Breastfeeding On Demand vs A Schedule: Which Is Better?

Breastfeeding on demand has been the evolutionary go to method for nursing babies for centuries.

Overall, this is the least complicated, most natural way to feed a baby.

Notice I didn’t say it’s necessarily the easiest. Breastfeeding is by no means “the easy way out” when it comes to infant feeding.

Only as certain opinions and methods started being introduced did it start to become common practice or recommended by some physicians to start putting baby’s on strict feeding schedules.

And with so many opinions and information circulating about whether you should feed your baby on demand or on a schedule, it can be hard for a momma to know what to do!

Taking care of moms and newborns for years as a nurse and now having breastfed two of my own babies for over a year and a half, I have some valuable insight on this subject to offer you.

First, let’s discuss the basics.

What is on demand feeding?

On demand feeding is also known as response feeding. I’ve also heard it called feeding to baby’s “cues.”

Feeding on demand simply refers to feeding your baby (whether with breastmilk or formula) according to a baby’s hunger cues rather than following a schedule.

Rather than closely tracking your baby’s feedings and intentionally holding them off a certain amount of time until the next feeding, you simply feed your baby if they begin to show hunger cues.

What are feeding cues?

Typically when a baby is hungry, they will begin to demonstrate signs of that hunger.

Common signs of hunger include:

Rooting (turning the head from side to side with the mouth open)
Smacking of the lips and tongue
Bringing hands to the mouth and even trying to suck on them
Clenched fists
Crying (although this is actually considered a LATE sign of hunger. Essentially at this point baby has basically become HANGRY!)

Regardless of what Grandma, Aunt Sally, or your friend with 4 older kids might tell you, baby’s DO NOT manipulate you for feedings.

Babies, especially in the first half year of life, demonstrate hunger cues when they are truly hungry.

Promptly responding to those cues helps build the baby’s trust in you as their caregiver.

Failing to respond to hunger cues or continually holding them off to meet a certain time restriction, can actually be dangerous for babies both physically and emotionally.

Should I breastfeed my newborn on demand?

Newborn babies, whether breast or formula fed, should be fed on demand when they demonstrate hunger cues.

In the first 3 months of life, or the newborn phase, babies should eat about 8-12 times in a 24 hour period.

Due to breastmilk being so easily digestible for babies, they’re able to digest it within about an hour and a half.

This means it’s not uncommon whatsoever for a baby to want to breastfeed every 2 hours.

Formula is thicker and takes a little longer for babies to digest.

This does result in formula babies being able to go longer in between feedings.

But you still want to offer formula fed babies a feeding about every 3-4 hours as newborns.

Should You Wake A Sleeping Baby To Feed Them?

Although feeding on demand means feeding when baby shows signs of hunger, there are some instances where you will actually want to wake your sleeping baby to initiate a feeding.

Babies tend to be born nocturnal little creatures and typically have their days and nights confused.

A good way to help correct this is to not let your baby sleep longer than a 2 hour stretch during daytime hours.

This will help your baby to start consolidating nighttime sleep, meaning YOU get more much needed nighttime sleep too!

This will also ensure your baby isn’t going TOO long between feedings, especially during the day.

If a baby, especially a newborn, has gone more than 3 hours between feedings, they tend to make up for it after and may cluster feed.

While this may be just fine, and often babies do cluster feed in the evenings no matter what, the goal is to try to get the majority of your baby’s calories in during the day.

This will help you move towards establishing a feeding routine (not a strict schedule) that will allow for longer spacing between feedings at night. This equals more sleep for everyone!

A good rule of thumb to remember when it comes to when to wake a sleeping baby:

If your baby has been napping longer than 2 hours during the day, go ahead and wake them up to help start consolidating their nighttime sleep.
If it’s daytime and has been longer than 3 hours since your baby’s last nursing session, go ahead and wake them to offer a feeding.
If your baby is in the first couple weeks of life and hasn’t yet reached their birth weight, don’t let them go longer than 4 hours at night without eating. Once your pediatrician clears you to not have to wake your baby at night to feed, you can start letting your baby wake you up for feedings.

5 Benefits of Breastfeeding On Demand

There are several benefits of breastfeeding on demand for both mom and baby.

1. Breastfeeding On Demand Helps Establish A Healthy Milk Supply From The Beginning.

Milk production actually starts in pregnancy in the form of colostrum.

Once the placenta is delivered after your baby is born, your body begins to undergo a major hormonal shift.

Progesterone and estrogen plummet and prolactin increases.

Prolactin is the hormone that tells your body to make milk.

