Is it normal for 5 month old to breastfeed every hour?

Question

My almost 6 month old nurses every hour to hour and a half during the day. He has cereal once a day around 6pm and has just started fruits/veggies in the morning. He is awake 2 hours and sleeps 1 hour naps. wakes up around 7am goes to bed between 8 and 9 pm. Sometimes he gets up once , sometimes more like 3 times in the night. he weighs around 16-17 pds now. Is this normal or should i be giving him more solids. Also he refuses to nurse for longer than 5 min at a time(i've tried the burp and relatch)!

Answer 1

Sounds like a growth spurt..Most of my kids only ate on one side every two hours unless they were going through a growth spurt. Then, it would be more..Also, they only nursed for a few minutes like yours, so they were all business! No fooling around..Get on, get off!  

Answer 2

At 6 months old, he should be sleeping through the night.

When breastfeeding, 6 months is the time to start incorporating solids. Cereal to start out with, then I would start with Veggies next...one veggie at a time for like 5 days to make sure no allergies to it. I would do fruits last, b/c they are sweet and tasty...you want him to acquire the taste of veggies first, so he won't reject them later...and keep incorporating them.

He should not be nursing every hour. Sounds like he just wants to be cuddled and pacified...and he's using the breast as a pacifier.

Try a pacifier, or teething ring instead. And, he should nurse probably every 2-3 hours, never more than 4 hours without nursing.

If he's only nursing for 5 min, make sure he's not latched onto you all day. Offer him the breast every 2-3 hours only.

Also, try to get him on a schedule with Nursing, eating and sleeping. That will also help get him to sleep through the night.

I used to keep the lights on during the daytime to imitate daytime, so my kids would try to get their circadian rhythms right.

I woud do cereal in the morning, and veggies at dinner.

If he has good wet diapers, you know he's getting enough breastmilk.

Remember, you can always call your Pediatrician and talk with the Nurse and ask questions. They get all kinds of questions...so don't feel like your question is too minor to call and ask.

Answer 3

Yes that is normal.  Completely normal.

http://www.todaysparent.com/article.jsp?...

When four-month-old Connor started nursing every 15 minutes — day and night — his mother, Corrie Quinlan, started to despair. “Is there a problem with my milk supply?” she wondered. But Connor’s plentiful wet and poopy diapers soon put that worry to rest. So what, exactly, was wrong with her infant?

Nothing, as it turns out. Many breastfed babies want to nurse a lot. In fact, frequent feedings may be biologically more normal for babies than the three- or four-hour schedule new parents expect.

[...]

Wiessinger believes that counting and timing feedings may only make a nursing mother feel more stressed about what she thinks she needs to accomplish during the day. The reality, however, might actually be quite different since, as Wiessinger points out, frequent feedings tend to be short and easy to fit around other activities.

Anthropologist Kathy Dettwyler from Texas A&M University says that nursing a lot is typical of babies around the world. She cites a study done in 2000 that looked at the feeding behaviour of infants aged three to four months in three different communities: families from Washington, DC, the Ba’Aka hunter-gatherers and the Ngandu farmers, both of the Central African Republic. They found that the Ba’Aka babies nursed 4.02 times per hour, the Ngandu babies nursed 2.01 times per hour and the American babies nursed 1.6 times per hour. Certainly the American babies nursed less often than the two African groups, but they nursed more frequently than many new parents expect.

http://www.normalfed.com/Continuing/hung...

How many times did you eat or drink something today?  Coffee break?  Water fountain?  Gum?  Snack?  TV nibblies?  Most adults have an urge to eat about every 90 minutes while they're awake!

    Why do you eat or drink?  Hunger?  Thirst?  Comfort?  For social reasons?  Just because?

Straight Talk About Real Babies

Defining New-mom Expectations

By Ann Calandro, BSN, RNC, IBCLC

http://www.breastfeed.com/articles/newbo...

So I Nursed Him Every 45 Minutes

By Elizabeth N. Baldwin, Esq.

http://www.llli.org/NB/Law45com.html

http://kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/slee...

