How often do you feed your newborn?

Question

My lactation consultant says to feed him a minimum of 8 times a day.  She says to feed at least every 3 hours.  I am also to pump out my milk (baby is struggling to latch on) every 3 hours.  This means that I am in a 
rotation of feed, then pumping every 3 hours, even through the night.
She also tells me to wake him up if he is sleeping or to stimulate him if he is disinterested.
I am doing my best to do all of this but it is extremely exhausting to be in this rotation & sometimes my baby just isn’t interested in eating.  It can take him over an hour to finish eating and that’s about 60ml.
So I’m just curious to know if anyone else is doing this? Also, about how long will this stage last?

Answer

Newborns should always be fed on demand especially when breastfeeding. He may be struggling to latch if your breasts are too full. It’s a learning process for both you and baby in the beginning. It can be a difficult, frustrating and exhausting at first, but it gets so much easier with time, patience and practice. My babies generally wanted to eat every 2 hours and much more often when they were cluster feeding. 
The general rule is if they’ve gained back all their birth weight and are gaining well that you can let them sleep at night. I always woke mine during the day if they went over 3 hours without eating. 
You also don’t have to pump in the beginning if you don’t have or want to. Many lactation consultants even say to wait on doing so the first few weeks since babies tend to cluster feed to establish your supply. Pumping may hinder that process or you may even end up with an oversupply. Good luck to you! You got this!

Answer

I had to to do this the first 10 days with my baby. But once she got back to birth weight and was gaining weight well enough they said I don't need to be as strict. So now I do feed every 2-2.5 hours. I let her wake me up in the middle of the night, so far she does two 4 hr stretches and I only pump once a day for my freezer stash.

Answer

Unfortunately newborn nursing is exhausting,  however he should not be taking an hr to feed. 15-20 mins is really all it takes for a baby to get full if he's latching properly. So have a lactation consultant help you with a proper latch. Also, try pumping the other side while he's nursing because itll help with a natural letdown and you'll get more out and save time. After he's doubled his birth weight you can stop waking him to feed.

Answer

I had to do that until she regained and surpassed her birth weight.  At that point I was able to let her sleep at night as long as she wanted but still had to feed every 2-3 hours during the day.  Now she is 4 months old and eats 9 times a day but is much more efficient (a feeding takes 7-10 mins now).  My kid just likes to eat haha.

Answer

I fed every hour or two during the day so I could stretch it out at night (I was told 4 hour max at night). Once they regain birthweight you can let them sleep. I don’t remember the newborn sleepiness lasting very long. Breastfeeding with my first didn’t go very well (started supplementing at 1 month, he totally quit at 4 months) so I used all the help I could get and spent the first several days with my second baby focusing on getting my supply established and napping when I could. At over 9 1/2 months she’s still going strong, even though she’s eating a ton of solids

How often do you feed your newborn?

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