Gina Ford routine and bottle feeding

[Psba]

We are using the Gina Ford routine (roughly) as we did with our first and so far it's going OK. However, we are bottle feeding and so some of the feeding guides don't suit. For example in weeks 1-2 or 3-4 it says to split feed the 5pm and 6pm feed. With bottle feeding that's tricky though as if we give him 2oz at 5 he wants more, but we need to keep enough for him to Hve some at 6ish. (He has 5oz a feed).
Is anyone else in the same situation? How do you split feeds with bottles?

(I know some don't like Gina Ford's system, I'm not after debate on that, just help with this element of it)

@theleafandnotthetree

I think we're agreeing! :)

I'm all for on demand feeding.

[quote 00100001]@theleafandnotthetree

I think we're agreeing! :)

I'm all for on demand feeding.[/quote]
Apologies, I thought you were agreeing with the whole 'theyll let you know they're hungry' argument. At what other stage do we do that? I dont wait for my grown children to start bawling for food, I serve breakfast, lunch and dinner!

On demand feeding encourages you to look for hunger cues before the crying stage.

Feeding on a schedule means they aren't always hungry when being fed. Also, it means some parents might try and get baby to finish bottles.

The whole point of on demand, is to set up good habits for LIFE , by eating when you're hungry until you are satisfied. Rather than "it's 6pm, time for dinner a d finish everything on the plate, hungry or not".

The problem with schedule feeding, is if baby is not hungry at scheduled time, and only has few mouthfuls, but is ravenous 2 hours later. The baby won't possibly be fed for another hour, because GF says so..

It doesn't make sense that you wouldn't feed on demand.

Sure follow a loose schedule, and know that "oh it's been 3 hours,so baby is probably hungry" but don't Stick to it so rigidly that baby has a feed taken away before they're satisfied

🤷‍♀️

I think the point @MothExterminator makes about rest is really important. People focus a lot on Gina Fords from the feeding point of view but feeding and sleeping are deeply intertwined. My children in her routine rarely got over-tired, slept well therefore eat well therefore slept well and on it goes. I am categorically not saying this will work for every child all the time but I refuse to believe it was just luck that mine were as 'good' as they generally were. At the very least I can certainly say her routines did them no harm, they were very cared for, well fed, well rested and well loved babies.

I followed Gina Ford with my first and plan to with my 2nd due in September. We had to make a few changes and didn't split the feed just picked the time that suited based on the age and fed as much as DD wanted then offered a little more (or what was left) at the 2nd time if we had any hunger cues.
It was definitely one modification to it that worked for us. Maybe try options.

@TryingNotToPanicOverCovid

How is the baby happy if it hungry and not being fed?

I know! It doesn't make sense. It's like people who justify controlled crying with "happy mummy, happy baby". If the baby is happy, why is he/she crying?

You can just offer at both times

I had one baby who fed to the exact advice on the back of the formula packet, and another who needed almost double his daily amount.

I think things like Gina Ford plan can be good guidelines, but it's when you stick to it too rigidly it goes wrong. Because life is unpredictable and so are babies!

The only purpose those books have is to give you a tough idea of what might work. There is absolutely no "one size fits all" when it comes to babies.

Someone bought me a baby book like this when I had newborn twins and it said it was preferable to employ a night nurse and left no time at all for the mother to eat or wash

If your kid is hungry, feed it.

Yep. A fed baby is a happy baby.

That just isn’t always true.

I breastfed so don’t know much about bottle feeding a small baby, but I could never tell whether my children were hungry or just wanted to suckle. The only conclusion I ever reached was that a baby who continued to cry after being offered food wasn’t hungry.

Wanting to suckle is also valid. I'm not thirsty at set periods in the day and wouldn't see breaking my cup of tea or afternoon meal into 2 halves or stopping before I was full as desirable.

I think modelling eating when hungry/stop when full is v important in fact.

I haven’t read any Gina Ford so I would like to know the purpose of splitting the feed if anyone knows? Personally I can’t understand why you wouldn’t just feed a baby when hungry until they are content but maybe there is some kind of reasoning behind the idea?