Sadler S. Sleep: what is normal at six months?

Prof Care Mother Child 1994 Aug-Sep;4(6):166-7.

In this study, part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ALSPAC), researchers surveyed the parents of 640 babies. Some of the results:

    * Only 16% slept through the night at six months old -- 84% were not sleeping through the night at 6 months

    * 17% woke more than once per night, ranging from twice to eight times

    * 5% woke once every night

    * 9% woke most nights

    * 50% woke occasionally

    * 16% of six-month-olds had no regular sleeping pattern

Armstrong KL, Quinn RA & Dadds MR. The sleep patterns of normal children.

Medical Journal of Australia 1994 Aug 1;161(3):202-6.

The above study is the definitive work on sleeping habits of (Australian) children to 38 months. The researchers surveyed 3269 parents, with a 96.5% response rate, over a one week period. The parents had to report on their child's sleeping habits over the past 24 hours, plus answer a few questions related to their perceptions of their child's sleep behavior.

What did they find?

    * There is a wide range of normal childhood sleep behavior.

    * Circadian rhythm is not well established until four months of age.

    * Daytime sleep becomes less regular with increasing age, the most marked reduction in length occurs around 3 months of age. However, a surprising 11% under 3 months of age don't have a daytime sleep every day.

    * Frequent night waking that disturbs parents is common from 4-12 months (12.7% disturb their parents 3 or more times every night).

    * Night time settling requires more parental input from 18 months.

    * Nearly a third of parents have a significant problem with their child's sleep behavior.

    * Sleeping through the night: 71.4% did this on at least one occasion by 3 months of age, but many of these relapse into more frequent waking in the 4 to 12 month period. It is not until after 24 months that regular night waking (requiring attention) becomes much less common.

Although this study did not address breastfeeding, it is relevant because a lack of understanding of "normal" sleep patterns can lead to supplementing, early solids, belief there is not enough milk, etc. The authors claim it also leads to misdiagnosis of gastro-esophageal reflux (GER) and overuse of sedative medication. A worrying 31% of 25-38 month-old children were disciplined (mostly smacking) to get them to settle. 27% of parents let their children cry, 11% at less than one month.



Scher A. A longitudinal study of night waking in the first year.

Child Care Health Dev 1991 Sep-Oct;17(5):295-302.

Abstract: A longitudinal study of the development of sleep patterns addressed the issue of continuity and change in night waking in the course of the first year. Mothers of 118 infants, who took part in a follow-up study of normal babies, completed a sleep questionnaire at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Regular night waking was a common characteristic throughout the first year:

Baby's age



% babies waking at night

3 months



46%

6 months



39%

9 months



58%

12 months



55%

The number of awakenings per night was a function of age. Following a decline in the number of interruptions from 3 to 6 months, an increase in night waking at age 9 months was recorded. Although the methodology does not lend itself to an objective validation of the changes in sleep-wake states, nor is it suitable for causal explanations, it is, nevertheless, important to note this profile. The increase in night waking towards the end of the first year coincides with significant socio-emotional advances which characterize this developmental stage.

Sleeping through the Night

http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detsleepth...

Answer 4

no

Answer 5

If he's not nursing for a longer period I would say that he might be using you as a pacifier.

Answer 6

Is it typical?  No.

Does it mean that there is something wrong?  Probably not.

All babies have different nursing patterns.  Some like to nures briefly and often. Others prefer less frequent, larger meals.  

If he's really nursing every hour you could certainly try to encourage him to go longer. (Maybe try distracting him with a fun activity just before he would normally want to nurse.  It may keep him busy for another 20-30 minutes, so when he DOES nurse, he'll be hungrier and take more.)  But there is really only so much you can do.  If he's upset and crying, you have to feed him, even if it's only been an hour.

You could also try increasing his solids a bit, but I doubt it would help. There just aren't enough calories in a couple of teaspoons of applesauce to make much difference.