FFing and routines

[bigmacandhappymeal]

Hi there

I'd appreciate a bit of comparison/shared experience from other FFers.

A bit of background - My DD is 4mo, healthy and thriving and has been EFF since 10weeks. I haven't gone down any routine routes other than reading 'your baby week by week' and together we've naturally fallen into a pattern where she has 3-4 40 minute naps a day and feeds 3.5-4 hourly - I'm very much led by her and keep my eyes peeled for the signs that she needs a bottle.

She goes to bed at about 6ish and gets up between 6am and 7. Every now and again we get a golden ticket and our little one sleeps through - if this happens she tends to feed 3 hourly the next day, I imagine to play catch up. Most nights though she wakes once or twice to feed. I've never waken her to feed her so if she needs to go to bed before she's had her bottle (by needs to go to bed, I mean that she's clearly knackered rather than me forcing her into bed :) ), I let her and then leave it up to her to let me know she's hungry later that night. This could mean that she doesn't have the amount of bottles that she's 'supposed' to have in a 24 hour period and means that I will probably have a more disturbed night.

Do you think it would be beneficial for me to introduce set times for my LO to feed rather than going with the flow? What does everyone else do? I don't want to force food on her when she doesn't need it, but am happy to embrace a routine if it is beneficial for her. If you feed at set times, how did you establish this?

Thanks for your advice

Hi we didnt have set times as such but fed 3 hourly. We did this after keeping a feeding/sleeping diary for a couple of days. We found that with 3 hourly feeding he enjoyed it, took most of the bottle and was much more content. He was in his own room at six weeks, he avaraged 5 bottles a day at this point. We would usually give him a bath and massage just before he was due the last bottle and then put him to bed, he would then usually sleep through till 6.30ish.

We would also monitor how much of his bottle he took during the day so we knew if he woke up in the night it was because he was hungry and if he may need a top up bottle in the night. We also never woke him up. I know a few people who did this and would then get frustrated if baby didn't feed.

Hope this helps a little.