Once that happens, a process called lactogenesis begins.

Simply put, lactogenesis is the process of your body making breastmilk for your baby.

It’s recommended that your baby’s first feeding is initiated within the first hour of life to also help that process of lactogenesis.

At this point, you have a reserve of colostrum that is the perfect for your baby the first days of life.

Breastfeeding works on a supply and demand system.

Meaning that it’s important to have enough nipple stimulation and emptying of the colostrum or milk in your breasts to signal to your body to make more.

For this reason, it’s important to breastfeed on demand those first few days of your baby’s life.

Babies will often “empty” the majority of their mother’s reserve of colostrum the first day or two of life and then begin to “cluster feed” around 24 hours old.

This doesn’t mean your breasts truly are empty of milk, but you do typically have a drop in milk supply after the first day or two once your baby has nursed a few times.

That’s why it’s important to allow your baby to cluster feed in order to signal to your body to continue to make more milk.

Cluster feeding is exactly what it sounds like. Your baby wants to cluster their feedings all together. This can feel like your baby is constantly nursing.

Many women fear during this time that they either don’t have enough milk or any milk at all and will question if they should supplement.

Cluster feeding is extremely NORMAL newborn breastfeeding behavior and new moms should be encouraged by their babies wanting to feed often.

While it can be very exhausting, it’s also very temporary and is exactly what your baby needs to be doing to signal to your body to continue to make more milk.

Your body will then start producing more and more colostrum that will then start transitioning into more mature milk.

When this happens, we call it your milk “coming in.”

So breastfeeding on demand when your baby shows those hunger cues is the best and fastest way to get your breastmilk to transition and to allow your mature milk to fully come in.

For most women, their milk fully comes in within 72 hours after delivering their baby. If this is your first baby or if you’ve had a c section, this may take a day or two longer.

If you’ve had a vaginal delivery and this is not your first baby, your milk may come in sooner.

Rest assured though that just because your milk hasn’t fully come in, that doesn’t mean your breasts are “empty” or that you don’t have any milk.

You can usually hand express a little bit of colostrum to see that you are in fact producing milk for your baby.

And in those first few days of life, your baby’s stomach is tiny and they really don’t require that much milk.

A newborn’s stomach is about the size of a cherry on the first day of life and only grows to about the size of a walnut by the third day.

Trust that as long as you are breastfeeding your newborn on demand according to their hunger cues, your body is making exactly the perfect amount that they need.

Contrary to popular belief, it is actually extremely rare that a women just doesn’t produce enough milk for their baby. Especially if they are feeding early (within the first hour of a baby’s life or as soon as possible) and often.

2. On Demand Breastfeeding Helps Boost Milk Supply.

So we’ve established how important it is to allow your baby to breastfeed on demand those first few days of life.

But this continues even after your milk has fully come in, all throughout the first few months that your baby is a newborn.

Studies have repeatedly shown that breastfeeding on demand directly correlates to higher milk supply and production.

On the flip side of that, sticking to strict scheduled feedings correlates to a decrease in milk supply and production.

This all goes back to that supply and demand aspect.

It’s also important to note here that making sure to also offer FULL FEEDINGS is important for several reasons.

What is a full feeding and how do you make sure your baby is getting full feeds?

A full feeding means that your baby is taking in enough volume of milk at each feeding to be fully satisfied.

This helps prevent your baby from just “snacking” ALL day (some short feedings here and there is fine of course – always follow baby’s cues.)

The main reason this is important is because when your breasts are only partially drained, that signals to your body to begin to produce less milk.

And vice versa, when your breasts are properly “emptied” (they’re never FULLY emptied, but rather drained to the point of becoming softer than when full), that signals to your body to make more milk.

In a nutshell, this is the key to boosting and maintaining a healthy milk supply.

So not only is it important to breastfeed as often as your baby demands, but also for as long as they demand whenever possible.

Now of course life is life and we can’t always just be sitting around nursing our babies all day every day.

But as long as you are ensuring your baby is taking full feedings, this will typically allow them to go a little longer in between feedings than they would if you were cutting feedings short.

The main ways to ensure your baby is getting full feeds is to:

Allow them to nurse for as long as they are continuing to suckle until they come off on their own and/or seem fully satisfied.
Offering both breasts at each feeding. This doesn’t mean it’s bad if your baby falls asleep and only takes one side at a feeding. Your job is to simply OFFER the other breast. Like I once heard a lactation consultant say, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t force them to drink.”
Not cutting feedings short. Doing this every now and then is of course inevitable. But for the most part always try to let your baby be the one to signal to you when they are done feeding.

