Long feeds

[Sonia-mv]

My 7 week old breastfeeds for over and hour on and off, she falls asleep on breast then wakes and feeds again! Then sleeps for 2-4 hours how do I calculate her next feed if she’s on the breast that long?! I’d have to wake her straight away to give her, her next feed?!!

[Seb9]

If baby is gaining weight and having plenty of output, I wouldn't calculate anything, they'll tell your when they're next hungry. I've always fed on demand rather than on a scheduleMe personally, I'd let them sleep in my arms, put a good box set on, get some drinks and snacks and enjoy the cuddles. It doesn't last long that they're that little, I swear I only gave birth a few weeks ago and my little girl is already nearly 6 months.

[Running79]

Purely breastfed babies as you say are 2-4 hrs.

My daughter was both breast and formula fed, I just put my phone timer on for 4 hrs at the start of a feed and waited until the timer went off unless she woke earlier

If she kept falling asleep I’d try and wake her up to prevent feeds going on that long.

I’m sure the midwife said a good breast feed was 15 minutes - so if she’s been feeding constantly for that time maybe you could gauge it from there ?!

But as Seb9 says in any event she will wake you when she’s hungry

[Claireeeeeeeeeeeee]

I think the advice now a days is to feed on demand when they are hungry and not worry about timing anything. This is the advice I got from midwives and books. Only if they weren't gaining weight properly did you need to try and feed them more often than they wanted. Babies know when they are hungry and it helps them sort out your supply if they only feed when they want to. Also at 7 weeks baby should be feeding less often as they are taking more at each feed as their stomach is bigger and they are better at digesting it as well.

[Blooms123]

I had the same issue with my daughter and it turned out she had a tongue tie which was why she was feeding for so long! She had it snipped and got so much quicker at feeding, before it felt like we spent all day just feeding!