Newborn feeding schedule

[Parker T.]

Hello,

Is there's any technique to help a newborn to feed on a more regular,
consistant basis ?

Our 3 weeks old son is fed with Alimentum milk formula, and although
lapse between feedings can be 3 hours (15% of the time), he's more
likely to be fed every 2 hours, sometimes even less. Nighttime
feeding is worse, as he might doze after getting only 1-1.5 ounces,
and waking up 90 minutes later and ask for more. Needless to say, it
is driving us nuts. He is also very fussy during the day.

Is there anything we can do to help him to switch to a regular 3 hours
feeding cycle, or is this just another baby thing that we cannot do
anything about?

Thanks.

P.

[just me]

"Parker T." > wrote in message
om...
> Hello,
>
> Is there's any technique to help a newborn to feed on a more regular,
> consistant basis ?
>
> Our 3 weeks old son is fed with Alimentum milk formula, and although
> lapse between feedings can be 3 hours (15% of the time), he's more
> likely to be fed every 2 hours, sometimes even less. Nighttime
> feeding is worse, as he might doze after getting only 1-1.5 ounces,
> and waking up 90 minutes later and ask for more. Needless to say, it
> is driving us nuts. He is also very fussy during the day.
>
> Is there anything we can do to help him to switch to a regular 3 hours
> feeding cycle, or is this just another baby thing that we cannot do
> anything about?
>
Congratulations on your new arrival! Babies certainly do make us adjust
about everything in our lives, sometimes daily!

Your questions about feeding patterns/schedules will probably elicit
responses from people who subscribe to either of the two methods of infant
feeding: those who establish a specific schedule by the clock, and those
who allow the baby to tell them when it is time to eat [demand feeding].
Both methods have enjoyed varying degrees of popularity in different time
periods. From what I've read, the scheduling by the clock may be coming
back into more common use.

I subscribe to the demand feeding school of thought. I fed DS when he was
hungry. With a newborn this seemed to be just about all the time, but was
actually about every two hours with the night time running more like 11pm, 3
am, and about 6 am. He dropped the 3 am feed by the time he was 6-7 weeks,
but many infants retain the night time feed or feed at night more often for
a much longer time. Infants also tend to have growth spurts several times
in the early months. During those periods, which seem to last about 7-14
days, they eat a whole lot more often and a whole lot more per meal. I
think I just sat on the couch and nursed DS for most of my waking hours
[especially the evenings] during the 12 week growth spurt, or at least it
felt like it!

One of the main reasons that people will suggest meeting the child's
requests [demand feedings, among other requests] is to help them to learn
that their needs will be met as they are recognized. This is thought to
lead to the development of a more self-confident, emotionally stable
individual because they have not had to wonder when their needs would be met
and how. There is a theory of parenting style that discusses this:
attachment parenting. That style is a subject frought with heated debate as
well as many varieties of interpretation of what is involved in attachment
parenting. Demand feeding your child does not mean that you are or are not
adopting the attachment parenting philosophy, but adopting that feeding
method suggests that you might be open to some of the other components like
family bed, baby wrapping and so on.

Since I am not nearly as well versed with scheduling feeds by the clock I
won't hazard an attempt to discuss how to go about doing that. I suspect
someone else will arrive shortly who will do it well.

Good luck with your little one. At three weeks you are in the throes of a
growth spurt, or should be, and may well find that things will relax some in
about a week as that passes and he doesn't need to eat quite so often or so
much to keep his little belly full. You may want to research these topics
through your favorite search engine as well and learn about the rather
predictable growth spurts so you are emotionally prepared as well as
intellectually prepared when they arrive. Even with my wonderful DS now
being 8 I can still see them arriving and departing even in my grocery
bills......

Gee, the last time I went to the Newport Jazz Festival [at SPAC] it was a
mid-summer event! I wouldn't want to go in the depths of New England
January! BBBbbbrrrrrrrr!

-Aula
--
see my creative works on ebay under aulame 123

[Alicia]

