5 week old feed on demand or schedule?

[Lubilu28]

I tend to feed my DS when he’s hungry which is generally every 3-4 hours (FF). I do sometimes wake him if he’s slept past his usual time of a feed. but my friend sticks to a schedule for her 4 month old and has done for quite sometime. Is this something that I should try with my LO or just carry on feeding him as I am? This is my 2nd and I just fed when he wanted but I just can’t help but think I should be scheduling his feeds but how the hell does that work if he wakes up hungry an hour before?? I can’t keep him without food for that long lol

I think it could be tricky with a 5 weeks old if so far he’s been fed on demand. If he always finishes a bottle it shouldn’t be problem but obviously if he only has half you can’t wait another 4 hours to feed him, I’m sure he’ll be letting you know he’s hungry. If you’re happy feeding on demand just carry on.
I mixed fed DS until he was about 12 weeks - once he was on just the formula I decided I wanted to space the feeds out a bit more to 3 hours but obviously he was used to just feeding as and when - usually every 2 hours or so. I just started waiting an extra 10 or 15 minutes before feeding him, keeping him distracted - it wasn’t long enough for him to get distressed by waiting. The longer the gap the more they tend to drink, then the longer the gap again before they need the next feed and so on. It worked for us and then 3/ 3 and a half hours became the norm.

I can't see how you can put a baby on schedule unless they're a dozy premmie or something. Healthy, hungry babies demand milk and get upset if they don't get it. The only thing I did was to dream feed DS at 10.30pm before going to sleep myself. That spared me from having to get up around 1.

Oh, I did use the distraction technique too but that only strings a baby out for a tiny bit of time. As they get older they naturally feed less often unless you misread cues and keep on offering milk when they need something else.

I fed on demand, but I did used to set an alarm for every few hours just in case in the early days to make sure she was eating enough. As it was, she would always show signs of wanting food before the alarm would go off (if that makes sense).

People at baby groups I've been to mostly seem obsessed by schedules, I can see the appeal but honestly I would feed your baby when they're hungry. We found a natural pattern emerged at around 12 weeks.

On demand, they change so quickly that your schedule would only work for a couple of weeks at a time anyway

You see I’m confident that I know what I’m doing is best for him but it was how she was obsessed with feeding her Lo on a schedule and even downloaded an app to schedule his naps!! I think she can be a bit obsessive with things like this whereas I’m quite relaxed.

She was even telling me about this guide to how much formula to give her LO. She said now he’s 17 weeks I can give him 7oz 5 times a day instead of 6oz 6 times a day!! My 5 week old is already having 6oz and I swear she thinks I’m mad for letting him have so much but that’s what my baby needs xxx

Leave your OCD friend to her own ideas and refuse to discuss the matter with her. How anyone could listen to a baby cry for food and not see to their needs is beyond me.
One little bit of advice from me. Let sleeping babies sleep. Imagine being sound asleep and your husband rudely waking you to make you eat because it's dinner time.

Responsive bottle feeding includes feeding on demand. The issue is that if you obey all hygiene recommendations, you'll waste a lot of formula or use a lot of energy.

Eg, you'd make up 30mls of formula, give baby that and then if they are hungry, resterilise the bottle and make up another small amount. OR you'd just make a big bottle and chuck what they don't have within an hour.

I just put formula in the fridge. And anyway, I’d never distress a baby for the sake of a few scoops of formula.

OP, you and your friend have different approaches. Just do what feels right to you and keeps your baby happy.

My dts are 6 weeks old, they were prem aswell. Fed on schedule while in unit every 3 hrs, once home i ensured they didnt go more than 4hrs between feeds as only 2 weeks old then but i have basically let them take the lead. They soon let me know when they are hungry. No point in them only taking half a bottle cos not hungry enough.
My main issue now though is one of them is taking ages to feed. An hour to drink 4oz in fact. He looks like hes sucking away but you can tell hes not taking much, as cant hear the air escaping. He would be the pukey one, but hes not been bringing up anywhere near as much as he had done. So while its annoying for me at night to be up for an hour to feed him hes keeping them down.