Hey mama,
Looking out for baby’s early hunger cues like rooting or turning of the head would be better as baby is less frustrated and will nurse or feed calmly with less fussing.
Crying is a late hunger cue where baby is frustrated and May fuss more - and this may become a tug of war between baby and you.
If you are latching baby or breastfeeding or feeding expressed breastmilk , I’d advise to feed on demand.
If you’re bottle feeding and baby is on FM, 2-3 hours is the advised duration. However some articles do recommend that you feed baby whenever he’s hungry.
If you’re breastfeeding and baby sleeps for longer than 3 hours, it’s best you remove milk from your breast (with a MOTN pump session) to maintain a good BM supply.
According to articles and experts, it is advised that baby be woken up for a feed if baby is 2 weeks old or younger and sleeping for more than 4 hours.
To avoid the late hunger cue, you could put in a dream feed but have baby a little more upright so that baby is in control of the amount of milk he’s drinking.
Jamielene Fernandez