Length of time between feeds

Have made some really good progress this week. New plunket nurse has got me onto a course for helping deal with PND and have joined a great new play group, and DH has started new job so we have some money again, so things are much brighter.

This weeks questions is how long does a 5/6 month generally go without a feed? DD feed at 5.30 is morning and nearly 5 hours later she's really not interested yet. Yet between 5pm-5am she'll wake up feed and go back to sleep between 1 hour (evenings) and 4 hours (ealry morning). I know I'll get told not worry but she's dipping below the 3 per centile trajectory and not gaining weight as fast as she could.

I can't force it into her and would like to see her thriving and obvioulsy eating more during the day.

Apologies as am FAK but we are anywhere from2-4hrly during the day and she (DD2, 6mo) mostly sleeps through at night.

Maybe if you persist in offering a little more frequently she might eventually get the idea and start to feed a bit more often.

Depends on the baby. DS2 was basically a 3 hourly feeder, except during growth spurts, for 7 months. He then did 3 weeks of sleeping 10+ hours at night but was still feeding roughly 3 hourly and sometimes "cluster" feeding in the evening (usually associated with a newborn). # weeks later we were back to 3 hourly feeding and he was waking at lest 3 times overnight, at least one of those times to be fed. I night weaned him at 11 months (started at 9 months) so he was going about 7ish hours overnight without a feed by the time we were done and again, 3 hourly during the day until he self weaned at 18.5 months.

I'd offer more often, and I agree with the PP who said try feeding her when drowsy or mostly asleep.

As for the weight gain.....I've had 2 "poor" gainers, despite what they were fed...sometimes they are just meant to be small. IMO ANY weight gain is great and you're kind of damned if you do damned if you don't anyway. If they gain alot of weight quickly they imply they are being fed too much and if they don't gain weight quickly at all then you're not feeding them enough. Makes me .

Thanks everyone. My Plunket nurse (who is a gem) says to encourage her when I can, I like that way of putting it. She also reckons it might give her the idea.

mostly she grizzles and refuses to eat, but will sometimes go "oh yeah" and gup it. She's a happy little thing too bust smiling at everyone and not into demanding feeds, except evenings/night.

Despite a not very hungry day, she wolfed down nearly two ice cubes of veggies and two boobs before sleep tonight! She is actually chubbying up a bit!

Have had good success with drowsy feeding, and some eat,play, sleep cycles too.