Hi Parker, you will probably get a wide variety of responses to this
question, but here are my two cents:
The first question I have is, do you have the option of breastfeeding? I
assume you've chosen formula for a good reason, but I am asking because if
you can get a hang on breastfeeding, you can try breastfeeding overnight,
sharing the same bed. I have been doing it since day 1 and I can assure
you, it almost feels like we don't wake up at all during the night. I just
lie on my side, plug my baby in and fall asleep. I don't even notice if
he's detached or not, and when he's ready, he just wiggles around and I
switch sides and attach him again. You must be exhausted having to get up
so many times during the night!
I can also tell you that he will want to feed less during the night as time
goes on. There is a theory also that if you sleep with your infant, you not
only reduce the risk of SIDS (if done safely), but also that the baby will
pick up on sleeping at night patterns a lot more quickly because he is
exposed to the sound of your breathing, the comfort of sleeping in a cozy
place where his needs are met and so on.
However, a lot of people don't like the idea of sleeping with their babies,
so as an alternative, can you ask your hubby to get up every other time to
feed your son? Or even once a night so that you can get a break of a few
hours?
As for trying to get your baby on a regular schedule, in my opinion, you
would maybe want to wait for a while before trying to do that. If you
imagine it from his perspective, he's in a huge new world and all he knows
is that he is hungry, he likes to be close to you and his dad, he's
uncomfortable when he's cold/hot/got a dirty diaper and so on. His only way
to communicate anything is to cry. Can you imagine how frustrating that
would be if you had something you needed and had no way to say it? When
your baby asks to be fed, it is because he needs it, and his little tummy is
only the size of a walnut at this point, if that, so food gets processed
very quickly. I would no more ask a baby who's hungry to wait for food than
I would try to train myself to pee only every three hours. If you need to
pee, you need to pee. (sorry for being so graphic there, but it's the best
analogy I can think of). For older kids and adults, we can wait for food
because we know there is a reason for it, and we can curb our activities to
conserve energy if we need to. Babies don't have that choice.
Anyway, I can sympathize with going insane while caring for a needy baby.
My son is almost 10 weeks old and still feeds every 1-3 hours during the
day. However, I have learned that there are varying degrees of neediness in
babies, I just happen to have one that is ultra-needy. Sounds like you
might too.
As for being fussy during the day, there are a couple of things I have
picked up in the last ten weeks, you could try them. Firstly, he may be
tired or overstimulated. Even if he just slept, he may be tired. My baby
goes through that a couple times a day. If you think he just needs to
relax, what works really well for us is to sing, run the tap in the bath for
him to hear, walk with him in the snugli or check to make sure he's not too
hot or cold. At three weeks, it is very difficult for you to know what will
work well, but things will soon fall into more of a pattern and you will
learn what your baby likes and needs. In addition, it feels at that point
like you keep putting out energy for the baby and nothing comes back, but
soon, he'll begin to smile at you, and coo and gurgle, and you will think
that all is right with the world. : )
Well, this is quite a novel I've written. I hope you find some respite, if
you ever need to talk, you can email me directly because I totally
understand what you are going through. Take care of yourself, sleep as
often as you can, and good luck!
-Alicia


"Parker T." > wrote in message
om...
> Hello,
>
> Is there's any technique to help a newborn to feed on a more regular,
> consistant basis ?
>
> Our 3 weeks old son is fed with Alimentum milk formula, and although
> lapse between feedings can be 3 hours (15% of the time), he's more
> likely to be fed every 2 hours, sometimes even less. Nighttime
> feeding is worse, as he might doze after getting only 1-1.5 ounces,
> and waking up 90 minutes later and ask for more. Needless to say, it
> is driving us nuts. He is also very fussy during the day.
>
> Is there anything we can do to help him to switch to a regular 3 hours
> feeding cycle, or is this just another baby thing that we cannot do
> anything about?
>
> Thanks.
>
> P.
>

[H Schinske]

wrote:

>Is there any technique to help a newborn to feed on a more regular,
>consistant basis?

The short answer is no. Why were you expecting a newborn to feed on a regular,
consistent basis? He's just come off being fed 24/7 through the umbilical cord,
and he doesn't know from clocks! Feed him when he squawks, and sleep when he
sleeps, and don't look at the clock. Trust me, it's a *whole* lot easier that
way, and he may fuss less, too.

Thinking back, I'm not sure my kids *ever* went three hours between *every*
feeding, though they did get to having longer stretches at night. Even as
toddlers, they had three meals and two snacks between seven AM and seven PM --
which is every 2.4 hours or so.

I did get into a fairly predictable routine after a while with my twins (I mean
more like a month or six weeks -- they were full-term), but it was totally
based on how they seemed to need to eat over the course of a day. I wrote down
when I fed them and when they slept for several days and looked for patterns.
Then I started taking them for a walk at the same time every day, and so forth.
It worked okay, but with my singleton son I was quite glad to just feed him
whenever and not even think in terms of "feedings."

--Helen

[Karen G]

There are lots of gray areas between demand feeding and schedule
feeding. A firm schedule can create a lot of stress for parents of
babies that aren't hungry when the clock says they should be. I really
appreciated reading Dr. Spock. He said that demand feeding was a great
idea, but should be used within reason. He went on to say that your
baby is unlikely to be hungry within one hour of the last feeding
(unless the baby is going through a growth spurt). His suggestion was
to feed on demand, but always help the baby wait an extra five minutes
between feedings. He found that over time if you always waited those
extra five minutes in the early weeks, the baby developed a schedule
that put feedings at predictable and reasonable intervals. When I used
this method with my three children, I found that as the intervals
lengthened, they took more milk at each feeding and that the feeding
experience was more relaxed for both of us.

