For babies who are being breastfed, feedings typically occur every three hours, except in the evening hours, when they nurse more frequently to stock up for the night.
What is the ideal breastfeeding schedule for a baby? The answer is when your baby is hungry. This is known as demand feeding. Feeding on demand means that feeding is started based on hunger cues from the infant and stopped when the infant is satisfied.
Establishing a feeding schedule for babies drinking formula is fairly uncomplicated. In the beginning, due to the tiny size of their bellies, the feedings will start out small but frequent (around every three to four hours). As their belly grows and they can take in more per feeding, the schedule will change to accommodate longer individual feeding sessions further apart.
For example, at one month, you might still be feeding every four hours; at two months, this may decrease to six or seven feedings per day.
(Click Newborn Feeding Schedule to learn more about a typical baby's feeding schedule, for information on how much formula to feed your child, and for more tips on breastfeeding.)
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