How Many Times A Day Do You Eat And Drink?
by Cordelia Uys, breastfeeding counsellor
April 2025
When I used to facilitate antenatal breastfeeding workshops for the NCT, there was an exercise I always asked parents-to-be to do. I would hand out paper and pens and ask each of them to think back over the past 24 hours and write a tick for every time they had had anything to eat or drink.
I asked them to write just one tick whether they'd had a three-course meal, a snack or just some water, and then I’d ask them to count up their ticks and tell us how many they had.
Some had as few as 8 (though seldom fewer) some had more than 40. (Think how many people carry a bottle of water around with them and take multiple sips throughout the day.)
I'd then ask them to imagine how they'd feel if they were really thirsty but had to space all their drinks 3 hours apart?
Or how they'd feel if instead of eating and drinking when they felt the urge, they had to follow someone else's eating and drinking patterns?
I also asked if they always only ever ate and drank for hunger and thirst? Did they ever sit down at the pub or in a restaurant and enjoy refreshments with friends and family?
My aims was to encourage parents to put themselves in their baby's shoes. It's still common for parents to be told not to feed their baby too often and to stretch the length of time between feeds. But there are several reasons why this isn't desirable.
Breastmilk (or formula) are providing both food and drink for babies. Even as adults we find it unpleasant if we have to go a long time feeling hungry or thirsty. Just imagine how much worse that must be for a baby who has no concept of time.
Making breastfed babies go longer stretches between feeds will often have a detrimental impact on their mother's milk supply. When she breastfeeds responsively (which might be 10-14 feeds in 24 hours or more), her breasts get the message to make the right amount of milk for her baby.
UNICEF also recommends responsive feeding for bottle fed babies because it's kinder and because consuming large volumes of milk in one go stretches a baby's stomach. Shockingly many formula brands recommend only offering 5-6 feeds a day from 1 month.
With many thanks to @jojofordillustration for her wonderful drawings.
Links:
https://www.cordeliauys.co.uk/how-breastmilk-production-works