Say What?
At Riley's last check up, the doctor commented to DH that Riley should be eating every 4-5hrs now instead of every 3-4hrs. He then proceeded to tell Justin that we should make him wait for his bottle at least 4 hours so that he would start to go longer between feedings. This baffled me. I've never heard of making a baby wait for food. I refuse to listen to my child cry cause he's hungry or dirty. I can easily fix both of these issues and I'm going to. I started giving the little guy 5oz per bottle instead of 4oz and sure enough he now goes 4 hours between feedings. Problem solved.
The doc was happy with his grown and the strength in his arms and legs though so he looks great even if he wants to eat all the time.
Have you guys ever heard of making a baby wait for food? This is nuts right?
posted by Ginny at 4:24 PM
7 Comments:
Actually, I once heard it recommended that if you want the baby to sleep through the night every night, then starting on the very first night he's home you put him to bed, go to bed yourself, and run a fan or something else loud in the room so that you don't hear the baby crying as well. He'll quickly learn that night time is for sleeping and daytime is for eating, and you'll sleep through the night.
The gentleman who told me about it said it was common practice in the 60's and he'd done it with both of his kids.... and it was only later that anyone believed that it was "cruel" to make a kid wait a few hours to eat.
Granted, if you're feeding him more he should make that jump more easily because he'll be full longer. And you're right, if you're already up and awake I don't see any reason to make the kid wait.
So no, I don't think it's odd at all. But I also don't have kids.
Hard for me to say, since I breastfed, so I didn't have to adjust how much he was eating (generally speaking). I know you feed on demand with breastfeeding, I don't know why formula would be any different. By the time he was on formula only, he was also eating solids (9 months old), so we just gave him as much as he wanted at each bottle feeding. No advice for you, but yes, that does sound odd to me.
Virgina, I hope you remember me its Maria from thr Poconos. I saw you baby's pic on webshots?(I think) what a beautiful child! God Bless him he is so sweet! ABTW feed him when he's hungry I wonder if the Doctor is on a feeding schedule?
It's nuts. You (and Justin) know what is best for your son. Any other advice is just that... advice. Do what you know is best and feeding when hungry is a no-brainer.
When Kylie was born (she'll be 18 at the end of the month) she had jaundice. Dr told me to *wake her up* every 2 hours to feed her thru the night. She didn't eat much (can't exactly *make* a kid eat) and it took her two years to sleep thru the night. That was the last time I did something that I knew was wrong for my kids!
I don't have kids and am not qualified to answer - but I think your doctor is smoking crack.
The doctor is crazy. Riley knows when he's hungry. Making him wait longer to eat is not going to help anything. You are doing exactly the right thing giving him more formula.
Remember, you're parents. Parents have simple rules to follow at this age. If your kid cries he's probably hungry, has a messy, diaper, is tired, or is bored. Your job is to try to fix it by feeding, holding, talking/playing or changing. It's not until they get older that you have to start setting guidelines. For now, trust your gut, snuggle him and feed him if he's hungy.
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