Questioning decreased feeding time

[Storm7]

Since birth my son (now 4 and a half weeks old) has fed frequently and normally for around 40-60 mins and then cluster fed for about 5 hours every evening. The health visitors suggested colief and he has had that since Thursday but I am not sure it has done anything!

Yesterday his feeds decreased to 20 minutes in length and the cluster feed to 3 hours with some real wind issues. Today he seems to be going with the shorter feeds again. My question is - is this normal? Has he just reached the stage of being more efficient? Should I worry about whether he is taking enough still?

 

[lynnikins]

once they are over the 3wk growth spurt they do tend to get better at feeding and can take more in less time. if your LO stops sleeping as well or starts sleeping excessively then you might want to try to offer more feeds but otherwise just roll with what he wants to do

 

[Matilda85]

It's normal that they will become more efficient. It is best to go by output. How many wet and dirty nappies is he producing per day? If you are really worried you could also go get him weighed just to ensure weight gain. Over here most chemists have free scales you can use.

 

[readytotry]

Everything you have said sounds normal to me. But, I would get latch/tongue tie checked if baby is very windy as those feed times sound on the longer side of normal it could be that he isn't a very efficient feeder and is taking in a bit of air.

Eta: I'm talking more about the length of daytime feeds than the cluster feeding though. That will ease off by itself in a few more weeks. Xx