The moral of the story, at least according to Dr. Spock, is that crying
babies are not always hungry and sucking feels awfully good. I used a
pacifier between feedings for my daughter that really wanted the sucking
time more than the food. She found her thumb not long after and was
much easier to feed after that. A lot of nursing mothers talk about
the sucking time as "comfort nursing" when the baby doesn't want food,
they just want to suck. I would guess (considering that it takes less
work to take a bottle than to get milk from the breast), that comfort
sucking is very important for bottle fed babies.

Karen G
PS My children are 4, 3, and 1 now. Dr. Spock still has some really
wonderful information.

[Hillary Israeli]

In >,
Parker T. > wrote:

*Hello,
*
*Is there's any technique to help a newborn to feed on a more regular,
*consistant basis ?
*
*Our 3 weeks old son is fed with Alimentum milk formula, and although
*lapse between feedings can be 3 hours (15% of the time), he's more
*likely to be fed every 2 hours, sometimes even less. Nighttime
*feeding is worse, as he might doze after getting only 1-1.5 ounces,
*and waking up 90 minutes later and ask for more. Needless to say, it
*is driving us nuts. He is also very fussy during the day.

Hopefully someone with some experience using formula or feeding
exclusively with bottles can advise you more, but from my experience
breastfeeding two newborns, this is normal. My first baby ate every hour
and a half to two hours, gradually stretching out to every 3 hours at
night after a few weeks, and to every 4 hours at night by about 4 mos. My
second baby slept from 8:30 pm to 5 am from one week of age, but nursed
about every 2 hours for the first month (but still at almost a year wants
to nurse every 3-4 hours if I am in the vicinity, although that is another
story). So you know, the pattern you describe above could just be your
baby's pattern. But don't worry. It will eventually change. Probably
JUUUUUST at about the time you finally get used to it. :)

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large :)

[Robyn Kozierok]

In article >,
H Schinske > wrote:
wrote:
>
>>Is there any technique to help a newborn to feed on a more regular,
>>consistant basis?
>
>The short answer is no. Why were you expecting a newborn to feed on a regular,
>consistent basis?

But, their baby is feeding more frequently at night than during the day, and
this *can* be manipulated. Here are a couple of suggestions, but I'm sure
others will have more:

-- if he is waking up and wanting to play at night (doesn't sound like it)
make sure you make night wakings very different than daytime feedings/playtime.
You should keep him in a dark room, speak softly, etc.

-- you said he is dozing after only 1 to 1.5 ounces, and then waking hungry
again a short time later. If he falls asleep before taking a "full" feeding,
wake him back up and try to get him to take more. Burp him. Sometimes
stroking a sleepy baby's cheek while nursing can get him to suck more -- this
probaby works for bottle feeding as well. If necessary start undressing him
or even change his diaper, then feed some more.

-- if he wakes a short time after a decent-sized feeding, try to get him back
to sleep without another bottle -- even if it doesn't work, it will delay
the feeding a bit so that he will be able to take a little more and hopefully
sleep a little longer for the next interval.

Realize that while manipulating his schedule, you may get *less* sleep than
before. It's an investment. You might find it helpful to write down what
times he eats and how much for a couple of days/nights to see what his
current patterns are so you can work with them to get something that works
a little better for all of you.

Good luck!


--Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)

[Penny Gaines]

Parker T. wrote in >:

> Our 3 weeks old son is fed with Alimentum milk formula, and although
> lapse between feedings can be 3 hours (15% of the time), he's more
> likely to be fed every 2 hours, sometimes even less. Nighttime
> feeding is worse, as he might doze after getting only 1-1.5 ounces,
> and waking up 90 minutes later and ask for more. Needless to say, it
> is driving us nuts. He is also very fussy during the day.

I know there are methods for waking a baby up to get them to feed at
night, but unfortunately I don't actually know what they are.

To add to what other people have said about demand feeding: you don't have
to wait for the baby to demand a feed, you can offer them one when it is
convenient for you. So if it is convenient for the baby to have a feed
now, but wouldn't be later, you can offer them one straight away.

I know that doesn't seem to answer your question, but I found that as the
baby got older, I could predict when he was going to be hungry, and started
to offer feeds on a predictable schedule. We had a schedule going at
about 4 months, and all I did to get it going was try and anticipate the
hungry times.

