Cluster Feeding Day 2 (How To Survive)

January 31, 2022 Stacey Stewart

Soon after birth, you’ll probably find your baby’s awake and alert.

But in the hours after that… you'll likely notice that your baby is very sleepy. (after all, getting born is hard work!)

It’s normal for babies to kind of zonk out for the first 24-48 hours after they are born.

After that initial snooze-fest, however, babies tend to WAKE UP.

And at that point, they are hungry! Many parents find that the evening of the second day after birth is a bit of a cluster feeding festival.

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While you may have been told that your baby should breastfeed every 2-3 hours, your baby may suddenly be rooting around for the breast almost constantly, and wanting to be breastfeeding for hours at a time. Your 2 day old baby may want to breastfeed all night long even!

It’s common for babies to want to nurse every hour, or even more, when they’re cluster feeding.

Is It Common For Baby’s To Cluster Feed On The 2nd Day and Night?

Cluster feeding on day 2 is very common, but it can also be stressful and confusing for new parents. If you and your baby are still figuring out latching, you may find this constant nursing frustrating.

But you can also think it of as an opportunity to practice latching. If you’re having trouble doing this alone, getting a lactation specialist to help you is worth its weight in gold.

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But even if latching is working for you, you may find it overwhelming to be nursing this often, and you may wonder if your baby is getting enough milk. In fact, cluster feeding on day 2 often makes parents suspect that they are starving their babies, and that’s why their babies want to constantly be on the breast.

Why Do Baby’s Cluster Feed On Day 2?

Keep in mind that in the early days, you aren’t producing a full volume of breast milk yet. You’re producing a substance called colostrum, your baby’s first milk. Colostrum is small in volume, but it packs a punch nutritionally, and is full of immune-boosting agents for your baby.

So part of the reason why your baby seems to be coming to breast so frequently is that they want to get as much colostrum as possible. Not only that, but in those early days, your baby’s belly is quite small (about the size of a marble), so it makes sense that they need to take in a bunch of small meals, very often.

In other words, cluster feeding on day 2 isn’t a problem—it’s totally normal, and it’s what babies do so that they can practice breastfeeding, get as much colostrum as possible, digest easier, and prime your breasts to be ready to make mature milk. That’s right: in just a few days, your milk supply will increase substantially, and all this constant feeding will start to slow down a bit.

What To Do If Someone Questions Your Baby’s Cluster Feeding On Day 2

One of the hardest things about cluster feeding on day 2 is that if you’re still in the hospital, it can be hard to get privacy. If you have visitors, they may be telling you that your baby is nursing too much, and that they must be hungry. Often, visitors see this behavior and pressure you to give your baby a bottle of formula.

Again, try to remember that this behavior is completely normal. Colostrum is all your baby needs now, and if they’re coming to the breast very frequently, they’re acting like a typical newborn, and getting enough to eat!

Try to go with your instincts here, and if the people around you are being discouraging, you can ask them to leave.

Remember, you just had a baby, and it’s perfectly okay to request some private time to rest and nurse your baby.

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