eating habits is this normal?

Its a growth spurt, or whatever. Its fine.

Actually it is more normal to nurse multiple times per hour (for very short periods) than only every few hours. On societies where moms nurse an average of 4 times per hour they have never heard of mastitis or plugged ducts.

http://www.todaysparent.com/article.jsp?content=12...

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.

http://www.breastfeed.com/articles/newborn-and-inf...

Breast milk is natural and digests very quickly – usually within two hours. Therefore, breastfed babies eat often. In the early weeks, they may eat eight to 20 times a day – or more. It depends.

As a lactation consultant, I frequently hear moms say, "Well I tried to breastfeed my first child but they always wanted to eat, and my milk could never fill them up like formula did. They were always hungry." Get it? The formula makes them feel very full, but is that good for them? Not really. Formula is deficient in all immunological properties

I then ask the mothers, "Before you changed to formula, was your baby gaining weight well and having plenty of wet diapers and bowel movements?"

"Oh, yes," they say. "That was going well." I have come to understand that the reason these moms quit is not that their baby is not growing well or that they did not have enough milk, but because they didn't want to feed as often as the baby needed to eat and felt that by switching to an artificial food, the baby would be "happier" and "more content." Their baby would behave more like TV babies. Their perception was that something was wrong because their babies ate often. Perhaps that feeling was reinforced by "helpful" friends or family members.

So I Nursed Him Every 45 Minutes

http://www.llli.org//NB/Law45com.html

"He Can't Be Hungry. He Just Ate!"

http://www.normalfed.com/Continuing/hungry.html

http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detsleepthrough.html

Human children are designed (whether you believe by millions of years of evolution, or by God, it doesn't matter) -- to nurse *very* frequently, based on the composition of the milk of the species, the fact that all higher primates (Primates are the zoological Order to which humans belong, higher primates include monkeys and apes) keep their offspring in the mother's arms or on her back for several years, the size of the young child's stomach, the rapidity with which breast milk is digested, the need for an almost constant source of nutrients to grow that huge brain (in humans, especially), and so on. By very frequently, I mean 3-4 times per hour, for a few minutes each time. The way in which some young infants are fed in our culture -- trying to get them to shift to a 3-4 hour schedule, with feedings of 15-20 minutes at a time, goes against our basic physiology. But humans are very adaptable, and some mothers will be able to make sufficient milk with this very infrequent stimulation and draining of the breasts, and some children will be able to adapt to large meals spaced far apart. Unfortunately, some mothers don't make enough milk with this little nursing, and some babies can't adjust, and so are fussy, cry a lot, seem to want to nurse "before it is time" and fail to grow and thrive. Of course, usually the mother's body is blamed -- "You can't make enough milk" -- rather than the culturally-imposed expectation that feeding every 3-4 hours should be sufficient, and the mother begins supplementing with formula, which leads to a steady spiral downward to complete weaning from the breast.

This is totally normal. She will be going through several growth spurts when you feel like you can't keep up with all the food she wants. She'll slow down in a week or so. Congrats on your new baby!

3 weeks is a common time for a growth spurt. She could be having it a bit earlier than usual.

Keep nursing as she requires, and she should settle down again in a few days.

I wouldn't call that a problem. Babies are just like grownups, sometimes they are hungrier than other times. She is probably getting an increase in appeitite as she grows and the more she nurses, the more milk production you will have to keep up with her needs. If you feel she is just needing more suckling time, try a pacifier, some babies need it.

Keep up the good job!

This is a very normal pattern. When she's around 2-3 months old, she'll settle into an eating pattern that is easier to deal with... just get through the next few weeks.

Babies eating habits fluctuate. They do want to eat constantly when they are born. It's not unusual for her feeding needs to change.

She knows when she's hungry! This will not be the last time that her eating schedule changes...even into the toddler age. Just feed her when she wants to be fed at this point. If you notice no other problems with her then don't worry about it. If you have any concerns, always call your pediatrician's office.

Best Of Luck To You

Yep it's called cluster feeding, usually when they do that they sleep a bit longer afterwards...if you're lucky. My 10 week old does this, I do think it can be a growth spurt though.