6 week old taking short feeds at night

[cocosmum]

Hi, for a couple of weeks now my 6 week old baby girl has only been feeding for about ten minutes, sometimes less at night feeds.  She is on 3 hour easy and I dream feed at 11pm.  She then feeds at around 2am and 5am.  During the day she feeds for around 20 minutes.  She feeds at slightly different times so don't think it's habit although she has been very windy and i have thought that she has been waking more from wind than needing a feed.  I am also concerned that the short feeds will be making her wind worse as only getting hind milk.  I had been Cluster feeding too although the last few nights the 8pm feed has only been a few minutes too so last night I didn't offer it. 

Should I be trying ti drop one of these night feeds already?  I can't do anything to make her take more at her feeds.

Thanks.

[becj86]

Hi, welcome

At 6 weeks, you should be feeding on demand to help establish supply. From experience, I know that waking with wind tends to be within 1-1.5hr of feed, not 3hr and its perfectly reasonable for her to be feeding 3hrly at night at 6 weeks.

Feeds being shorter at night can be due to your supply being higher because you're resting and LO being more relaxed so feeding more efficiently.
WRT your concern re: foremilk/hindmilk imbalance - you can help to increase the amount of fat in the early part of the feed by massaging the breast near the chest wall (away from the areola) to help free the fat from the walls of the milk ducts. You can also block feed but that's probably not the best idea at this age unless your supply is really excessive.

Here's some info that may help:
https://kellymom.com/bf/got-milk/basics/foremilk-hindmilk/

[*Ali*]

As pp says no need to do anything about dropping feeds. Your baby is tiny and it sounds like you're both doing really well.

[cocosmum]

Thanks for the reassurance!