How do you NOT feed on demand?

[babydust1990]

I feed on demand, and intend to continue but how do people who don't do it? I couldn't imagine letting LO scream for his bottle? Not being judgemental, just genuinley curious? Do you let your baby cry or do you have some kind of technique?

 

[skunkpixie]

I think as most mothers are advised to feed on demand by health professionals these days the majority of parents dont enforce a strict feeding regime, especially with young babies.
The one thing that annoys me is the "guideline anounts and number of feeds in 24 hours" chart that is printed on formula packets. I mean 4 hourly feedings from newborn is soooooooo far from what they actually need and want. It can lead to parents worrying that they are overfeeding and deter from the demand feeding approach that young babies need. Even the midwives in hospital said 2-3 hourly feeding is usual in the first few weeks, so the formula companies are way out with their guideline amounts. My DD2 would root and show hunger signs every 1.5-2.5 hours in the early days and I couldnt imagine making her wait until she was in full blown screams to feed her. xxx

 

[WishfulX1]

I demand feed my little girl and she's actually been going anywhere from 3 to 5 hours between feeds, she's still tiny 5lb 2oz today at 3weeks (was born at 33weeks) and I thought special care would suggest 2hourky feeds for her
But they and HV are happy that we don't go more than 5 and a half hours between feeds! Guidelines change so much don't they!

I know friends/family who don't demand feed and stuck to 4hourly feeds, they do this by giving boiled water if baby wants fed at 2 or 3 hours, they'll give an ounce of water to make them last longer! It's not something I'd do but I know people who do. X

 

[Sparkle2]

My bub is 5 weeks And we are in a nice little routine of 3 hourly feeds (and most of the time only one night feed at 3am) she takes 150mls each feed.
I just noticed she seemed to get hungry every three hours approx and so gradually shifted her onto a 6-9-12-3 schedule and it's so so much easier
Last bottle at 9pm after a bath. (bath, bottle, story, bed) and first bottle at 6am (ish..if she sleeps longer then I won't wake her, but just try and get her back on schedule for 9am) xx

 

[Meredith2010]

From my experience of routine feeding (both BF and FF) by feeding every 3 hours throughout the day, my LO very rarely cries or needs feeding before this. I certainly wouldn't deny her a feed if she was hungry, but because she never goes a long period without milk then she doesn't get to this point.

Personally, I find that scheduled feeding works on the principal of anticipating their hunger rather than reacting to it if you see what I mean? So demand feeding works on the basis that baby is hungry, baby cries, baby gets fed. Scheduled feeding is baby will be getting hungry soon so baby is fed before it gets to the point where it cries.

Especially in the early days both of mine would have slept for lengthy periods of time in the day (5 hours or so) without having a feed if I'd let them. So if I don't let them go long periods of time without feeding then they never get hungry enough to cry, but they've gone long enough that they are hungry enough to eat.

I've never and would never give water or anything to try and make a baby go longer between feeds - if you feed on a schedule that fits in with their natural feeding pattern then you shouldn't ever have to.

 

[HellBunny]

We always fed on demand but i was speaking to my friend the other day, her baby is 5 weeks and feeds 4 hourly, she says she doesn't feed him sooner because he is sick, so i did ask out of curiosity what she does if he wants to be fed before then, she said she gives him a dummy or rocks him etc. This wouldn't work with my LO as when he is hungry he won't have his dummy, well he will but gets annoyed nothing comes out of it! lol. My youngest feeds sometimes every 1 hour or 2 hours. My eldest was like this too but he went longer once he was well onto solids, so i expect the same will happen with my youngest x

 

[greenpear]

I feed on demand, and intend to continue but how do people who don't do it? I couldn't imagine letting LO scream for his bottle? Not being judgemental, just genuinley curious? Do you let your baby cry or do you have some kind of technique?

\i just right away put my LO on 3 hr schedule and I| had no screaming issues (I tried first week to do on demand and I had much more of a headache because I didnt' know if she was hungry or upset tummy or tired when she cried) after a week or so she learned to wake around her supposed feeding time. At night it's even better - after 9 pm feed \i don't feed till she wakes, and usually instead of waking at 12 am she wakes between 2 or 3 am but by then my breasts are so engorged that \i wake before her to express some anyways (I BF but schedule works for anyone).

 

[Kate&Lucas]

Personally, I find that scheduled feeding works on the principal of anticipating their hunger rather than reacting to it if you see what I mean? So demand feeding works on the basis that baby is hungry, baby cries, baby gets fed. Scheduled feeding is baby will be getting hungry soon so baby is fed before it gets to the point where it cries.

