Feeding to a schedule

[aussiebookchick]

HI all,

I have been skimming through some posts- where mums talk about appetite increases-and increasing their supply to meet that increased demand....

Peter Hartmann an Australian researcher has done some ground breaking research into breastfeeding... and turns our old understanding around...

Basicially, from 6 weeks to 6 months a baby takes about the same volume per day- each baby/mother pair is different in number of feeds per day.

find more out here...
www.storknet.com/cubbies/breast/cuefeeding.h tm

and here...lisaniko888 post... at

www.lrc.asn.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9013&hig hlight=hartmann

My DH's nan was saying that they used to BF every 4 hourly and if the baby cried, it cried. Seemed a bit harsh to me and she was also saying that when she bottle fed she added whiskey to the bottles and propped them up in the cot using string!!!

Amazingly her children were fine - she very much disagreed with on demand feeding - -although the whiskey probably sorted that out and sent them off soundly!!!

thanks for the interesting article.

luciemule !

Hartmann's research is pretty well-known and I don't think it does affect our understanding about appetite increases....appetite increases (sometimes known as 'growth spurts') can happen any time.

Overall, babies take more or less the same volume between about 6 weeks and 6 months as he says - but there will be times when the baby needs more, and he'll feed more to get it.

At other times he'll need less and take less.

It doesn't matter and it doesn't have to be something mothers even notice.

Good links, though, aussiebookchick.

I think where Hartmann really kills the myths is his work on the different storage capacities mothers have - makes a nonsense of (as you say) feeding to a schedule. He's also good on milk composition - cream in milk is proportional to the amount of milk in the breast, and little to do with the length of time baby is on the breast.

Certain writers on baby care shd read him

yes, that is what i found most interesting - the storage capacity stuff, so while one mum and baby can happy work on a 4 hour schedule, others need to work closer to 2 hours etc etc. it is the perfect proof that on demand feeding is the way to go.