How many times a day should I feed my 5wo LO?

[Martini~]

My boy is a great kid as he is STTH almost from birth (5+ hours without food).

I am BF, feeding my LO according to EASY at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm and at about 7pm (some before some after bath). No cluster feeding and no dream feed. I almost always feed him from both sides as in his first week he had low weight growth. Next 4 weeks he is however gaining more then 200g/week so very positive.

In his first 4 weeks he was demanding 2 night feeds, which is still a small number, as he in tital got 7 feeds a day. He was sleeping from 7/8 pm to midnight, then after 2-3 weeks to about 2am and in last week after finishing 1month, he just woke up at 4:30! Then we had some days when he was fed only once a night.
So in total 6 feeds/day from both sides.

My concern is about some wakings he has last two-three nights at about 2 am. It took me no more then 15min to calm him down with paci, some shhh/pat and rocking in Moses and he went sleep and fed at 5am, and he didn't eat so much!

But... Maybe I should fed him at 2am if he woke up? I know that is so stupid question, but am I not... cheating my LO with paci & not leaving him hungry...? If he was really hungry, could he be pacified so easily in his Moses?

[Proud Mammy]

Just keep an eye for the 6wk growth spurt. Baby will want and need more feeding at this time.
It's very early days yet for you baby, so would you consider offering a feed when he wakes and then take it from there?

I'm sure you'll get some more advice from others. My 2 boys would still have been feeding a lot at that stage, so unfortunately I'm not much use to you with your query. But maybe consider the following while waiting for further replies:

I suppose the big indicators of Baby getting enough is the nappy output - are you getting plenty of soaked and dirty nappies?
Also, I guess the scales don't lie. So if Baby is continuing to thrive in this regard? ...
Plus, what kind of hunger cues does he give you during the day? Is he giving you anything similar at nighttime?

[Martini~]

I give him food during day in 3h intervals happy to make it more often but he just... is not hungry? The problem is that he almost never seems hungry to me during day. During night it's easier as he normally didn't wake for other reasons until recently, when I think some stomach problems interrupt his sleep. Sometimes he firstly grunts when asleep until he wakes up for feed and that's a cue for me. But generally I try firstly to soothe him in different ways, and if not successful I feed him.

With this feed at 2am, he already had couple of days without it. Then two nights ago I fed him at 2 (he woke up and seemed really hungry) as I thought that maybe he is going through GS, but then he didn't want to eat at 5am..?! So overall number of feeds stayed the same.

And regarding the growth spurt. Today he is not interested in eating almost at all... I BF and always offer him both sides and today he sucks for barely couple of minutes each breast & when I try & try to give him more he starts to scream & cry. He also vomit twice today after feed as I probably wanted too much for him to eat scared that he is not hungry at all.

Ehhh, breast feeding is full of stress:)))

[Shdef]

At six weeks, DS fed hourly in the day and every two hours at night, but only for a few days. Then I had oversupply, so only fed one-sided when I noticed green, frothy poos when offering both sides, as before.

Milk supply is only really established after the six weeks growth spurt, so I for now, I would feed when hungry, if it is 7 or 10 times within 24 hours. As long as you don't feed to sleep all the time, it is absolutely fine. Don't stress, you are doing GREAT! The majority of mums (locally anyway) have given up bf alltogether by now.

[*Ali*]

Maybe he is sick if he has been vomiting and that is not his usual MO?

His number of NFs will likely change many times between now and whenever he goes all night without a feed.

LLL recommend 8-12 BFs in 24hrs in the early months.

[Martini~]

I think it might be reflux problem (worse day), so I was giving him food in short intervals (5min + 5 min break etc) so feeds lasted about an hour or so, but I guess it helped him. He doesn't seem hungry btw, as not waking from his naps or not showing any hunger cues so I hope everything will be ok. Also burping him in-between helped and at 7pm feed it was much better.

Oh God, I was really stressed...:/.

Let's how today's night will look like and what time will he wake up.

[*Ali*]

Have you seen our reflux checklist to help determine if that is the problem?
Reflux 101 - General reflux information

Have you asked your dr about the reflux? Many LOs need meds to control it.