Totally agree with this
I used to consider myself feeding 'on-demand' but only because I anticipated when he'd be hungry and fed him according to that, which ended up a schedule of every four hours. I couldn't have waited for him to be crying with hunger before I fed him, but if he cried before a 'scheculed' feed and wanted a bottle, he'd get one. I can't remember it happening more than once or twice, though.

 

[SabrinaKat]

I, without realising it, follow the EASY plan, e.g. when he wakes up, EAT, then play ACTIVITY, then sleep. However, my LO has mild reflux and I actually will offer a bottle when he wakes up and then a little bit before nap-time, and it works for us (so far); it also works well with weaning, e.g. he woke up at 12.15 (nap from 11.15 to 12.15), we had a bottle at 12.30 and then before his next nap, I offered him some carrots, squash and sweet potatoes at 2, and he had a nap at 2.15 to 4, then up, etc.

Personally, the info on the formula mixes is pretty misleading, e.g. my LO drank loads less than the recommended for his age, but still gained weight based on his size, etc.

best wishes

 

[lozzy21]

Personally, I find that scheduled feeding works on the principal of anticipating their hunger rather than reacting to it if you see what I mean? So demand feeding works on the basis that baby is hungry, baby cries, baby gets fed. Scheduled feeding is baby will be getting hungry soon so baby is fed before it gets to the point where it cries.

To me thats still demand feeding, your just anticipating your babys needs. Most babys have small hunger cues like becoming unsettled, rooting, sucking on their hands before they start crying with hunger so i would feed her once i saw her smaller cues. Feeding to a schedule would be that your LO was due a feed at 4pm and would not get fed untill 4pm regardless of if your LO was hungry at 3.

 

[.rollinn.]

I still feed on demand,if my baby is hungry he's hungry point blank. I wont sit around and let him cry because he's starving just to make sure he goes 3-4 hours without eating. I wouldn't like it to much if somebody told me that's all i could eat.

 

[aliss]

It's quite a miserable process.

We always demand fed until we realized he was overfeeding terribly to try and cope with his severe infant GERD (up to 72oz a day). So, we had to go to a 2.5-3 hour schedule of feeding to try and help alleviate the pain. Yes, he cried. A LOT. But I have no idea if it was hunger or just reflux pain (mind you this kid cried 24/7).

It did start to help quite a bit, because nobody was able to distinguish cries of hunger with cries of reflux pain etc. (let alone cold, hot, cuddles).

Awful experience, and not done with any ill intent, but was the lesser of evils.

 

[greenpear]

I still feed on demand,if my baby is hungry he's hungry point blank. I wont sit around and let him cry because he's starving just to make sure he goes 3-4 hours without eating. I wouldn't like it to much if somebody told me that's all i could eat.

It's not quite like that - if my LO ever acts hungry before feeding time, let's say 30 min before she's supposed to eat then I feed her no problem, and if she sleeps in 15-30 min past her feeding time I let her as well. But she's so used to the schedule that she's usually not hungry until it's time for her to eat. She lets me know with other cues - sucking on my shoulder, smacking lips, etc that she's hungry so that I don't need to wait till she cries to feed her because she starts to fuss within 15 min time frame of the time I need to feed her. this way I know that her cries are usually related to something else. I set this schedule up in the very beginning when she slept lots so I actually had to wake her to feed her and now that she's awake more she doesn't act hungry until it's around her feeding time. But I would never make her sit and starve on purpose.

 

[alaskagrown]

My bub is 5 weeks And we are in a nice little routine of 3 hourly feeds (and most of the time only one night feed at 3am) she takes 150mls each feed.
I just noticed she seemed to get hungry every three hours approx and so gradually shifted her onto a 6-9-12-3 schedule and it's so so much easier
Last bottle at 9pm after a bath. (bath, bottle, story, bed) and first bottle at 6am (ish..if she sleeps longer then I won't wake her, but just try and get her back on schedule for 9am) xx

Wow, this is EXACTLY what I do! Even the bath time routine

I NEEDED to get my LO on my pumping schedule, otherwise I couldn't cope. I pump at 6, 9, 12, 3, etc. so I wanted her to eat at the same time. That way, we have a 3-hour window to go places and have uninterrupted time with one another (me not having to drop what I'm doing with her to pump). I just started feeding my LO at these times at the very beginning, whether she was crying for a bottle or not. It took all but a week and now she works like clockwork. At these times she instantly starts crying! Our body's circadian rhythm is pretty interesting stuff

Our days are very routine-oriented. I think this may have contributed to her STTN starting at 6/7 weeks old.

