Is the pediatrician right?

kasper923

LO is 8 weeks old and nurses every 2 hours like clockwork.  He will wake out of a dead sleep at night to eat and then go back to sleep.  At his 2mo well check today, the pediatrician said that he is too old to be eating every 2 hours.  I feed on demand.  What the hell am I supposed to do, not feed him if he's hungry?! She just kinda laughed and didn't give any suggestion besides trying to hold him off for 10 mins or so to get him to stretch out his feedings.  She really irritated me today.  Anyhow, should he be going longer stretches between feedings by now?

niknak7

Both of my kids have dropped to 7-8 feeds a day by 2 months. However I have heard that a lot of LO's continue eating more often until they are 3-4 months. If you are okay with the frequent feeds than I wouldn't worry about it. Not all pedi's are very knowledgable on BFing.

rosiemomma

I highly suggest you find a new pediatrician... one who is more breast-feeding friendly.

Is it OK to hold off a hungry baby? No, a baby should nurse on cue... especially a young baby. Your baby is trying to grow and nursing frequently is very good for that, it is also the best thing to do to allow baby to learn his own hunger and when he is full or hungry, these things prevent obesity later in life. When you teach a baby to ignore these signals you send the wrong message about healthy eating. Like I said find a new doctor if you can, if you can't don't offer up and parenting techniques that don't pertain to health and ignore any parenting advice.

 

for more:

https://kellymom.com/parenting/parenting-faq/fussybaby/#spoil

https://www.ivillage.com/should-you-schedule-babys-feeds/6-n-137351

 

pepomntpat

IMHO pediatricians need to STFU with the parenting advice. As long as your LO is healthy and growing well, that's all that should matter. If you are fine waking up to feed LO all night then do it. I did until about 6 months when I went a little crazy from lack of sleep. Then we started stretching the feedings out, but not before that.

kasper923

Thanks ladies.  I frequently second guess myself in terms of BFing because I lack support.  My mother and sisters didn't BF and I didn't BF my first for very long.  I'm thinking of joining a LLL group or something so I'm not always questioning myself.

pepomntpat

kasper923:

Thanks ladies.  I frequently second guess myself in terms of BFing because I lack support.  My mother and sisters didn't BF and I didn't BF my first for very long.  I'm thinking of joining a LLL group or something so I'm not always questioning myself.

Do it! LLL is awesome! 

phillyfan929

This is just my .02 cents but i feed DS when he's hungry and he's 4 months old. If he wants to eat every 2 hours I let him. If he goes longer, thats just a bonus. I'm not going to force my 4 month old to go hungry just because someone thinks he eats too often. I will feed him when he's hungry.

bexram

phillyfan929:

This is just my .02 cents but i feed DS when he's hungry and he's 4 months old. If he wants to eat every 2 hours I let him. If he goes longer, thats just a bonus. I'm not going to force my 4 month old to go hungry just because someone thinks he eats too often. I will feed him when he's hungry.

 

This exactly. Jude is 3 1/2 months old, still eating every two hours..sometimes every 1.5. Sometimes I think I over feed him (when he spits up right after he eats..oops bad mommy call), but they can't tell us what they want so we're doing our best! He also basically STTN (longest stretch is usually 10-3,then is up for about 10 min to eat, then back asleep till 7, im very grateful for that!) so I'm not really complaining. DS, you can be on the boob all day if you're gonna keep letting me sleep that long at night

katiewhompus

phillyfan929:

This is just my .02 cents but i feed DS when he's hungry and he's 4 months old. If he wants to eat every 2 hours I let him. If he goes longer, thats just a bonus. I'm not going to force my 4 month old to go hungry just because someone thinks he eats too often. I will feed him when he's hungry.

This, except DD is 10 months old. Most night she will give me six hour stretches, some nights it's every two. I'm ok with the lack of sleep, in general, so I let her lead,for now. 

 

mle929

You're doing the right thing and feeding your LO on demand. Every baby is different. I'm sorry your pedi isn't supportive of BFing.

ryry1977

I just feed on demand.  I know DD was still eating pretty often at that age.  Just do what you feel comfy doing.  I would just keep feeding on demand unless you want to make the feedings further apart.  If not if is bound to happen at some point.  DD still wakes up quite a few times at night to eat, so I don't see that stopping (for me)anytime soon.

cecilyandgautam

How often your baby nurses depends on lots of things, but mostly how much he transfers in each nursing session. Have you done a weighed feeding? If he only takes in 2oz or so per feeding, then he would need to eat every two hours to get the minimum 24 oz/day. If he takes in more like 3-5 oz per feed, then he might have the physical capacity to go longer between feedings, but I wouldn't worry too much about that - if you're happy to nurse every two hours, then why not let him? He might be comfort nursing or he might just be a grazer, which is actually a healthier pattern for eating than gorging. 

I'd ignore your Ped's advice re: frequency of feedings. Peds aren't trained in normal breastfeeding patterns anyway - it was probably just her personal, not professional, opinion/judgment. If your son is gaining weight appropriately, then he's eating the right amount. Carry on as you normally do! 

Jazzyashes84

My pediatrician said that if he is eating every 2-3 hours during the day then my LO should have a 4hour period at night where he doesn't wake up to want to eat. When I was feeding him every 3hrs, this wasn't the case, but now that I'm feeding him every 2hrs during the day (up until around 11pm) he will now sleep from 11pm-3/3:30am which is amazing. He does cry it out for about 15-20min when I put him down for bed almost every-time, but I think it tires him out so he sleeps more.

karinothing

katiewhompus:

phillyfan929:

This is just my .02 cents but i feed DS when he's hungry and he's 4 months old. If he wants to eat every 2 hours I let him. If he goes longer, thats just a bonus. I'm not going to force my 4 month old to go hungry just because someone thinks he eats too often. I will feed him when he's hungry.

This, except DD is 10 months old. Most night she will give me six hour stretches, some nights it's every two. I'm ok with the lack of sleep, in general, so I let her lead,for now. 

 

This is us. DS is 7 mo nths. He eats every 2-2.5 hours during the day and normally has 1-2 night wakings (although now he is teething so it is a mess).