Whether your baby is breast or bottle fed, health professionals recommend that babies are fed on demand5. Most babies can start adapting to a feeding schedule, but how often they want to feed can vary5. This means looking out for feeding cues, and feeding your baby when they show signs that they’re hungry, which might include5:
- Sucking their hands and fingers
- Rooting for a bottle or teat
- Becoming restless
You can find more information about recognising your baby’s feeding cues here.
The frequency of your baby’s bottle feeds will depend in part on how many months old they are. For example, newborn babies should be fed whenever they appear to be hungry, and in the first few days after birth, if your baby is infant formula-fed, they might feed as often as every 2-3 hours. During their first year, as they grow bigger, your baby may start to eat less frequently, requiring a bottle feed every 3-4 hours.
Whilst there’s no need for you to follow a particular feeding schedule, the majority of babies can, and will, settle into a feeding schedule as they grow. Once your baby is older, you may find that they can go for longer periods at night without a feed, and that their feeding schedule is more predictable and established.