 

[Noelle610]

Basically what Aliss said... My LO has reflux and my fairly progressive pediatrician who almost always recommends feeding on demand suggested a schedule for us. Reflux kids often can't distinguish hunger pains from reflux pains. If you reach for the bottle every time they cry, you run the risk of over-feeding them which makes the reflux worse.

 

[aliss]

My bub is 5 weeks And we are in a nice little routine of 3 hourly feeds (and most of the time only one night feed at 3am) she takes 150mls each feed.
I just noticed she seemed to get hungry every three hours approx and so gradually shifted her onto a 6-9-12-3 schedule and it's so so much easier
Last bottle at 9pm after a bath. (bath, bottle, story, bed) and first bottle at 6am (ish..if she sleeps longer then I won't wake her, but just try and get her back on schedule for 9am) xx

Wow, this is EXACTLY what I do! Even the bath time routine

I NEEDED to get my LO on my pumping schedule, otherwise I couldn't cope. I pump at 6, 9, 12, 3, etc. so I wanted her to eat at the same time. That way, we have a 3-hour window to go places and have uninterrupted time with one another (me not having to drop what I'm doing with her to pump). I just started feeding my LO at these times at the very beginning, whether she was crying for a bottle or not. It took all but a week and now she works like clockwork. At these times she instantly starts crying! Our body's circadian rhythm is pretty interesting stuff

Our days are very routine-oriented. I think this may have contributed to her STTN starting at 6/7 weeks old.

I remember trying to demand-feed while exclusively pumping, LOL, that lasted like 2 days... impossible, especially when doing it from birth.

 

[susan123]

My bub is 5 weeks And we are in a nice little routine of 3 hourly feeds (and most of the time only one night feed at 3am) she takes 150mls each feed.
I just noticed she seemed to get hungry every three hours approx and so gradually shifted her onto a 6-9-12-3 schedule and it's so so much easier
Last bottle at 9pm after a bath. (bath, bottle, story, bed) and first bottle at 6am (ish..if she sleeps longer then I won't wake her, but just try and get her back on schedule for 9am) xx

my baby is 3month and hardly ever has 150m mostly 120 every 3 1/2 hours ish lol your baby must be very hungry to say shes only 5 weeks, maybe you need hungry baby formula?

 

[skunkpixie]

ni+

My bub is 5 weeks And we are in a nice little routine of 3 hourly feeds (and most of the time only one night feed at 3am) she takes 150mls each feed.
I just noticed she seemed to get hungry every three hours approx and so gradually shifted her onto a 6-9-12-3 schedule and it's so so much easier
Last bottle at 9pm after a bath. (bath, bottle, story, bed) and first bottle at 6am (ish..if she sleeps longer then I won't wake her, but just try and get her back on schedule for 9am) xx

my baby is 3month and hardly ever has 150m mostly 120 every 3 1/2 hours ish lol your baby must be very hungry to say shes only 5 weeks, maybe you need hungry baby formula?

5oz every 3 hours sounds fine. Hungry baby formula is really intended for babies closer to weaning age to satisfy their bigger appetites until they can move onto food. If your baby was taking large amounts of formula every 2 hours or less day and night then maybe hungry baby formula is the way to go, but the vast majority of babies dont ever need it.

 

[babydust1990]

My bub is 5 weeks And we are in a nice little routine of 3 hourly feeds (and most of the time only one night feed at 3am) she takes 150mls each feed.
I just noticed she seemed to get hungry every three hours approx and so gradually shifted her onto a 6-9-12-3 schedule and it's so so much easier
Last bottle at 9pm after a bath. (bath, bottle, story, bed) and first bottle at 6am (ish..if she sleeps longer then I won't wake her, but just try and get her back on schedule for 9am) xx

my baby is 3month and hardly ever has 150m mostly 120 every 3 1/2 hours ish lol your baby must be very hungry to say shes only 5 weeks, maybe you need hungry baby formula?

My babys 3 weeks and has 4/5oz every 3 hours... The health visitor said its fine?

 

[skunkpixie]

My bub is 5 weeks And we are in a nice little routine of 3 hourly feeds (and most of the time only one night feed at 3am) she takes 150mls each feed.
I just noticed she seemed to get hungry every three hours approx and so gradually shifted her onto a 6-9-12-3 schedule and it's so so much easier
Last bottle at 9pm after a bath. (bath, bottle, story, bed) and first bottle at 6am (ish..if she sleeps longer then I won't wake her, but just try and get her back on schedule for 9am) xx

my baby is 3month and hardly ever has 150m mostly 120 every 3 1/2 hours ish lol your baby must be very hungry to say shes only 5 weeks, maybe you need hungry baby formula?

My babys 3 weeks and has 4/5oz every 3 hours... The health visitor said its fine?

It is totally fine xxx