https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Wed, 06 May 2026 19:30:32 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748599 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:35:02 +0000 Beehive 748599@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Hilsy85: I'll be thinking about you tomorrow! I hope it goes well if you try it. I think it took us a couple days to really get into a rhythm with the schedule, but it was the best once it worked. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748532 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:40:19 +0000 immabeetoo 748532@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@hilsy85: I hope it goes well! I am in the same boat as you - I love nursing and would happily nurse more often if he was keen on it. But it is ever so much more fun (for both of us) to nurse him on a semi-schedule so he is focused and then smilely instead of squirmy and irritable! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748530 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:36:59 +0000 hilsy85 748530@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@iheartleopardprint: Breastfeeding is also super important to me...I should have noted in my original post that my issue is that LO often doesn't WANT to nurse...I would love to nurse him as often as he wants to, but he often just doesn't seem that interested..I'd gladly be nursing him every 2 hours if that's what he wanted! Often, when he's tired, he doesn't want to nurse now either. </p> <p>@Beehive: yes! I remember you talking about that...I think I do need to try waiting a bit after his nap before jumping right to feeding him. </p> <p>@scg00387: sounds like very similar to @Beehive's schedule! It makes perfect sense to me :) I think I will try something like this tomorrow; thanks! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748519 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:28:35 +0000 immabeetoo 748519@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@hilsy85: I'd definitely urge you to try it! We were doing EASY for a long time and I would just feed him whenever he woke up.. and then his naps shortened to 20 or 30 minutes and I was feeding him sometimes 1.5 hours in between feedings. I found we were both getting frustrated; he wouldn't eat very much and fuss and then I'd stress over him not eating enough. It was a snacking cycle, I think, and then he'd wake even more at night to fill up for the 24 hours.</p> <p>Like your LO, he doesn't really do hunger cues except fussing now that he is older. Once I started offering at 3 hours it became SO MUCH better. Our nursing sessions were pleasant instead of frustrating because he was actually hungry. Like you, I was worried he'd wake more at night - I feel like I read a lot of advice to feed more frequently during the day so they don't need to eat at night but for my son the opposite is true.</p> <p>Now at 5 months he'll often go 4 hours in the morning, or sometimes if he's asleep during the afternoon. An average day is wake at 6:30, eat at 7, eat somewhere between 10-11, eat around 1:30, eat around 4:30, eat around 6:30, and then one feed in the middle of the night usually around 2 or 3. Our naps are erratic lately - if they work out in a way that he has only had 3 feeding by around 4 I throw another one in between last nap and dinner nursing and it has worked out well.</p> <p>It also helped our night wakings because he was fuller during the day - so now I am comfortable knowing that if he wakes before 2 he will put himself back to sleep or with me shh/patting under normal circumstances, and that if he wakes in between 4-6:30 the same applies.</p> <p>I hope that makes sense or is helpful! I know how scared I always am to mess with his sleep habits and it sounds like you feel similarly about LO's eating :) Honestly, give it two days and see. There is no way it could have a detrimental effect on his weight that fast! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748424 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:10:28 +0000 Beehive 748424@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I spaced out feedings around 3 months, at the request of my pediatrician! When J wasn't gaining much weight, she suggested he might be snacking at each feeding and not getting a full meal. I basically also follow the EASY routine, but imposed a schedule framework around it to space out his feedings 3 hours apart. </p> <p>So he wakes up around 6:30, eats around 7, naps at 8:30, eats at 11, naps at 12:30, eats at 2, naps at 3:30, eats at 5 and eats at 7:30 for his 8:00 bedtime. This means that depending on how long his naps go, he often has play time from the time he wakes up until it's time for his next feeding. He usually gets fussy just before his feedings, so I know he's hungry - and he generally eats well because he's hungry. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748407 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:40:43 +0000 iheartleopardprint 748407@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I nursed both kids on demand, and never put them on a schedule. It was usually every 3 hours that they want to nurse, DD can't go past 3.5 hrs or she gets cranks, she is nearly 8 months old. Neither kids had dummies, so if they were upset and cuddles just weren't doing the trick I nurse then too. </p> <p>Breastfeeding is imporaptant to me, so if that means I have to nurse all over the place then I am happy with that. