Demand Vs Routine Feeding

Note: Here at babyboost we understand that dads are equally important in the decision to routine or demand feed, especially if your baby is bottle fed. Simply for ease of reading we have decided to use the words 'mum' and 'mothers'.

Well this would have to be one of the hottest topics amongst mums. Do you routine feed or do you demand feed? For every one that routine feeds there would an equal number that demand feeds.

So which do you choose? Well like any decision you need to make for your baby – and there are many, the only suggestion we would recommend is that you research and make a decision that best suits you and your baby.

When choosing routine based feeding for your baby, it is important to remember that with any routine, it is always 'flexibility within a routine'.

Restful Sleep to Your Baby's Night

As a parent you desire what's best for your baby. As a mother you also need what’s best for you. A fatigued and weary mum simply cannot effectively meet her baby's needs or anyone else's for that matter. Babies do not connect well with burnt out mothers. So much of the fatigue experienced by mothers can be avoided with a little routine.

From feeding to wake time to naptime, routine based feeding offers much more than just a feeding strategy for baby.

Confidence comes when you know what to expect. Everyone wins with routine based feeding - feeding time, wake time and naptime cycles are both routine and predictable. Though a routine is always predictable, what is predictable does not necessarily establish routine.

For better or worse, parents are the greatest influence on a child's sleep ability. Expecting babies and young children to sleep through the night is very realistic. But this all important life skill is rarely achieved apart from parental guidance. Healthy, full term babies are typically born with the capacity to achieve seven to eight hours of continuous night time sleep between 7 and 10 weeks.

That some babies sleep through the night early on and others do not has long been the subject of debate and study.

The theories range from simple to complex.

Healthy Sleep Patterns

How well did you sleep last night? We all know about different levels of sleep. Yet few think to consider how good our wakefulness is. Is infant sleep depravation dangerous? Imagine your spouse getting no more than three hours sleep at a stretch for one week. Would you expect this to impact his or her attitudes, actions and overall accountability?

A child's body develops faster during the first year of life than at any other time. To help facilitate healthy growth a baby needs restful periods of sleep.

Normal Hours of Sleep

How many hours should my baby sleep in a day

According to a textbook formula, a newborn baby should sleep an average of sixteen and a half hours a day. The 16 ½ hours of sleep is what is expected from an average baby. This average takes into account those babies that sleep for less than the prescribed time and those who sleep much more. It really depends on each individual baby’s degree of wakefulness.

For how long should my baby nap in the day

Even after your baby begins to sleep through the night, she will require one or two naps during the day. By the time she is a year old, a set pattern for her naps will emerge. Some babies nap right after breakfast, mid-morning, after lunch or in the late afternoon. Their naps can be as short as 20 minutes and as long as four hours. Napping depends on each baby’s individual needs.

Newborn - Feedings - Getting Started

It's been said that bottle fed babies will usually sleep through the night sooner than breastfed babies, but this is actually not the case. If feedings are based around a routine, say every 3 hours, and your baby is getting solid feeds of at least 20-30 minutes (15 minutes per side) then your baby will most likely be sleeping through the night between 7-10 weeks which will happen naturally.

Demand fed babies are more likely to snack and have shorter feeds and therefore need more frequent feeds than a baby that is routine fed. When babies tend to snack they are not getting the nutritious hind milk that will sustain them through to the next feed. With qualitive feeding, you eliminate the need for continual snacking. On Demand, many feedings become exactly that. Baby feels like a little something to tide her over.

No meal is desired. Such snack feeding provides baby only a partial meal consisting of the lower-calorie foremilk and not the higher calorie hind milk essential for growth. Mum can think she is doing more for her baby through endless breast availability. In actuality, she's delivering less than her best. Baby often quits suckling before optimum nourishment is offered.

An infant fed on a basic 2 1/2 to 3 hour routine and whose digestive metabolism is stable will demand more milk. In turn, this stimulates greater milk production than the infant demanding less milk more often. Here then lies your key to efficient milk production. Work on getting full feedings.

Why Do Babies Cry

• Crying as a means of communication
• Crying from hunger
• Crying because of fatigue
• Crying because of indigestion
• Crying because she needs to be burped
• Crying because of wet/soiled nappy
• Crying because of discomfort/illness
• Crying for apparently no reason at all

If you are breastfeeding, another common reason a baby may cry is because of something that you have eaten that does not agree with your baby and therefore baby may have a pain. There are common foods that will affect breast milk and therefore not agree with baby. This can be easily fixed with a little trial and error of your diet. Some common foods such as tomatoes, cauliflower, pizza and spicy food to name a few can have a big impact on your baby's restfulness.

Keeping Baby Comfortable

How do we know if baby is cool, cold or over heated? It has always been said, check your own temperature and put on an extra layer for baby, of course the exception to the rule is in the hotter months.

Keep baby comfortable but do not over heat. If it is getting cool, put a long sleeve jumpsuit on your baby instead of a blanket.