How do you bf your baby?

[nattyfred]

When do you bf your baby? As soon as they wake up? Before they sleep? Do you top up a bit before a sleep or feed to sleep? Do you have a routine or do you just offer the breast when you think baby is hungry?

I think I may need to hold off a lil bit and offer less so V eats properly instead of snacking...I offer her the boob as part of my problem solving routine but I think she is getting used to the canteen always being open and Im getting nothing done lol..

What do you do?

[~me~]

Most of the time we are in feed,play,sleep routine. I will feed her again if she just can't get to sleep or has been awake too long between the feed, sleep part.
She is basically on between 5-6 feeds a day depending if I can squeeze in that 6th feed.
She is up during the day from 7am-6:30pm (with sleeps during the day), so that's why the 6th is a squeeze sometimes.
I find if she get's distracted by one of my boys she doesn't feed properly and will take a look around and not go back on..that usually requires a top up later.
It is easier to feed them if they are grumpy or unsettled, I do that too.

[Liviam]

At the moment DS (8months) has absolutely no routine to speak of, has just gone back to the breast after breast refusal, is incredibly easily distracted by anything at all during a feed and is dropping and picking up feeds from one day to the next so I might not be the best to give out my tips, LOL!!
Anyway DS feeds on waking overnight and the first feed in the morning (5 -6am) and then the rest of the day depends on his sleeps. He is usually having 2 feeds to settle him to sleep during the day so morning tea and afternoon tea. He will then have a feed after his bath to settle for nighttime sleep. So basically we do both, LOL!

[Tecopa]

I'm in the feed, activity, sleep routine too but because my kid is a cap napper and only sleeps 45mins at a time it tends to be activity, feed, activity, sleep cause he isn't hungry when he first wakes up. Sometimes top ups if he is grumpy or didn't eat much. So I'm guessing it's like 7-8 feeds for me because we usually have two overnight feeds too. Goes to bed at 6-7, feeds at midnight, then cometimes close to 4am, then up at 7am.

[Ryatha]

when I was home full time with Fred, we fed anytime, when she wanted it really so some days it was every 1.5 hrs or so, other days it was every 3-4 hours. Overnight was usually 4-5 hours, bu tI just fed when she wanted it. Normally she would fall asleep after a big feed, so she kind of had the play feed sleep routine. Now that I am back to work, she feed every 4 hours or so and just before sleeps. I just go with the flow most of the time though. Snacking never really bothered me.

[NaeNae]

natty I am a canteen too most of the time but it really depends on the time of day/weather/activities.

a regular day we feed at 4.30
then when we wake again 7-8
then 9ish snack
then feed to sleep 10.30ish I leave boobie out so dd can suck while she sleeps I also nurse her to ensure she gets more than the 20 mins sleep if I put her down
then another snack 1.30ish
then feed to sleep 3ish same as other sleep I nurse her
snack at 5ish
our night time starts after bath at 6ish and we feed for an hour wrap then feed other side off to sleep put her down then she wakes and cries so more boobie then asleep properly by 8.30

sometimes she wakes through the night for more if its hot we feed more often if we're out we feed less often coz there is too much to see.

I also don't worry how much or little she gets as if she is hungry she stays on

seems she is a bit of a grazer but it works for us, I do other things during her wake time.

Nae x

[sloane]

until recently, i pretty much demand fed - although i would often offer to make sure we didn't get to the crying in hunger stage. i've fed to sleep since about 3-4 months because DS has always been super alert & by the time he was around 3-4 months old, it was the only way i could get him drowsy enough to rock off to sleep & at some point he just started falling asleep while he fed. so it used to be feed, play, feed, sleep.

in the last month or so he has seemed to put himself into a routine so i feed when he wakes, then before his morning nap, before his afternoon nap, late afternoon & before bed (then i also feed him back to sleep overnight). so i guess an average day for us would be 5 or 6 feeds. if it's a hot day or he's had a long-ish nap, i'll offer when he wakes up from a nap because i figure that i'm often thirsty when i wake up, so he might be too. no idea if this is right or not!!

i thought DS would never, ever say no to a feed but since he started crawling 3-4 weeks ago, sometimes he's too busy for a feed.

i don't count the overnight feeds because i think the majority of them are for comfort rather than nutrition.

[MantaRay]

Natty, I really fed on demand. Even when the boys were a bit older, I found offering a bf a good first step to dealing with an upset child. I don't think that snacking in a young baby is a problem at all. Babies are designed to feed frequently and even as adults we know now that smaller meals more often are better for us. As babies get bigger and start solids etc, the number of feeds will usually decrease and the concept of "meals" starts to kick in.

