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How do you know when to change feeding schedule for a newborn from 8x a day to maybe less?

We're breastfeeding our newborn every 3 hours (8x a day). This is exhausting but necessary I know. But when does the baby or us transition to a less regular schedule? When can the newborn switch to say 4-5hrs? Is it month 1,2,3 or 6? And also around when can a newborn sleep though the night?

Public Comments

1. Well, if you feed your baby on demand, it simply isn't an issue. Feed him/her when he/she is hungry. The intervals will stretch out gradually and naturally. You can't define it by absolute hours and ages - it depends on your baby's size and appetite.

Some babies sleep through the night from a few weeks old. Others don't until well over a year. There's absolutely no way to tell what yours will do - but IMO it'll take far longer if you carry on with a rigid schedule day and night. Baby has nothing encouraging him to sleep longer at night at the moment. If you don't wake him up to feed at night, keep it dark, don't talk. don't nappy change unless he is stinky, he's far more likely to stay sleepy and get used to being asleep at night rather than in the daytime.

2. The baby will let you know when they need less to eat. My daughter put more time in between feedings after she was about 1-2 months old. At three months they eat a lot less frequently and more at each feeding.

Sleeping through the night. Blah. This all depends on your baby again. I know people who have babies who have slept through the night almost from day one, those who have slept through the night at about 3 months old and those who still can't get their kids to sleep through the night at 2 years old. Here is my experience with my daughter:

1-3 months old: Waking at least 1-3 times per night to feed. Less and less as she got closer to 3 months.

3-4 months: Once per night feeding.

5 months: Slept through night.

6-7 months: Got a cold and this screwed everything up, back to waking once a night to eat.

7 months: Slept through night.

Most pediatricians will tell you that at 5-7 months they can make it through the night without eating, but it all depends on your baby. Biggest thing is to have a schedule for the baby that you follow daily, don't change diapers at night unless it is poopy (I made this mistake) and make nighttime feedings as uneventful, unfun and unstimulating as possible.

3. Your feeding schedule should not lessen till you start feeding baby food which is at 6 months. Also my baby slept through the night at 3 months. I made sure her tummy was full at bed time then if she would cry would let her go and in a couple nites she slept the nite ever since. Good luck

4. Sometimes, a nurser will stick to this pattern longer in my experience. The best one to tell you when baby is ready to wait longer to eat is the baby. I have always believed that unless there are medical issues, and you must follow a strict schedule you should follow the baby's lead.
I say...
Never wake a sleeping baby
Feed them when they are hungry
Hold them even if they are not crying...cuddles wear off over time, so enjoy the times you can.

Newborns need more. And have small tummies, so they need it more often. Take heart, it doesn't last forever. My youngest is 8 months and now there are days that I think. "Gee, it's been a long time since she ate anything!"

5. I doubt your breastfed baby will nurse less often than every 3 hours until he is on solids at 6 months or even longer. He may start sleeping through the night at a couple of months or a year.

6. The *minimum* number of feedings for a newborn is 8. If your little one wants to nurse more often, then s/he should be allowed to. You also don't need to follow a rigid 3-hour schedule. Babies may nurse more frequently at different times of day (particularly first thing in the morning and right before bed), but give a longer stretch at night and possibly in the afternoon.

My kids were all still nursing at least 8 times per day at 6 months, and 6-8 times per day or more at a year. Some of those nursing sessions were only 5-10 minutes, and others were longer. Some of them were clustered together, and others (like at night) were spaced farther apart.

While formula-fed babies can generally go longer between feedings, breastmilk digests in just 90 minutes, so it's expected that baby will nurse about every 2-3 hours during the day until starting solids around 6 months.

Newborns don't typically sleep through the night and shouldn't be allowed to sleep more than 4-5 hours at a time until closer to 6 weeks and after breastfeeding is well established. Some babies may start sleeping through the night (anywhere from 8-12 hours at a time) as early as 2-4 months, but my experience is that most babies aren't ready to do that until at least 6 months, and quite a few are still waking at least once a night at a year.

All babies are different, and the night wakings are definitely exhausting. All you can do is try to maximize your sleep by sleeping when baby sleeps. You can also try to cluster feed baby in the evening to hopefully get him/her tanked up for a long night's sleep.

www.kellymom.com is a great source of breastfeeding info, and I posted a couple links below that I thought would be helpful to you. Congrats on your new baby!

7. i demand fed my daughter when she was a new born and she went 1.5 to 2 hours at a time, i never fed her less offten than every 3 hours.

she didnt start going longer untill around 4-5 months then hit a growth spurt so went back to every 2 hours for 3 days then back to every 3ish.

she didnt start going 4-5 hours between feeds till after 9 months (add she LOVES her solids so i think she is just a milk junkie and loves the goodstuff)

it wil happen, but it may take a while, usualy around the time the "discover" the world around them and start noticing stuff.

as for sleeping through the night, a newborn will want to feed a lot at nght because certain hormones acting on the body makes night milk fuller of nutriants. a newborn is considered "sleeping through the night" is they sleep 5 hours straight.if your after 8 hours straight it may take a while, my 17 month old still wakes once or twice a night, not always for a feed but jsut cos she wakes up and wants toknow where i am. its normal. that was one reason i co-slept with her till she was 10 month old, it was best for all of us, she is my 4th and iwillbe doing it all again come August.

relax, rest when you can, sleep when baby sleeps, dont be afraid to ask for help if you need it, and keep repeating "this too shall pass" that got me through some pretty dark, exhausiting days. (growth spurts can be a killer, ach, baby will go longer for a few weeks the BAM back to wanting fed all the time, as normal as it is it can be a pain in the butt, but just roll with it, growth spurts tend to occur at
7 days, 2 weeks, 3 months, 5-6months ish, and also around "Mile stones" my daugher would "growth spurt feed" then bam, oh look, she is crawling, oh look she can climb the stairs, oh wow she said hiya, wow cool she is walking etc.

8. You know by feeding on demand and them doing it themselves. That's the best way. As for sleeping through the night- that truly varies. I'd poke around on kellymom.com and askdrsears.com- they have some great info on how to help your baby sleep better, and how to bf easily.