Feeding is the question new parents ask most, and the one where conflicting advice does the most damage. What matters isn't hitting a number — it's the pattern.
Newborns typically feed eight to twelve times in twenty-four hours — roughly every two to three hours, counted from the start of one feed to the start of the next, not from the end. That spacing stretches gradually over the first months as stomach capacity grows.
Cluster feeding — several feeds packed close together, often in the evening — is normal and frequently mistaken for low supply or a hungry, unsatisfied baby. It usually isn't either.
Tammy Gold, LCSW, spent years matching families with nannies before writing Secrets of the Nanny Whisperer (Penguin). Today she works beside families, and their agencies, as a neutral expert: defining the job, interviewing candidates, checking references and setting up the first 30 days.
Two traps: rigid clock-feeding that ignores hunger cues, and constant second-guessing that turns every feed into an anxious event. Babies feed better with a calm adult, and calm comes from knowing the pattern rather than the number.
Bring feeding questions to your pediatrician or a lactation consultant — that's their expertise. What I work on with families is the part around it: the anxiety, the conflicting advice from relatives, and getting every caregiver feeding the same way.
Tammy filmed this segment as the on-camera parenting expert for Howcast's newborn care series.
Watch on Howcast →The complete therapist-built system for the first year: feeding and sleep frameworks, soothing scripts, daily rhythm builders, caregiver handoff sheets, and the milestone tracking that tells you what’s normal and what isn’t.
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