Do you keep a feeding diary? How do you do it??

[Hellobaby]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering whether anyone here keeps a feeding diary to help remind them when they last fed, what they fed etc? Is it possible and useful to do it or is it a total pain in the neck?

Any help much appreciated!!

Thanks a lot!

don't bother

just feed baby when baby wants it, you'll soon know if its not getting enough

Good God, no!

What a PITA!

i did one for my PFB ! i found it the other day, i was a tiny book, with time of feeds and how much he took. why? i don;t honestly know never bothered doing one with DD

feed on demand, whether breast or bottle , as and when baby wants feeding.

learn to trust yourself and get to know your own baby's needs

I kept a feeding diary for the first couple of weeks just so that I could see if there was a pattern forming. We fed on demand, but with an eye to the Babywhisperer book.
There was no schedule or set times but it really helped me to see that when I felt things were a nightmare that actually DS1 wash actually feeding every 2.5 hours
settling into feed
feeding
changing nappy and
settling to sleep
then before we knew it it all started over again.

It also helped to see that after a couple of weeks it was a 3 hourly feed (ish) with the occasional change to that.

I guess what I am saying is that finding out that we were achieving all we could possibly expect from a newborn was a relief even though I was still exhausted by it.

waffle over - try it - see if you can be bothered - find it helpful - if not - stop!

good luck

I kept one going at home initially after the hospital started one when DS was born & had trouble bfing...but found it just got in the way of properly demand feeding - I was trying to get out of the rubbish 3 hourly routine the hospital made me keep to. I was expressing every 2 hours & didn't really have the time to keep writing down everything - I just wanted to enjoy being with my baby! The last entry I did was when he was about 2 weeks old.

I did this for about the first 6 weeks. Was not v detailed - just scrawled the time of the feed, which breast dd had finished with and how long the feed took.

In my case though I had been advised to time feeds because dd was not "demanding" to be fed very often and was not putting on weight. I wouldn't have bothered otherwise.

yes, it went like this:

12.01 awake for 5 mins, settled down with bf
12.42 awake, same
1.06 AWAKE
2.30 ffs

etc

i did it for a few weeks to see if there was any pattern, not just feeds but sleeps and nappies as well. Length of sleeps, and also whether his nappy actually needed changing when I did it. It did help. I stopped fairly early, as soon as he started sleeping more at night rather than just feed/sleep/feed/sleep etc

same as oliveoil

Mine was also to see if a routine emerged, and keep track of how many feeds she took per 24 hours, as my pediatrician always used to ask, and I looked a bit silly if I didn't know.

It was quite useful for the 1st few weeks, just to keep track of growth spurts etc.

I found the notebook I wrote feeds in for DS's first week. TBH it made me feel a little as it brought back memories of the struggles to get breastfeeding started. I can see by the scrawly notes (which get progressively more illegible) that the most common entry was 'latched on and fell asleep'. It then stops abruptly at day 6 as we were hospitalised at that point due to DS's jaundice and weight loss.

I think I went a bit loopy in the hospital (in for 3 nights) and got very tearful over not having my notebook and needing a pen to WRITE IT DOWN.

When we came home from hospital I felt more confident and felt that bf was better established so didn't feel the need to keep a diary any more...