How effective is putting baby on a schedule

[fashionlover]

I am 12 days in of baby and breastfeeding. I am overwhelmed and extremely confused as to how this all works. My baby wakes up every 45 minutes to an hour to be fed. She will fall asleep and I will put her down and she starts crying again. I know this is called cluster feeding. My question is should I try a schedule for her feed times or does this issue correct itself? Can they learn to sleep through the night on their own or do we have to create the schedule? Any advice or experience is welcome!

 

[BabyB2]

The general advice is to feed on demand. This is particularly important in the early days as your baby is feeding frequently to establish a good supply. Trying to regulate beby's feeding at this stage could cause your supply to drop, and boosting it back up will take considerable effort! I know it is exhausting, but if you stick at it things should eventually settle down a bit. It may take some time. Gradually feeds should become less frequent and be quicker as baby becomes more efficient at getting the milk. Do you have a good latch?

Also, you may not want to hear this, but breastfed babies tend not to sleep through the night, and skipping night feeds right now is not a good idea as they are the best feeds for boosting milk supply

Good luck

kellymom.com is a great website for breast feeding info!

 

[CupcakeBaby]

My EBF baby sleeps through as well as some of my FF friends babies.

She sorted her own schedule out.

Now feeds on demand in the day and sleeps about 6 hours and then 3 hours at night.

Do not schedule your baby at all. It's very early days and you don't want to hurt your supply.

 

[Serafina83]

It usually gets a lot easier from about 6 weeks as above poster said is very important to feed ode and at the beginning. Also the night feeds are the most important as this is when your body produces a hormone I think is called prolactin which tells your body to produce more milk also my baba stared sleeping 10-4 wake for a feed then go back to sleep till 7 at about 3 months xxx

 

[TheNewMrs]

On Demand is suggested worldwide for a BF baby- no schedules at all (parent led anyway) Most babies will develop their own routine bu about 3/4 months, which will regress to cluster feeding for a week or 2 at around 4 months. The rule of thumb is you can never feed a bf baby too much.

 

[JenX]

I don't see how you could really schedule a baby, at least not happily. That said, as time goes on you will find that things will start to generally follow patterns and you'll begin to know what to expect and approximately when- until it changes up again. It will get much easier, though. The first few weeks are definitely tough.

I never scheduled feeds, but I did (and still do) track them with an iPhone app. It helps me to see patterns and anticipate when she's probably going to be hungry/need a change/need a nap. It gives me the time since the last feed/change/nap right across the top and helps me immensely because I feel like I have lost all sense of time. But that's just me- most people probably don't track things like that and are fine. I like data

 

[fashionlover]

I don't see how you could really schedule a baby, at least not happily. That said, as time goes on you will find that things will start to generally follow patterns and you'll begin to know what to expect and approximately when- until it changes up again. It will get much easier, though. The first few weeks are definitely tough

I never scheduled feeds, but I did (and still do) track them with an iPhone app. It helps me to see patterns and anticipate when she's probably going to be hungry/need a change/need a nap. It gives me the
time since the last feed/change/nap right across the top and helps me immensely because I feel like I have lost all sense of time. But that's just me- most people probably don't track things like that and are fine. I like data

What is the app? I love the idea of tracking!

 

[JenX]

It is called Total Baby.

 

[Jess19]

As long as you keep your schedule as normal as possible than the baby will follow.
I know not every baby is the same, my DD slept through the night (8pm to 7am) and still does. But we follow a schedule every day. She knows there's a morning routine, an afternoon/evening routine, and a night time one.
I will say that her naps during the day are very short, 40 min at most. Which I don't mind at all as long as whe still sleeping at night. I don't cosleep either, I've always tried to have her sleep in her own bed. I let her nurse than put her in her bassinet. It worked like a charm when she was little (er) but now not so much, she wakes when I put her in her crib but I'll stay with her in her room and rub her until she goes to sleep. I started doing this before she slept in her own room, this way she was already used to falling asleep that way.
You do have to be consistent but it will pay off
Even though she doesn't nurse at night its fine. She's mostly eats every 2 hours. When she wakes, 8am, 10am, noon, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, 8pm which is her last feed.