How frequently should I nurse my baby?


At the start when your baby is learning how to nurse and when the milk supply is not yet well established, it is advisable to nurse frequently. That is to say in a 24 hour period try nursing as much as 10-12 times in the initial weeks. On the average this works out to one feeding session every 2-3 hours. But the typical pattern here is this: baby suckles for about 5 minutes, knocks off for about 15 minutes only to wake up and want to feed again. So within one hour she may feed 3 separate times and sleep for a few hours after that. And this pattern repeats. Needless to say in the early months your commitment to breastfeeding is important since it will take up so much of your time. It is all worth it because frequent feeds benefits your baby in that they gain weight better and are less likely to become jaundiced. Feeding frequently will also accelerate the milk supply.