How to log a breastfeeding session without thinking twice
Updated
A Chelsea and Westminster NHS assessment tool lists what a midwife observes and asks about at a feed: urine output, stools, weight, the baby's wellbeing, the number of feeds, the sucking pattern, the length of the feed, whether the second breast was offered, and how the baby behaves during and after. Most of that list is exactly what a log holds — and most of it is what you cannot reconstruct three days later.
What a clinician actually asks about a feed
That NHS tool is used at specific moments: in hospital after 48 hours and before discharge, at the day 5 visit, and at the first community visit. It is a checklist, and it is built around things a parent reports rather than things a machine measures.
Which means the quality of the answer depends on the quality of your memory, unless something wrote it down. Number of feeds, length of feed, second breast offered: three of the columns come straight from you.
How often is normal?
The AAP and the CDC both put it at 8 to 12 times every 24 hours in the early weeks. La Leche League International says 8 to 12, or even more, day and night. The WHO frames it differently and better: breastfeed responsively, as often as the child wants, day and night.
The NHS assessment tool sets a floor rather than a target — at least 8 to 10 feeds in 24 hours after the baby is 48 hours old — and puts "fewer than 8 feeds in the last 24 hours" in its problem column. A floor is not a quota: many babies sit well above it and that is not a sign of anything.
NHS Grampian adds the reassurance that gets lost: it is really important not to take frequent feeding, on its own, as a sign that you are not making enough milk.
How long should a feed last?
The same NHS tool gives the widest clinical range you will find: 5 to 30 minutes at most feeds. Its problem column is only for feeds that are consistently under 5 minutes or over 40. Everything in between is just your baby.
A timer is there to record, not to ration. La Leche League International notes that scheduling feeds, especially in the first six weeks, has been correlated with slow weight gain. So stop when the baby unlatches, not when the screen hits a round number.
Which side, and why the log should remember it
The NHS tool observes whether the second breast was offered, and treats two things as problems: restricting the baby to one breast per feed, and insisting on two. The healthy version is that the second breast is offered and the baby takes it or not, according to appetite.
That is a judgement you make at the breast. What you cannot do at 4 a.m. is remember which side started the last one. The log does that part.
Cluster feeding is not six failures
NHS Grampian describes babies feeding nearly constantly with small breaks, more common in the evenings, and calls it normal — it helps establish your supply. Growth spurts, it adds, can last a few days.
A log that shows that evening as six separate rows against a daily target is actively unhelpful. In Wibou an evening stretch can be one session with more than one side.
Expressed milk belongs on its own row
The NHS asks you to label and date expressed milk before storing it, which is a logging instruction whether or not it calls itself one. Its storage limits: up to 8 days in a fridge at 4 °C or lower, 3 days if you are not sure of the fridge temperature, 2 weeks in an ice compartment, up to 6 months in a freezer at −18 °C, and 24 hours in a cool bag with ice packs.
Those are British figures and they do not travel. Santé publique France gives 48 hours in the fridge and 4 months in the freezer for the same milk. If you are reading this in France, follow the French numbers — this is not a case where averaging is sensible.
If you express exclusively, La Leche League GB suggests ideally 8 to 12 sessions in 24 hours for the first three or four months, including at least one overnight, ideally between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., at roughly 15 to 20 minutes a session.
Logging a feed in Wibou
Start the timer one-handed, pick a side, and it keeps running on the Lock Screen. Switch sides with the same control. Save when it is over, and the other parent sees the same row.
Forgot to start it? Add the session afterwards with an approximate time. A timestamp five minutes off is still useful; a missing feed is not. Pumping has its own tracker — a volume and a time — so it never dilutes what happened at the breast.
What a feeding log does not do
It does not tell you whether feeding is going well. No row in the app replaces a weight check, an examination, or a lactation consultant watching a latch. You record the number; your clinician reads it. If feeds hurt, or something feels off, that is a conversation to have with a midwife, a health visitor or an IBCLC — with a fortnight of facts in hand instead of a blur.
Questions
Do I need a separate row for every cluster feed?
No. NHS Grampian describes near-constant evening feeding as normal and supply-building. One session with more than one side beats six fragments you will never open again.
How long should a feed last?
The NHS breastfeeding assessment tool puts most feeds between 5 and 30 minutes, and only flags feeds that are consistently under 5 or over 40. Within that range, length tells you very little.
How do I log pumping without mixing it with nursing?
Use the pumping tracker, not the nursing session. You record a volume and a time, and it stays separate from time at the breast.