Exactly @00100001. Both my children were premature and very low birth weight so there is a massive focus on feeding but they are so different.
My eldest fed every 4 hours, started solids at 5.5 months and was so easy to settle and slept like a dream.
My youngest wants feeding every 3 hours, is nearly 7 months and isn't interested by solids and wants to be cuddled to sleep.
Point is I work off them, they tell me when they are hungry long before they get upset and they sleep when they want but they do have a schedule that they settled into it just takes a couple of months.
Babies who are demand fed have healthier outcomes in later life and better weights ect. Force fed babies are more likely to be obese and have other illnesses that are associated

Of course they haven't. But they've also not heard of 'feed on demand so it's a pretty silly argument to say not to do something because baby can't read!

Feeding on demand, i.e feeding when hungry, is normal. Being forced to wait for food even though they are letting you know they are hungry isn't. Babies are born wanting to feed on demand. It's natural for them.

I think the purpose of splitting that particular feed for small babies (if possible) is out of consideration for the mum. Having said that, since I BF before the bath, I never had that issue. Baby fed until there wasn’t that much milk left. I gave a bottle of expressed breast milk (expressed in the morning) after the bath.

If you aim to put the baby to bed around 6.30-7, the baby will sleep better after a bath and a bottle. If the baby has a huge bottle before the bath, a small baby may end up “milk drunk” and fall asleep before the bath.

If it is possible to feed the baby a feed, before the bath, then bath the baby and then top up the feed, baby will fall asleep easier at 6.30/7pm. As a mum, I then had something to eat and went to bed around 8/9.

DH feeds baby from a bottle around 10pm/11pm or earlier if the baby wakes up. This gives the mum a few hours of undisturbed sleep before midnight which makes it easier to deal with night waking. For me it was a life saver.

It also gives the dad some time alone with the baby. If the baby doesn’t wake up at 10/11, the dad wakes the baby up for a feed.

If you exclusively BF your baby up to 6months (as I did), Gina Ford also recommends expressing milk at certain times. This helps increase milk supply and gives you a stash of milk which can be used for bottle feeding. It is useful to be able to give a BF baby a bottle.

I don’t know anything about formula feeding a small baby (we topped up BF on occasion), but are there any concerns about over feeding? Again, please forgive me if that not is the case, I never looked into it.

Why not juggle feeds so you do a full feed 3-4 pm & then baby is hungry enough for a full feed 6-6.30pm? No point in making things difficult with a crabby hungry baby. Feeding to a set timetable isn't always what your baby needs, don't set things in stone, on demand feeding may be better.

Nat, I cannot for my life remember the suggested timings for the feeds. I think there was a feed around 2.30/3pm, but could say.

Also, I did like the “contented baby with toddler book” better as it allowed for many more adjustments.

I don’t think anyone on the Gina Ford routine (at least that I knew) ever denied a hungry baby food. It was more something of trying to tweak the days into a routine where the baby got food at more predictable times and sufficient of sleep for the age (avoid getting overtired) and if possible give mum a few precious hours of sleep.

They 've not heard of "feed on demand" but they definitely know how to demand a feed.

Just be led by what they are telling you they need.

I doubt anyone who finds Gina Ford works for them is forcing a hungry baby to wait for a specific time to feed any more than those who feed on demand are “shoving a nipple in at the slightest whimper” or whatever

There's no way of proving this @theleafandnotthetree but some kids just are way more demanding and if they didn't have the boob shoved in their mouth would be utter hell in public for everyone else. So basically whatever works is whatever works. For some that's a strict routine, fine! But that just happened to suit your baby, not the other way round.

I hope find a way that works for you OP. In my personal experience I felt much better, less stressed and more relaxed after throwing my copy of Gina Ford in the bin.

Ignore the judgement op. Do what's right for you. I at least glad to see you are t being criticised for bottle feeding....

I did Gina Ford approximately. I just gave my son the whole feed at 5pm as he was hungry then. I combine fed my son moving to bottles exclusively.

Having a loose routine saved me from insanity. I never ever followed it perfectly but I think it helped give my son structure. He was never forced to go hungry. If he was hungry earlier than the allotted time I just fed him. The idea that people think that using the the routine means you would starve your child is frankly insulting.