The clock looms large in the lives of many breastfeeding families. When a new baby is born, some parents are told or make assumptions about:

How many minutes their baby should breastfeed

How long their baby should be satisfied between feedings

The longest stretch of time their baby should sleep

Does it make sense to focus on time during the early weeks of breastfeeding? Let’s take a closer look.

What Do Number of Minutes Spent Breastfeeding Tell Us?

One common recommendation is to make sure newborns feed at least 10-15 minutes on each breast and take both breasts at each feeding. But that’s not always possible.

One mother and baby I saw in my private practice stand out in my mind. This mother called me with concerns about her 5-day-old daughter. The baby was born at just 5 pounds and she would only take one breast for 5 minutes before completely shutting down. She also refused one breast completely. I scheduled a home visit and brought my trusty scale. Unlike scales for sale at baby stores, this one was so accurate (to 2 grams) that it could reliably measure baby’s milk intake at the breast.

First I weighed her little girl with her clothes on for a “before” weight. With some small tweaks in positioning, we convinced her to take the breast she had previously refused. I watched her as she nursed. I didn’t see much jaw movement, and I didn’t hear any swallowing. Sure enough, after 5 minutes, she came off her mother’s breast and was unwilling to continue.

I put her back on the scale and to my amazement discovered she had taken 2 oz. (60 mL) of milk, way more milk than most babies this age take during a breastfeeding. (At 5 days, average milk intake per feeding is more like 1 oz., or 30 mL.) When this mother realized that her baby was such a fast, effective feeder, she relaxed. Her baby was doing fine.

Later that day, I saw another mother and her 10-day-old baby boy. This mother was worried because her little guy was spending more time nursing than she was told was normal, around 55 minutes at each feeding. This time my scale showed that he consumed the same amount of milk (2 oz. or 60 mL) in 55 minutes as the baby girl had taken earlier in the day in 5 minutes. Rather than being a fast eater, like the little girl, this baby boy was a slow eater.