the mornings and some vegies (which she hates) at night so i'll have to start slowly giving more solids and hope that it helps. people have told me too that if she's that starving she'll take the bottle, hopefully she will eventually. thanks!!

Emily - posted on 10/02/2009

i was having the same problem but every 3 hr. i just went to her 6mo checkup and the doctor said it is all routine, the baby is jsut used to eating every 3 hr. a baby this old(mine is 17lbs) and that weight can go 5-6 hr before needing to eat again. since you are only breatfeeding are you sure you still have enough milk? i have to go to a bottle every other feeding, keep trying different nipples, a baby will not starve them selfs she will eventually take take a bottle you just need to be consistant...alos are you feeding solids??? that will also help alot, she is deffinatly old enough for that. hope that helps!