Feeding on demand or to a routine?

[Lu28]

After reading a certain book, I've been feeding Aisling around every 3 hours or earlier than that obviously if she gets hungry earlier. Sometimes she's just not interested and will suck lazily for a bit before giving up. I was talking to the health visitor this morning who suggested just waiting until Aisling demands to be fed unless I'm starting to feel uncomfortably full.

On the walk home, I started wondering about a couple of things...

- If she's sleepy in this weather, will she wake herself up when she's hungry or just sleep through? It doesn't matter how hungry she is, she'll always drop off in the car or the pram etc.
- The book I read worked on the basis that you need to get as much milk into them as possible during the day so they sleep for longer at night - would going on her schedule mean she'll be up all night?
- Aisling doesn't generally seem interested in the morning feed and I'd be tempted to still get her to have this one just to get the day going and she does seem to feed well when she's started.
- Will going on her schedule make it a bit more difficult to make sure she naps enough during the day?

I had been wanting to get Aisling into a bit of a routine to give me a bit of sanity but she's resisting it pretty strongly! I had said to DH that she doesn't even seem to have her own pattern but I guess I won't notice it if I keep prompting her to feed...

 

[hypnorm]

I have never done routines with either of mine, if they are showing signs of being hungry i have sat and fed. i found that they both seem to have got in to their own pattern. so i know vaguely when she will be hungry. and occassionally she will have a top up between feeds. even more so in this weather as i think she is thirsty.

I don;t like books that try to force routines it makes things hard although some people swear by them i wouldnt recommend them for breast feeding mums.

 

[Mervs Mum]

Demand all the way for me - I think they fine their routine if you just let them.

A friend read a well know book which advises a strict feeding and sleeping routine. She followed it with her baby who was born 3 days after mine. Hebe fell into a routine on her own and she slept through sooner and I think is more chilled and flexible because we are. We have been away on hols and out and about with zero stress and they went away once and swore never again!!

 

[Jemima]

After reading a certain book, I've been feeding Aisling around every 3 hours or earlier than that obviously if she gets hungry earlier. Sometimes she's just not interested and will suck lazily for a bit before giving up. I was talking to the health visitor this morning who suggested just waiting until Aisling demands to be fed unless I'm starting to feel uncomfortably full.

On the walk home, I started wondering about a couple of things...

- If she's sleepy in this weather, will she wake herself up when she's hungry or just sleep through? It doesn't matter how hungry she is, she'll always drop off in the car or the pram etc.
- The book I read worked on the basis that you need to get as much milk into them as possible during the day so they sleep for longer at night - would going on her schedule mean she'll be up all night?
- Aisling doesn't generally seem interested in the morning feed and I'd be tempted to still get her to have this one just to get the day going and she does seem to feed well when she's started.
- Will going on her schedule make it a bit more difficult to make sure she naps enough during the day?

I had been wanting to get Aisling into a bit of a routine to give me a bit of sanity but she's resisting it pretty strongly! I had said to DH that she doesn't even seem to have her own pattern but I guess I won't notice it if I keep prompting her to feed...

For us, breastfeeding has always been on demand. I feel it's the only way to ensure your supply meets their demand.

I think you will probably find that Aisling falls into her own little routine soon enough. In the meantime, you could create routines with bedtimes, nap time, playtime etc and that might help her to settle into one?

 

[coccyx]

Demand fed all my 4. I don't eat if I'm not hungry. At such a young age i can not see how trying to fill them up in the day means they sleep through the night. They only have small stomachs so a limit to want they can take.
I would always offer the breast before i went to bed, dream feeding in a way.

 

[CountingDown]

Olivia is demand fed and sleeps really well through the night now. She slept last night from 10pm until 5am, then from 5.30 until 8.30am and has followed a similar pattern for over a week now.

Because she sleeps so well, I dont mind that she has not routine throught the day yet. I can sort of guess when she is going to feed but most of the time I just follow her cues.

 

[Mervs Mum]

^^^ Thats how I felt!! I didnt give a flying fandango about how often I fed during the day so long as she slept well at night!! I cant see how 'that book' even works with BF babies when BM is generally digested within 2 hours There must be a lot of screaming little babies out there

 

[thelilbump]

We kind of fed on demand, initially at least. whenever my baby told me she was hungry, night or day, she'd be fed. However, my daughter has never really been a complaining baby and would often go hours without food so i had to begin giving her food without her requesting, so if she'd was getting towards the 6 hour mark with no food i would sit and feed her.

 

[Lu28]

The book basically says not to let baby go longer than 3 hours without offering a feed but if they're hungry before 3 hours then feed them straight away - of course if you do, the rest of the routine goes out the window so I can't see how it possibly works with a real life baby!

Thanks for all your comments, think we'll go with the flow for a little bit and see how she does

 

[Mervs Mum]

I havent read it, so correct me if I'm wrong, but dont you have to bath them at a set time and have them in bed at a set time too - like 7pm? I think what about all the poor Dad's who dont get home till 6.30pm and only get to snatch 5 mins with their LOs before they go to bed.

 

[Lu28]

Yep, that's the one! Baby also has to nap at set times, have no idea how that's meant to work!

 

[Mervs Mum]

All sounds like a lot of hard work to me......

 

[thelilbump]

All sounds like a lot of hard work to me......

I agree.


If it's the book i'm thinkin of i remember my hairdresser warning me off it when i was preggers and so did the mw who ran antenatal classes. It's upto you what you want to do tho. Personally, i just don't see how a book can dictate a babies routine

 

[Lu28]

Well according to 'the book' I think I should be getting her ready for a nap around about now but she's happily kicking about in her baby gym - if she's happy I'm happy!

 

[Mervs Mum]

^^^And that, for me, is the key

 

[thelilbump]

if it ain't broke don't fix it!

 

[Brockie]

my friend follows this book to the letter!!! i had been warned off it by so many people, when i was at friends house couple of weeks ago i saw it on the coffee table and felt like it had the power of the ring in Lord of the Rings!!! one minute i was looking at it across the room, next thing i knew it was in my hand and i was stressing about how i didn't drink a glass of water at set time before i fed Freddie!

so i put it down and was glad i didn't have a copy xx

I have always fed Fred on demand, which has pretty much always been every 3 hours or so xx when my friend described the things 'the book' told her to do we found I was doing alot of them just by following what Fred wanted to do xxx

 

[Mervs Mum]

@ the power of the ring!

 

[Blah11]

I BF on demand and it works well for us at the moment. I have routine with her meals now I'm weaning and she has somewhat of a set bath and bedtime but not with her BFs.

 

[mama2b]

I feed on demand to although after the first two weeks a routine sort of came about.

I would say Lucas is fed around every three hours. It all depends on what we are doing that day, if we are at home all day then its pretty much 3 hourly but if we go out its all over the place !

For me the problem with the routines in the books are that there is pretty much no flexibility, I actually like the idea of a set routine but I found the ones I looked at almost impossible to do.

For example one routine that I tried has a set time for getting up with baby every morning, the first day I tried this Lucas actually woke up dead on time wanting feeding the problem was at the 'designated' times for playing/sleeping he wasn't interested wanted to do something totally different. The other thing that I struggled with, was in the early days when id been up all night with a newborn and completely exhausted I didn't really fancy dragging myself out of bed at 6.30am when I could of got a few more hours kip !