HTH

--

Penny Gaines

[Rosalie B.]

x-no-archive:yes
Penny Gaines > wrote:

>Parker T. wrote in >:
>
>> Our 3 weeks old son is fed with Alimentum milk formula, and although
>> lapse between feedings can be 3 hours (15% of the time), he's more
>> likely to be fed every 2 hours, sometimes even less. Nighttime
>> feeding is worse, as he might doze after getting only 1-1.5 ounces,
>> and waking up 90 minutes later and ask for more. Needless to say, it
>> is driving us nuts. He is also very fussy during the day.
>
>I know there are methods for waking a baby up to get them to feed at
>night, but unfortunately I don't actually know what they are.

I never waked one up to get a feed. Let sleeping babes lie.

The only thing I would suggest is not to let him go to sleep eating
especially at night. If he seems to be dozing off, burp him, change
his diaper, shift him around a bit. Don't put him back down unless
he's really asleep so that you can't rewake him.

And then when he wakes up again, don't go to him right away.
Sometimes they will be noisy at night, but not really awake, and if
you let them be, they'll go back to sleep. (I don't mean that you
should ignore a full throated cry - just don't spring to feed him at
night at every whimper or vocalization.)

As to the daytime fussiness - some babies are fussier than others.
And I don't know that formula, but have you considered that it might
not agree with him?
>
>To add to what other people have said about demand feeding: you don't have
>to wait for the baby to demand a feed, you can offer them one when it is
>convenient for you. So if it is convenient for the baby to have a feed
>now, but wouldn't be later, you can offer them one straight away.
>
>I know that doesn't seem to answer your question, but I found that as the
>baby got older, I could predict when he was going to be hungry, and started
>to offer feeds on a predictable schedule. We had a schedule going at
>about 4 months, and all I did to get it going was try and anticipate the
>hungry times.
>
>HTH

grandma Rosalie

[Naomi Pardue]

> I really
>appreciated reading Dr. Spock. He said that demand feeding was a great
>idea, but should be used within reason.

However, remember that Spock, even the newest versions, are all based on his
original version, written in 1946, when all babies were fed on strict 4 hour
schedules. For him to even accept that a baby MIGHT be hungry 2 hours ... or
even 3 hours after eating was a huge leap of faith for him.

> His suggestion was
>to feed on demand, but always help the baby wait an extra five minutes
>between feedings. He found that over time if you always waited those
>extra five minutes in the early weeks, the baby developed a schedule
>that put feedings at predictable an

>d reasonable intervals.

Which is sensible, if you can do that without making baby miserable. But if
baby is hungry and crying, I say to feed the baby. He knows if he's hungry, and
'making him wait' isn't going to make him less hungry.

> When I used
>this method with my three children, I found that as the intervals
>lengthened, they took more milk at each feeding and that the feeding
>experience was more relaxed for both of us.

Or, possibly, they just got bigger and able to hold more milk? Babies tend to
legnthen the time between feedings anyway as they get bigger, because their
stomachs get bigger. (A babies stomach is about the size of its fist. A newborn
just can't hold much at one time and so HAS to eat often. The 3 hour schedule
the OP is expecting just isn't realistic for most newborns.)


Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

(either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail
reply.)

[Naomi Pardue]

>Is there's any technique to help a newborn to feed on a more regular,
>consistant basis ?
>

Patience. Time.

>Our 3 weeks old son is fed with Alimentum milk formula, and although
>lapse between feedings can be 3 hours (15% of the time), he's more
>likely to be fed every 2 hours, sometimes even less.

This is pretty typical for this age. You still have a newborn. Newborns have
very tiny stomachs. They can't hold much milk at one time, so they have to eat
small amounts at frequent intervals. An average of two hours (meaning sometimes
3 hours, sometimes 1 1/2) is entirely common.)

I also note that he is on a special formula. I don't know much about
hypoallergenic formulas, but is it possible that they are digested more rapidly
than the usual ones (more similar to breastmilk in that regard?) meaning that
he will be hungry more often? Or that whatever health issues he has that are
making him need the special formula is also making him hungry/fussy more
often?

>He is also very fussy during the day.

If he is generally fussy, I would talk to the doctor about it. He may be
needing a different formula, or there could be something else wrong. (Is
breastfeeding a possible option?)

If he's just hungry, you feed him. As he gets bigger, he will be able to eat
more at one time, and will be able to go longer at a feeding. (At night
however, have you tried keeping him awake during the feed? Strip him down to
his diaper? Burp him?
In any case, since he's being bottle fed, the two of you can definitely share
the nighttime feeding chores, making it less of a strain on YOUR sleep
schedules.)




Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

(either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail
reply.)