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.

Lactation consultant Diane Wiessinger of Ithaca, New York, agrees. “I once led a meeting where I told the mothers — all experienced breastfeeding mothers — that we were going to write the real baby book, one that told new mothers what they needed to know,” she recalls. “One woman said, ‘New mothers need to know that newborns will nurse every hour.’ Another mother spoke up and said, ‘Yeah, and the feedings will last an hour.’ Everyone laughed, and I think that laughter meant that this is a common experience. Babies don’t really nurse all the time, but it can sure feel that way — especially at first.”

She points out that in the beginning, nursing a baby requires intense concentration on the mother’s part. “You’re pinned to your seat. You have to get the position right, and the latch right, and you feel like you can barely move while you’re nursing.” That improves with time, though. “You learn how to read a magazine lying next to you on the couch while you’re nursing, even if you have trouble turning the pages. Then you can hold a book with one hand. Then, later, you can walk around with baby still attached.”

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.

Wiessinger reminds parents that babies are growing faster in the first year than they will at any other time in their lives, and asks, “How often would you eat if you were trying to double your weight in less than six months?” She adds that breastfeeding is more than a way of getting food into the baby. “A baby doesn’t necessarily nurse to eat,” she explains. “Breastfeeding offers so many other wonderful things — skin-to-skin contact, warmth, the reassuring sounds and smells of mom, suckling — the milk is just a bonus.”

That said, some babies do have special reasons for needing frequent feedings. “I have a practice that specializes in difficult situations,” says lactation consultant Barbara Wilson-Clay, from Austin, Texas, “so I see some babies who are what I call inefficient feeders.” These may be low-birth-weight babies, babies with a tongue-tie [the membrane attaching the tongue to the bottom of the mouth is extremely short], a palate with an unusual shape, or bruising to the nose or jaw from a complicated birth.

For these infants, Wilson-Clay explains, “it’s like trying to climb a flight of stairs with your shoelaces tied together. You’d have to sit down and rest frequently, instead of bounding up the stairs.” Feeding your baby more often but for shorter periods of time may also help with reflux or colic.

But don’t some babies want to nurse frequently because they really are hungry and not getting enough milk? Wiessinger points out that frequency of feeding is not a good measure of milk intake. In fact, many babies who are not getting enough milk become sleepy, infrequent feeders. Look instead at the number of wet or soiled diapers. (Expect at least six to eight soaking wet diapers after day five, and at least one or two substantial bowel movements. Bowel movements may decrease after the first six to eight weeks, but should still be very loose.)

To try to decrease feedings, Quinlan tried breast compression with Connor, but he cried and let go of the breast when he got the extra gush of milk. That clearly wasn’t the problem. Further investigation revealed that he was teething a bit earlier than average, and was nursing to soothe his sore gums. Once the tooth popped through, his every-15-minute sessions slowed down.

Even babies who seem to nurse all the time right from the start do eventually feed less often. You may actually find yourself looking back nostalgically at those hours you spent snuggled up with your baby as he becomes more mobile and nursing is lower on his priority list.

More Milk, Less Time

Perhaps you’re reassured that your baby is getting enough milk, but would still like to breastfeed less often. Jack Newman, a Toronto paediatrician specializing in breastfeeding, suggests using breast compression to help babies get more milk. With this technique, you cup your breast with your fingers on the bottom and thumb on top as the baby nurses. When baby sucks, squeeze your thumb and fingers together as though expressing milk into your baby’s mouth. Try moving your hand slightly to compress different ducts. Make sure your baby is well latched so that he’ll get the maximum amount.

Originally published in Today's Parent, April 2003