I don't think that frequent feeds in a young baby is any indication of what will happen as they get older. Certainly from about 7 or 8 months my boys both dropped bfs and were well able to cope with set meal times etc. You will find that toddlers and older kids tend to have water bottles to sip on often during the day - this is done at day care, kindy and prep, so drinking plenty is really a good habit not a bad one!

[Emma1979]

i am just playing it by ear as bubs is only 7 weeks... i suppose it is demand feeding, but actually i think i am offering too much, as what i thought was breast refusal, i think is also a little bit of 'god not again i don't want that now i am TIRED'... so when he is crying due to being over tired, i am trying to feed him, which is making things worse and he refuses.... so now if i know he has been fed in say the last 2 hours, i try to get him to sleep.... we are slowly getting there... i don't mind the snacking etc, as sometimes he only feeds for 5 minutes or so, but it does annoy me when i know he is hungry (ie 4 hours or so has passed since last feed) but he mucks around and doesn't feed properly, especially today when we were out, as he is grizzly and hungry but not feeding well, but thats a whole other issue...

today we fed
4.00am
7.30am
11.30am (this feed was delayed due to being in the car on a long trip)
2.15pm (wouldn't feed properly, luckily i had a little EBM in bottle which he had)
4.15pm
6.30pm snack feed
8pm 90mls of formula (i am experimenting as last night i did this and he slept for 8 hours!! i then express milk so i have a bit to offer tomorrow if he refuses a feed from the breast)

today was quite a good day, other days are literally all over the place, sometimes with a heap of 5 mintue feeds, or sometimes with barely any feeds during the day at all due to fussiness and loads of feeds thru the night.

slowly i am beginning to work him out and differentiate when he is hungry, and when he needs to go to bed, and when he is angry cos he needs to do a big poo!

[nattyfred]

Wow its great to see that everyone has their own styles and no one is "wrong". It makes me feel a lot better about our loose routine thats for sure.

Thanks for sharing

[Snacks]

Hi there, lovely
We tend to bf before sleep. I was definitely a 'feed-play-sleep' person with Natalie, but when Phoebs was little we did feed-play-feed-sleep (usually fed to sleep but sometimes self-settled after a feed). This is still loosely what we do, but some days she just doesn't want that much milk so only bf's before sleep or on waking up, and some days now I am at work, so the bottle is offered only before a sleep. But of course, she's very much into solids now at 9mo, and is a very good eater, so the only lovely long breastfeeds we have nowadays are the overnight ones!
I know that V has been a pretty unsettled bub. My first impression here is to say well done for using the most natural settling tool you have IRT getting stuff done, honey, "stuff" will always be there. But V is only going to be this squidgy little bubba for a limited time! Enjoy the feeds because before you know it she will be a foot-stomping 3yo

[nattyfred]

Thanks Snacks!

We also do the feed-play-feed-sleep thing and I was initially worried about it but now not at all. I assume that everything will change with the introduction of solids too, I so cant believe how much things have changed since I last saw you, looking forward to the next time we can catch up

[allycat06]

I never bothered with a routine, I didn't see the point, especially with a younger baby. If DS cried I'd feed him, even if I'd just done so (always checked nappy first). For the first few months it seemed like he was just permanently attached and I was thinking great what have I got myself into! But all that feeding seemed to pay off and by about 4 months he settled into his own routine or sorts without any coaxing from me. Now he's 9.5 months and has about 4 feeds a day and 1 at night. If he's a bit fussy or distressed or wakes more often at night I'll just feed him as I find it quicker and easier than rocking him. After all breastfeeding isn't just about food it's a source of comfort for our babies too! Just do what feels right for you, there isn't any right or wrong way to go about things.

[~Minny~]

I was trying to force a routine.... as DD was a routine kinda baby but seems DS is not. So have been doing the feed, play, sleep things and its working a treat

[Snowy Love]

I never bothered with a routine, I didn't see the point, especially with a younger baby. If DS cried I'd feed him, even if I'd just done so (always checked nappy first). For the first few months it seemed like he was just permanently attached and I was thinking great what have I got myself into! But all that feeding seemed to pay off and by about 4 months he settled into his own routine or sorts without any coaxing from me. Now he's 9.5 months and has about 4 feeds a day and 1 at night. If he's a bit fussy or distressed or wakes more often at night I'll just feed him as I find it quicker and easier than rocking him. After all breastfeeding isn't just about food it's a source of comfort for our babies too! Just do what feels right for you, there isn't any right or wrong way to go about things.

:yeahthat:

I feed whenever - I don't look at the clock (and the one in our hallway is broken now so I'm even less likely to know how often he feeds). I'm not afraid of feeding to sleep 'cause DS1 did for nearly 2 1/2 years. But it is a nice change to have a bub that doesn't always feed to sleep.