Now in the hospital i am told they say you can let then go 4hrs during the day and 6hrs at night.
Just from a breastfeeding perspective here...
I've not heard that advice myself but I guess the key thing here is that they are saying you 'can let them' go 4 hrs. Not what they were saying in the 1970s in the UK - they
should go 4 hrs. Which is when mothers didn't listen to their baby's cues and breastfeeding rates crashed in the UK due to insufficient supply and lack of weight gain.
So I would take this to mean if they haven't fed by the 4 hour point you should wake and ensure they do.
All babies are different. We listen to their cues and to what they tell us. We guide them but respect at the end of the day a hungry baby is a hungry baby.
A very small minority of newborn breastfed babies manage on a four hour feeding schedule from the beginning. As Tracy says 2.5-3 hours is more common (and this would fit with the experience of most people I come across on the bf board). It's about developing milk supply (which takes a couple of weeks to come in fully). It's also about the fact their stomachs aren't even the size of a ping-pong ball.