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748383 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:21:21 +0000 hilsy85 748383@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@SleepyMonkey: yeah I think I need to try it out and see what happens...I'm afraid he won't eat enough during the day and then will either drop weight or wake up a ton at night but #1 won't happen in a day, and his sleep is crap anyway! :) </p> <p>@runsyellowlites: ah gotcha...we started out doing that but then figured out that half the time when he fussed he was actually tired! And just needed help going to sleep... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748322 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:16:02 +0000 runsyellowlites 748322@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@hilsy85: Pretty much anytime she fussed at all I offered &amp; sometimes even if we were just cuddling. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748312 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:07:06 +0000 SleepyMonkey 748312@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Well you know I'm not ahead of you but I will tell you that if L is not hungry, she won't nurse well and she will pop on and off a lot and just be generally distracted. So I try to feed on demand, or 3 hours, whichever is earlier. She usually starts to show signs on hunger at 2.5 hours and its a mix of drooling more than normal and sucking hard on her hands or whatever she can get into her mouth. Not just putting things in her mouth but really suck, suck, suck like she would at the boob. And she gets full feeding a that way. If she is crying, she will stop as soon as she latches on and power thru that feeding. Maybe just try it for a day and see how L takes to it? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748284 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:47:36 +0000 hilsy85 748284@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@runsyellowlites: so when you say on demand--she cried for it? Or showed other signs that she wanted to nurse? That's my problem, LO doesn't seem to have hunger cues right now except crying, and if I waited for that he would probably nurse even less than he doe snow. </p> <p>@Weagle: ok so it sounds like she basically told you when she wanted to stop a session/drop a session. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748125 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:43:30 +0000 Weagle 748125@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We had a pretty loose schedule from 7ish months on. We nursed every 4 hours or sooner if she wanted. Once I noticed that she didn't "ask" to nurse anymore (except for morning) is when she started dropping sessions. She basically would only nurse a couple of minutes and pop on and off or sing the whole time. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748096 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:15:36 +0000 runsyellowlites 748096@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Hmmm I don't have much advice b/c we have always nursed on demand, especially through distractible phases to ensure we kept up my supply &amp; didn't risk early self weaning.</p> <p>Around 8 months P naturally spaced out her feedings but then picked them back up &amp; now at 12 months she nurses around 5x a day (sometimes more, sometimes less if we're out of the house or busy). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/spacing-out-feedings-long#post-748075 Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:39:51 +0000 hilsy85 748075@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>A a spin off to my other thread about intro'ing cow's milk....</p> <p>So since LO was about 2 months old, we got into an EASY schedule, where I would nurse him when he woke up from a nap. This became more difficult as he started cat napping, but we made it work, and now at 6 months, I nurse him pretty much right when he wakes up for the day, up from a nap, and before bed. We've had some issues over the last month or so where he'll not nurse very well--he'll latch off, be distracted, and just generally not really be interested in nursing. He's currently nursing 6-8x a day, depending on how many MOTN feedings he has and how many naps he takes.</p> <p>My question is whether I should start trying to space out his feedings more, in the hopes that if he nurses fewer times, he'll nurse better at those times. I never really let him cry to tell me he's hungry--I nurse him more or less on a "Schedule" although there are no set times, and obviously if he DOES cry and seem hungry, I"ll feed him whenever. But is it okay to let him get to the point where he's showing hunger cues (crying seems to be his only one at this age) before I feed him? Or should i keep feeding him before the fact?</p> <p>As he gets older and we start thinking about the transition to cow's milk, I also wonder how I will know that he's ready to drop feedings (as it seems like most LOs do) if I'm not following his cues now...will he just refuse flat out to nurse? </p> <p>(also I know the distractibility is just par for the course at this age, but when he is really hungry, he will nurse efficiently for 5-7 minutes). </p>