I have been feeding my little one on demand. He has gotten use to snack feeding every 2 hours or less. He is almost 3 months and is still waking up almost every 2 hours at night to feed. I want to continue breastfeeding but it's starting to weigh me down because I can't get anything else done with baby that constantly wants to nurse. Any tips on how I can set him up on 3-4 hour feeding schedule. At this Age how often should they be eating? Any advise at all would help because I am going insane, I don't have a problem with my milk supply because I still leak all over the place. So hoping him not nursing so often might help with that as wellTips on how to set up breastfeeding schedule?
babies on brest do want to eat every two to three hours. Try sleeping with him put your arm up and thet way you will not roll over on him. He can brest feed and you can sleep. I did that with mine and it does work. But put are up on another pillow and he will be fine if you have to switch sides in the night.Women use to do it that way for years because they had so much to do that they had to get some rest. It worked for meTips on how to set up breastfeeding schedule?
at this age they should be eating as often as they want. it was every 2 hours for my child until like 6 months.Tips on how to set up breastfeeding schedule?
I just have to address the above poster: No way should a 3 month old baby go 12 hours without eating. You are completely ridiculous.
Your baby should be nursing 8-12 times in a 24 hour period. Some babies need to nurse every hour, some every 4 hours. This phase will pass, as babies get older and start eating cereal and baby food they will nurse less and less. Your baby is nursing like a lot of babies nurse. Hang in there, you can make it over the hump.Tips on how to set up breastfeeding schedule?
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Tips to help:
You should feed on demand
He should be feeding every 2-3 hours in first 3 monthsTips on how to set up breastfeeding schedule?
I started my guys eating every 2 hours as newborns, waking them to eat, and they pushed the time back on their own as they get older.
I would just start with every 2 hours, and then let him push the time back on his own.
At 3 months my guys were sleeping 8-10 hours at night, and breastfeeding about every 3 hours during the day.
Now at 4 months they still sleep 8-10 hours at night, and breastfeed every 4 hours.
The only thing I %26quot;forced%26quot; them to do was to have a minimum feeding time of every 2 hours, and to do eat-play-sleep cycles. I woke them to eat, but over time they were never waking on their own to eat so I increased the time to 2 hours 15 minutes, then 2.5 hours etc. Sleeping at night etc. comes naturally from that using eat-play-sleep cycles and putting baby to bed drowsy but awake. You do want to avoid snacking, and feeding every 2 hours avoids that. It also insures baby gets hindmilk, which is fattier and makes them hold out longer between feeds.
I know this works for newborns, but don't know how well it works starting at 3 months. I still do eat-play-sleep cycles. I had quit them for a short time, but it quickly led to increased fussiness.
I think doing an eat-play-sleep cycle will help you with a 3 month old. But I wouldn't push back the feedings more than every 2 hours. He has to work on that himself. But you can make him wait the 2 hours. His stomach will hold 2 ounces even if he is used to %26quot;snacking%26quot;, and eating just every 2 hours (make sure you offer only 1 breast per feeding!) will provide him with 24 ounces a day.
You need to just offer one breast so he gets hindmilk.
I follow %26quot;Babywise%26quot;, which is an eat-play-sleep book with some other guidelines, but I know Ferber is a 3 month old book on getting babies to sleep. I think Ferber centers mostly on cry it out though, whereas Babywise is for newborns and mostly routine focused while allowing CIO if necessary to get the routine / minimum cycle time to work.
The %26quot;No Cry Sleep Solution%26quot; is another sleep training method people find helpful. But pretty much all sleep training methods focus on the %26quot;Eat play Sleep%26quot; and putting baby to bed drowsy but awake.
If the baby isn't put down to bed awake, it can't learn to fall asleep on its own, and must cry for help every 2 hours in order to return to sleep between REM cycles. Putting the baby to bed drowsy but awake teaches the baby to fall asleep on its own, and this allows the baby to return to sleep between REM cycles and thus sleep through the night.
If your baby is waking every 2 hours at 3 months he likely does not know how to put himself to sleep. And therefore you need to start putting him to bed drowsy but awake to let him learn that.Tips on how to set up breastfeeding schedule?
At this age your baby does not need to be feeding that often and can go through from 7pm till 7am easily, being woken a 10pm for a feed then straight back down again.
It sounds like you are not giving full feeds. You need to feed for 20 minutes at least, wind and change nappy then on again until they are full.Tips on how to set up breastfeeding schedule?
I hate to say it but that's not a snack feeding. Breastmilk is a lot less thicker then formula. So your looking at 1.5-2 hours between feedings. My son was like that. Every 2 hours was just too much and so I switched to formula suppliment. An once or 2 then breast milk. Then again he couldn't get a good latch either so I just did formula after about a month.
But sorry, it's every 2 hours or so unless you suppliment.
