How can I get my 2 month old baby to breastfeed more routinely?

Question

My son is 10 weeks old and is exclusively breastfed. He is very healthy and weighs 13lbs. Although I am demand feeding, I assumed that my son would be in more of a routine at this age. At night he sleeps for 5-7 hours before waking and then only feeds for 10-15 minutes before falling asleep again which is great. During the day though, he may feed for only 15 minutes and is content for 2 hours before wanting another feed but at other times he can feed for over an hour and then want to be fed again, just one hour later. He also doesn't sleep well duriing the day and generally only sleeps in 10-30 minute intervals. When he is very tired he tends to feed more frequently which I think is mainly comfort feeding, as he's tired and cranky and is trying to soothe himslef. But at these times he only goes 30 minutes between feeds. I'd appreciate advice from women who have breast fed or are currenlty breast feeding babies of the same age. How often does your baby feed and for how long?

Answer 1

You can not overfeed a breastfed baby who is exclusively nursing at the breast. They self-regulate. DO NOT worry about overfeeding him. A 2 mos old SHOULD still be nursing about every 2 hours around the clock. MAYBE spacing out to 3 occasionally, but consider that breastmilk digests in about 90 mins and his tummy is only the size of his fist.

As for a routine, I didn't usually see a good routine evolve until past the 12 weeks mark.....once they are past all those early growth spurts that come so close together.

Have you tried wearing him in a sling during the day? He might be able to sleep longer like that and it would make it easier for you to do other things even while he is nursing.

Do you still swaddle him if you are laying him down during the day?
Have you tried "white noise" in his room when he is napping?
Or letting him nap in a baby swing that is on?
Do you wait until he is in a really deep sleep before you lay him down? (That could take 20 mins. Make sure he's not making sucking motions or having REM, etc. before you lay him down.)

When you lay him down, don't lower him to the mattress. Instead, lower your body with him held against your chest to make the transition as seamless as possible. We used to say our son couldn't "feel gravity" when we put him down or he'd wake up.

Have you tried doing breast compressions while nursing to help him get more hindmilk? This can help to space out feedings sometimes. Also, you can "block feed" where you put him on the same breast each time in a 3-4 hour period. Again, this gets more hindmilk and may help space things out.

Can you tell by his sucking pattern if he is actively nursing or comfort nursing? Comfort nursing will feel more like "flutter sucking" and be lighter.

Also, consider that if he is going 5-7 hours at night, it may be that he is making up for that during the day. Is he "tanking up" right before that longer stretch of sleep by nursing many times or for a longer period? Frequent daytime nursing may be what is allowing him that long period of sleep at night.

Answer 2

Hi there! You are doing the right thing already by demand feeding. The times that he nurses for an hour and then wants to feed again in another hour - he is building up your milk supply! Babies do this when they are getting ready to go through a growth spurt. I can only tell you that it does get better, but at this age there really won't be a routine. Keep up the good work and hang in there - you are doing a great job!

Answer 3

Breastfed babies digest the breastmilk much more efficiently and therefore need to feed more often. You are doing the right thing by demand feeding. Our baby is 9months old, started solids at 6 months old, and is still nursing on demand. Sometimes it is just for a few minutes, other times, it is a full feed.

As your baby gets older, you will find that your son feeds less often. For the first 3 months though, there is a lot of growing going on...and the feedings are very important.

Answer 4

Breastfeeding Schedule For 2 Month Old

Answer 5

Hi, I am exclusively breastfeeding, my baby weighed 13lb at his 2 week visit. Breastfed babies are not under a schedule, they learn to be "snackers" pretty soon! My baby started to sleep from 4 to 5 hrs straight at night until he was 3 months old, and he usually eats every 2 to 3 hrs after that and he nurses for abot 5 to 10 minutes each time. He will be 4 months old in 2 days. Breastfed babies are a different story than bottle fed babies who do live on a schedule of ounces and number of bottles a day (sadly). Breastfed babies go trhu growth spurts too where they eat at very waco hrs, like every 30 min or every hr, to build up their milk supply, see for a bottle fed baby mommy just adds an ounce or so every so often a breastfed baby has to WORK to get more milk (isn't that awesome?) my baby just went through his 3 month old growth spurt and believe me I was ware out! but what I suggest you to do is, feed your baby whenever he wants to eat, if he ants to do it that frequently is because he probably likes being close to you, my baby does not have a schedule period! he eats when he wants and usually he nurses from 5 to 10 minutes at a time, my milk flow is VERY HEAVY, I have about 6 holes on each nipple so i know he is having a good amount of milk even if he only nurses for 5 minutes, he is healthy, he has a wet diaper every change and he has at lest 5 stools a day (which is sompletely normal for breastfed babies) so I know that he is eating enough, he is a snacker for sure and I love the closeness of breastfeeding, specially when he looks at me while he eats and smiles but won't let go of the nipple, lol. Enjoy this time, because time flies, next thing you know he will be going to college away from you. Take care and God bless.

Let me add that your baby sleeping habits will change, my 17 week old baby naps 3 times a day for around 2hrs each time but i create the sleeping environment for him, soft music, quiet room right after a feeding.

Answer 6

My Mom used to have a daycare and whenever the little babies couldn't poop, my Grandmother advised to take a bar of soap and cut JUST A TINY bit (less than 1/2 inch) (like a suppository) off the side of the bar and insert it very, very gently into their rectum. Try to get the little baby to hold it in for a couple minutes as this will give them the urge to push, like a suppository. As weird as this may sound, I have heard this for years and did it with my babygirl (she is 19 now), it always worked and then the Pediatrician put her on a liquid diet of Pediasure. Make sure the slither of soap is very tiney and comes from Ivory or Dove. I hope this helps!

Answer 7

The reason he can sleep so long at night is because he's packing in so much nutrients during the day. My 12 week old is the same way. He eats every 2 hours in the morning and afternoon, every 1.5 hours in the evening and then goes 5-7 hours at night. He also naps the same way your son does. 10-30 minutes at a time, but frequently through out the day.

Side note, it's rare but you can over feed a breastfed baby. My son has reflux and it turns out that a lot of his nursing was for comfort because his stomach hurt, which in turn, made his stomach hurt worse. His ped. put him on zantac and he's eating normally now. 10-15 minutes on one side instead of taking both sides and nursing for more than 40 minutes on each. I just wanted to add this because everyone says you can't over feed a baby so I thought I was doing the right thing by letting him nurse so long, but in my case, I was doing more harm than good.

Answer 8

Your baby is a heavy weight and does not need all of these feeds, during the day try to feed him every 4 hours ....10 minutes each side taking time to burp in between breasts change over. Stop feeding when he has had the 20 minutes ....burp him again change him and put him back to bed. get into this routine.
Your nights sound pretty good probably because he is tired from all the feeding during the day sucking on the breast is hard work for baby.
When he is a little older before his nightly feed offer him a very sloppy teaspoon full of cereal this will settle him more and give you a good nights sleep.