AIBU Little Ones Sleep Program - unnecessarily anxiety inducing?

[Peterbishopssarcasticsmile]

I downloaded this in the middle of the night in desperation and am slightly appalled.
I wasn't expecting a magic bullet but I thought it would be useful to have a guide to follow for.timings to get in a better routine.
Basically on the schedule I've got it suggests a few feeding times that are four hours apart. In the notes it explains that if baby gets hungry before then it's fine to feed them before, but if they keep getting hungry before then you should go to the GP because there's probably another reason.
It also goes on to suggest two full feeds an hour and 15 minutes apart - again if baby doesn't get on with this there must be a reason. He's way too full for a second bottle so soon afterwards and won't take it. Again, if baby doesn't respond in the desired way after a few weeks, you need to get this checked out.

AIBU or is this completely unnecessary?! DS has always fed every three to three and a half hours apart from overnight where he doesn't have a night feed so would always get hungrier before the allotted time. It's perfectly normal for babies to feed every three hours especially formula fed babies.
I looked on the forum and it seems to be the general tone - if this doesn't work, if you can't get baby to do what we say there's some kind of other problem.
AIBU to think this is a bit shit frankly and will just stir up unnecessary worry? I'm just trying to.imagine calling my GP because DS feeds every three hours.

Yikes my DD didn’t go to 4 hours until she was about 6 months old. I find that the tone with a lot of these routines is that if it doesn’t work then either you’re doing something wrong or your baby isn’t normal such as books that suggest that by 3 months they should be sleeping a 5-6 hour stretch - I’m sure some babies can but mine couldn’t. It’s just made me feel worse trying to follow them at times.

DD needs feeding every three hours but sleeps through the night so not sure what the association is meant to be.
I got drawn in by a lot of these guides with DS I feel your pain.
Lucy Wolfes book genuinely did help but he just wasn't a sleeper I had to wait for him to naturally change.

Agreed. DS is just six months and still three hours but we are only introducing solids now and he's only eating a tiny bit.
The schedule suggests three solids a day meal wise but this wouldn't make a difference to DS as he's barely eating a teaspoon at the moment.
Obviously when he eats more he will go longer between bottles but I really dislike the tone of oh there's probably something wrong then, if your baby doesn't conform to their guides

It sounds like a load of bollocks to me.

@eurochick 😆
It's basically Gina ford from what I can see. I'm asking for a refund I think. More fool me and my tired brain.

As an adult, would you not eat despite being hungry or eat despite not being hungry just because of the clock? Personally I think that way madness lies so I don’t know why a baby should be expected to do it! All you do is train yourself not to be able to understand your own under cues.

It's ridiculous to suggest you need to see your GP. Mine preferred feeding every one to two hours. There was certainly nothing wrong with them that meant they needed to see a GP. I am 34 and rarely go 4 hours without a drink at least!

I got this programme in my sleep deprived desperation. I just ignored all the scheduling and feeding times etc as it just seemed like nonsense. It was kind of useful having a nap schedule so tried to loosely keep to that but that was it really.

Little ones didnt work for me at all, I had a nightmare sleeper! All the troubleshooting stuff just didn't apply to us, it's definitely not one size fits all. We ended up getting a sleep consultant, which is the best money I've ever spent. Xx

Has your baby read the book and agreed to the routine? If not, chuck it out.

I didn't worry about the milk schedule, but the nap and sleep advice changed my babies sleep practically overnight! We probably used it from 8 or 9 months though.

I don't think it's like Gina Ford at all. We cuddled our baby to sleep through out, it's only now at 16 months we tried giving her a cuddle and then seeing if she would fall asleep on her own. She will sometimes, sometimes I cuddle her to sleep

It's not for everyone though, just happened to really help with our babies sleep. But the nap schedule was a lifesaver.

Depends on the baby surely? My son dropped his night feed at 11 weeks. Still stayed on 75th centile until he was over 1 and is now on 50th. Don't follow it to the tee if it doesn't suit your baby

I bought it and it didnt work for us either. I found the timings so rigid and felt cruel putting the baby down and then getting them up after 20 min or so so they could have longer nap after lunch. And even when we got the daytime naps 'right' so in theory the baby wasn't over tired and was ready for a good sleep at night, it didnt make any difference to night sleep she still woke up every 90 min and needed a feed to get back to sleep. In the end we had to get s sleep consultant who used the disappearing chair method and it worked the first night

Nap schedules can make a really big difference if you don't mind the restrictions that they place on your day (I suppose now is the perfect time for them really) and you don't have older children with school / nursery run etc.

I have a baby who enjoys routine - he copes much better following a pattern but I always feed when he is hungry - even now at 2.

A hungry baby isn't going to settle or play. So a nap routine I think is important but follow your babies signals for feeding.

For example once he is eating - you normally feed at 12, but he is hungry at 11 - feed then but I would still nap at 12.30 if that was normal.

And lastly on weaning - you follow your babies signals with increasing meal- there are very few babies I met who are on 3 meals a day!

I used LittleOnes but just followed the sleep times and mostly ignored the feeding times.except as a rough guide when i started giving him solids (got the older babies one though and was breast feeding a reflux baby)

Tbh I think having a sleep routine saved my sanity. It didnt make him sleep through the night but it allowed me to plan my day and know when i would be getting a 2 hour recharge and could be confident he was probably tired enough to put himself to sleep

My first fed (formula) every 2-21/2 hours during the day and slept through from about 10 weeks. She’d never have managed every 4 hours. My second did slightly longer stretches but probably 3 hours and not 4. They’d have both gone mad with a 4 hour gap.

@sailingblue Yes, neither of mine could ever have managed a 4 hour feeding gap either! And neither ever really took more than about 5oz at a time (if they did they'd be sick) so if I tried to space out the feeds that much it would be tricky to get enough into them over the course of a day.

I do find those sleep programs appealing because by nature I'm someone who likes routine, but I wouldn't try implementing one until the baby was six month old at the very least. Before that I think they just seem to expect too much from the baby (long awake times and long naps, which not all babies are developmentally ready for when they're still tiny).

@Panda368 I was just searching on here to see if anyone used little ones so I can see if it's worth the purchase or not!

Day time naps are ok Ian but night time is where we struggle as she doesn't self soother and after her first 2-3.5 hours she wakes every 30 - 90 mins!

Would you recommend it then?

@Smiffette We used little ones with our twins from 6 weeks onwards, but like Panda, I ignored feeding times/info as they were fed every 3 hours for the first 4 months. From 6 months I followed my girls rather than the guide as they clearly needed more sleep than suggested. But i must say the guide really helped us to get into the routine and I liked how it explained the science and importance of sleep. You obviously have to use your common sense and listen to your baby too. Mine always self settled, it probably helped that they slept together though.

Our girls slept through the night 7-7 from 5 and 6 months old, and still do at almost 3 years old.

So I would definitely recommend it. Just keep in mind it really is a GUIDE, I think some people take it way too literally, judging by the discussion forum.

good grief my now 10 y old would have starved as he was a very very hungry baby and would polish of a full bottle and half(16oz) every hour and half

he was so hungry i was going through 2 -3 tins a week so at 6 months he was on cows milk

ive always thought its best to do whats right for the baby not what a book says you should do

Thanks @Masalatea I would definitely take it as a guide and not let baby starve or not sleep if that's what she needed.

As a FTM it would just be useful to have the expert advice and support with sleeping so that I can be sure I'm not doing anything counter productive