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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

can a 6wk old BF baby do 4 hourly feeding routine???

37 replies

Tigerlily1 · 22/12/2009 21:04

I have a book which i am advised that if i follow this routine my baby will be able to sleep through the night at 6wks and be in a 4 hourly feeding pattern. My ds is 5wks old and i have been bf on demand and he probably goes a couple of hours between feeds but sometimes he wants more. how can a bf baby get into a routine without some degree of being left to cry? my other ds is nearly 3 and i bf him on demand but it's harder with two, can't nap when they nap etc.
has anyone got their 6wk old bf baby into a routine? i would be very interested in all your mn wisdom!! thanks.

OP posts:
whomovedmychocolate · 22/12/2009 22:21

What century was the book written in?

No! No! No! This will not work and is nuts. When the baby gets to about four months they tend to go four hours between feeds. Some babies sleep through earlier than others but this plan is not exactly breastfeeding friendly is it?

forevermore · 22/12/2009 22:49

DD2 is 16 weeks and still 2 - 2.5 hourly 24 hours a day and won't take a bottle arghhhhhhhhh. I would like the answer to this too! DD1 starts school in Jan and I am hoping that it will mean the first day I would have slept more than 4 hours/day in months.

Igglybuff · 22/12/2009 23:03

Surely with growth spurts and tiny tummies, 4 hours is too long?? My 11 week DS has only started going for 5 hours at night with 2-3 hour gaps in the day.

My DS has fallen into his own routine which includes a two hour nap at lunch - maybe your DC has/will do the same making it easier to do things? Although I only have 1 so no idea how I'd cope with 2!

mcflumpy · 22/12/2009 23:04

My DD is 6 months Old and feeds every 3 hours during the day...

LeoniedElf · 22/12/2009 23:05

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l39 · 22/12/2009 23:08

Sounds like a ridiculous idea to me.

My dd5 is 10 weeks old. I feed her around a dozen times a day. She has chosen to go up to 8 hours at night without feeding but I'd never try to force her into it. Feeding as often as your baby wants is important to producing enough milk.

LeoniedElf · 22/12/2009 23:08

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Lionstar · 22/12/2009 23:08

I just don't get this 4 hourly feeding for any age, I mean how many adults go 4 hours without having a drink or a meal or at least a snack?

LeoniedElf · 22/12/2009 23:13

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pooexplosionsonthedustyroad · 22/12/2009 23:39

Its a recipe for ending breatfeeding and/or low weight gain, and not much else.

Igglybuff · 23/12/2009 01:17

I agree with pooexplosion - my MIL tried to breastfeed on a 4 hourly schedule from day 1. She ended up with an abscess and thought she didn't have enough milk - no doubt from not following baby's cues and stretchig feeds too far apart. I gave her short shrif when she kept hinting that I should be feeding DS every four hours instead of on demand (I think his rolls of fat made her think he was too big )

Igglybuff · 23/12/2009 01:19

whomoved do I dare ask, what is this book??

Igglybuff · 23/12/2009 01:21

sorry whomoved I'm doing this on a tiny screen in my iPhone and thought you were the top post - I meant to ask the OP, Tigerlily1!

tw1nkley · 23/12/2009 01:34

op, You can find a book to say anything this particular book tho is not the answer to your dreams its the portal to a period of insanity. Babe needs boob and boob needs babe, throw away your clocks.

Yes it is diffcult at 6 weeks with dc2, but you can do it, you already have been, take it one day at a time, you are doing good!

In order to get something positive out of this book try gluing some holly and tinsel on top of it and use it as a yule log on xmas day, should burn nicely.

Have a merry christmas.

Original poster
Tigerlily1 · 23/12/2009 02:10

thanks everyone! thought it seemed like a load of ol balls and i could never leave my baby to 'cry it out'. the book is called 'the baby book' by rachel waddilove, she's a maternity nurse. my m.i.l gave it to me when i had ds1 and i didn't try it then but was tempted this time as harder to deal with tiredness with 2 kids!
it is very archaic though, advocating the old boiled water on a spoon in the night. 1970's! my m.i.l had all her babies doing that and just used to leave them between scheduled feeds - think that was how they did it back then.she's always saying how good this book is.
she said i should go to 5 feeds a day by about 8wks. hmmmm...

OP posts:
WukThisItsXmas · 23/12/2009 02:19

What's wrong with giving boiled water?

SantaIsMyLoveSlave · 23/12/2009 02:21

How long did your MIL manage to exclusively breastfeed for before introducing cereal or other solids?

Original poster
Tigerlily1 · 23/12/2009 02:26

tw1inkley, i only wish i had real fire to burn it on!
i also don't think my m.i.l has a very close bond with her kids either. i mean, they all love each other but there is a distance and it could be associated with this routine thing.
she is very conservative and i think she thinks our kids have too much their own way with demand feeding etc. she thinks slings are new fangled fgs!

OP posts:
Original poster
Tigerlily1 · 23/12/2009 02:29

santa, i think she did solids at about 4mths as again, that was how it was done then.

wuk-don't think its wrong to give boiled water but they mean to give it instead of a feed. you can use it as a drink but this book tells you to sub milk for it which i think is a bit tight!

OP posts:
FuckingNinkyNonk · 23/12/2009 02:59

wuk it is potentially dangerous to give boiled water to such a young baby.

Original poster
Tigerlily1 · 23/12/2009 03:10

i think the author is thinking breast and bottle feeding are the same. just read review on amazon and apparently the author never breastfed. so that's where this 4hrly thing comes from, bottle feeding. i will just disregard this book. this is the book -

((www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-Book-How-Enjoy-Year/dp/0745952135/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top))

s orry, can't get the link to work.

OP posts:
whomovedmychocolate · 23/12/2009 06:47

Babies don't read the manual nor do they agree with it. To be fair to your MiL she's probably going to say 'you are making a rod for your own back' by demand feeding because it is hard work. But we sort of know better than to starve our children because it's not quite 3pm these days

Although I'm told this method does work well if you are raising baby sheep on bottles!

tiktok · 23/12/2009 09:19

I know this book. It is not all bad, but imposing a four-hourly routine on a baby of any age is unkind, and potentially quite dangerous....most human beings (children and adults) have a drink or something to eat more often than this, and why not?

I think it's worth remembering that books about newborn care written by maternity nurses are written by people who go in and out of families' lives within a matter of weeks or months. They don't have to make a long-term, loving relationship with their 'charges' and in fact it would be very difficult (for the maternity nurse) if she did get close to the baby. I speculate that the very common advice to schedule these babies has two aims i) to distance the baby from the maternity nurse to make it easier to part and ii) to impose something that actual mothers would find hard to do, so she brings some 'expertise' that the mother doesn't have...thus justifying her involvement.

LeoniedElf · 23/12/2009 09:22

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Lulumama · 23/12/2009 09:25

but formula fed babies rarely go 4 hourly at this young age, the book sounds archaic and frankly bonkers.

if i go 4 hours between drinks/snacks, i get cranky and cross and i would probably cry too, if i could not get to the kettle

no point denying a hungry baby milk. water or leaving them to cry means they simply get too tired/upset/hysterical to feed properly when they are due. and can not take a proper feed and then need more milk sooner and it just sets a horrible cycle of upset baby and mum and the end of breastfeeding.

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