How many times do you nurse newborn?

[twobears]

Yesterday BF ds who is 2wks old countless times through out day. Then only bf 2x's during the night and only bf 3x's today between 7am and 4pm. He is sleeping alot today. Does this sound normal or shoud i be worried?

[Llyra]

I would think that fewer than 8 times in 24 hours is worrisome, and I always tried for at least 10 times in the newborn period. If I had a baby who was sleeping so much and feeding less than 8 times, I would first of all have baby's weight checked on a reliable scale-- most babies at 2 weeks have regained birthweight. I would also look at output-- a baby this age should be wetting 6 or 8 times a day, and pooping frequently. If baby hasn't established a pattern of weight gain, or isn't wetting and pooping, I would be taking measures to wake baby to feed more often. Especially during the night, since the night nursing is so important to establishing a full supply of milk-- your hormonal levels are at their highest in the wee hours.

Is he jaundiced? Jaundice can lead to a sluggish baby who nurses less frequently, which in turn means baby gets less milk, which turns into a nasty cycle.

[mysticmomma]

No less than 8 times. Every 3 hours during the day, and no more than 4-5 hours at night. I'd try to nurse him while he sleeps. Was he recently circ'ed?

[twobears]

He had been nursing fine up until today. Has plenty of wet diapers, was not cirq'd. Did have mild jaundice but had seemed fine. Maybe getting sick don't know my dr. has sat hours so maybe should take him in am to get looked at and for weight check. now i'm starting to worry

[mysticmomma]

it's just one day, i wouldn';t worry too much. Just offer more frequently. Sounds fine to me.

[kismetbaby]

As long as he's having plenty of wet diapers I wouldn't be TOO worried, but it does sounds like he needs to be feeding more frequently. For his age that seems like a lot of uninterupted sleep. I would be trying to wake him to feed every 2-3 hours. It may be that you have a really good sleeper on your hands , but at this age, they really should be BFing frequently.

[ewe+lamb]

On average healthy babies nurse between 8 and 12 times a day - this is the average and there are always babies way above and below this - it's only one day so I really wouldn't worry and if I was you I don't think I would go to the dr - unless he is really pro-breastfeeding with a one day account of nursing. If he's doing this more often and loosing lots of weight and is not alert/drowsy etc then I would worry I think to start I would make sure he's not too hot if he is take off a layer or two and that often wakes them up enough to nurse efficiently. If you want to up your nursings per day then to go bed with baby and nurse or take a bath together lots of skin to skin time is always a sure fired way of getting baby to the breast. Contact your local LLL group to get help, information and support and getting to know other breastfeeding mothers is always a plus.

[JayJay]

Well I wouldn't panic, per se - like the others said, check out the dirty and wet diaper situation.

It is conceivable that with the cluster feeding yesterday, and the restful period last night and today, he might be going through a little growth spurt and actually, with the help of the cluster feeding, might be getting substantially more milk than you think he is with every feeding, enabling him to do the sleep thing for longer.

If this continues, I'd be wondering what was going on, but if not, I'd put it all down to the fact that babies are people too and are a little weird sometimes! If you've breastfed 3 times between 7am and 4pm, that's actually a 9 hour period, so technically that would equate to roughly once every 3 hours - which is totally within the normal scale.

Our babies change all the time and constantly make us worried, don't they? Isobella will cluster nurse sometimes, then take a great big peaceful 4 hours nap - and she's only 11 days old! But, she is "outputting" wonderfully and looks beautiful, alert and awesome when she is awake, so I'm not worried

[Biscuits & Gravy]

A day of cluster feeding followed by a day of lots of sleep always meant growth spurt with my LOs.