What is cluster feeding?

It has a name, which helps

We asked what cluster feeding actually means, in the middle of a week where the evenings had become one continuous feed.

Knowing it was a recognised pattern with a name changed how it felt. It stopped being evidence that something had gone wrong and became a thing that happens.

Several feeds close together — sometimes almost continuously — usually late afternoon into evening. She feeds, comes off, seems settled for ten minutes, then wants more.

It turns up most in the early months, around growth spurts, and often alongside the general evening fussiness that everything else in that stretch produces.

It's also very common right before a longer stretch of sleep, which is some consolation if you can hold on.

It is not proof your supply has failed

This is the thing that causes the most damage, because it's the obvious conclusion. She's feeding constantly, therefore she isn't getting enough, therefore my milk isn't enough.

Usually none of that follows. Frequent feeding is one of the ways supply is driven up, so a cluster-feeding evening is often the system working rather than failing.

The honest check is the same as always — wet nappies, and weight over weeks. If those are fine, the evening is just an evening.

How to survive it rather than fix it

There isn't a fix. There's setting yourself up before it starts.

Food, a large drink and something to watch or read within arm's reach by five o'clock. A comfortable place to sit that you don't mind being in for two hours.

And swapping over if there's someone to swap with, even for twenty minutes. It's a long stretch to do alone every night.