3. Feeding On Demand Doesn’t Require You To Track Feedings.

One of the biggest advantages to breastfeeding on demand vs a schedule is that your day isn’t ruled by a clock.

For the first 6 months of my first baby’s life, I used a feeding app on my phone and tracked every single feeding and every single diaper.

It may have been the inner nurse in me that propelled me to do this but it definitely did more harm for me than good mentally.

I was constantly thinking “She’s wanting to eat AGAIN?? ALREADY?? She’s been nursing for SO LONG!”

Now I will say my first baby was 100% a Boobie freak and definitely did nurse often and for long periods of time. And she grew some pretty substantial rolls to show for it!

But as soon as I stopped tracking our nursing sessions and just followed her lead, things became so much less stressful.

To be honest, I don’t think I tracked a single feeding for my second daughter. And I don’t really plan to with my third either.

Sometimes there’s benefits to tracking feedings and diapers, especially in the early days of your baby’s life.

But if you start to feel like your life is revolving around a clock and you’re finding yourself obsessing over how long your baby is going between feedings and how long each session is lasting, do your favor and ditch the tracker.

4. Breastfeeding On Demand Can Increase the Bond Between Mom and Baby.

When you’re watching your baby’s hunger cues and responding to them accordingly, it may surprise you just how quickly you and your baby begin to fall into a rhythm.

I definitely felt this happen much quicker with my second baby than with my first and I think it was mostly due to the fact that for the most part, I was simply responding to her hunger cues and breastfeeding her on demand.

Building trust is one of the most important developmental tasks during the first year of a baby’s life.

In fact in developmental psychology, this stage of human development is actually called trust vs mistrust.

Every time you respond to your baby’s need to feed (or to be changed, held, etc) you are building their trust in you and teaching them that they are safe and loved.

This process of watching for and responding to your baby’s hunger cues creates a beautiful dance of nonverbal communication between a mother and her infant that creates a strong, lasting bond between them.

5. Breastfeeding To Baby’s Hunger Cues Helps To Ensure Proper Physical, Cognitive, and Emotional Growth and Development For Babies.

I touched on much of this in the previous sections but to sum it up, breastfeeding on demand helps give your baby the best chance of proper growth and development in all aspects.

When babies are fed often and until satisfied, they are much more likely to adequately grow and gain weight.

Building trust with your baby is essential in promoting proper emotional development in infancy.

Responding to their hunger cues and feeding them accordingly is one great way to do that.

And lastly, some studies have actually shown an increase in infants’ cognitive function when they are breastfed on demand vs on a strict schedule.

How Long Should You Breastfeed On Demand?

Now notice that so far in this article, any time I’ve mentioned the downsides or detriments of scheduled feedings, I typically refer to STRICT schedules.

This is because not all feeding schedules are actually bad.

What can be bad for a number of reasons is forcing you and your baby to adhere to a STRICT schedule, especially when it comes to feedings.

This looks like ignoring your baby’s feeding cues and in and intentionally holding them off until the next the next scheduled feeding.

That’s not to say that having ANY form of a feeding schedule is bad.

But I encourage you focus on a rhythm or routine vs a schedule.

Settling into a flexible routine or rhythm over a strict schedule can be the best thing for both Mom and Baby.

How To Establish A Baby-Led Feeding ROUTINE Rather Than A Strict Schedule

Many babies will naturally settle into their own routines and rhythms as they get a little older.

Typically by around 3-4 months, babies will start to go longer stretches between feedings at night.

By 6 months of age, many babies will only wake once a night to feed.

Some may even start sleeping through the night by this point!

My top tip for getting your baby to settle into a feeding routine is to focus on stretching out intervals between feedings at night, but not so much during the day time.

As long as your baby is feeding the recommended amount of times in a 24 hour period, it’s ok for them to go longer periods between feedings at night.

This is actually a really good thing because it means they’ll begin to consolidate their sleep which means YOU get more uninterrupted sleep as well!

However, this means that if a baby starts going all night without a feeding, they will inevitably need to feed more frequently during the day.

This ensures your baby will get enough volume and calories to continue to properly grow and develop.

This means the first entire year, your baby may need to eat every 2-3 hours during the daytime. Sometimes more if they’re going through a growth spurt or developmental leap.

But at long as they start to stretch out the space between feedings more and more at night, that’s a win.

I hope this post has been helpful for you to better understand some of the benefits of breastfeeding on demand.

Thank you so much for reading! And as always, feel free to share or pin this post to refer back to later!