Dr. Robert Needlman
Specialist in pediatric behavior and development.
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 Ask Dr. Needlman
Finding the Best Feeding Schedule | | | QUESTION | | | Dear Dr. Needlman,
I was wondering how the staff feels about the Babywise plan. Should a baby be fed as soon as waking up...played with for an hour and a half...put to bed for an hour and a half to two hours...woken up and then fed again? I'm a little confused now on how I should properly feed my fussy newborn. His schedule is as follows: He wakes up around 6 a.m. I play with him and then give him a bath around 8:30. He then gets fed at 9 and goes down for a nap. He generally takes four-hour naps twice a day. He sleeps about four hours at night, wakes up for a feeding, and then goes back to sleep for another four hours. Is this normal? I'm not sure how this works to get him to sleep through the night. He is formula-fed and is eight weeks old and weighs 10 pounds. He drinks five ounces at a time.— Sheryl in Colorado | | | ANSWER |
June 13, 2001 | | | Dear Sheryl,
It sounds like your baby's schedule is just fine. An eight-week old who is sleeping in two four-hour blocks at night, waking briefly to feed, is really right on target. His feeding also sounds appropriate for his age.
"Babywise" refers to a popular parenting book that has become something of a movement. Many others advocate similar schedules. Without commenting on one book in particular, let me talk a bit about some of the principles:
In general, most children do well with a high degree of regularity in their days. At the same time, schedules shouldn't be rigid or inflexible. Some infants are naturally more regular in their biological hunger and activity cycles than others. Highly biologically irregular babies demand somewhat more flexibility on the part of their parents.
The idea that parents should expect their babies to fit into the family--not totally rearrange the entire family around the baby's whims--makes sense. I'm a bit worried, however, that some parents might take this too far and assume that their babies fit completely into their (the adults') schedules. Parents need to find a balance, recognizing that babies have a limited ability to handle hunger, wetness, or other pressing needs.
The other thing I feel strongly about is that no one recipe is right for all babies. Babies and their parents are individuals. The key question is not "Are you doing it right according to this or that preset schedule?" but "Does what you are doing feel right to you and to your baby?" From your letter, it sounds like the answer to this is yes. Congratulations!— by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. |
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