arguments about feeding

Clisby Williams wrote:

Heck, my son ate every hour on the hour during the day from birth to 2.5
months. I never even
noticed any growth spurts - I mean, how much more often could he
*possibly* have eaten?

Okay, so I don't feel bad that Pillbug
has been feeding every hour these past
couple of days and sometimes stays on
for that whole hour (well, 50 minutes...
I get a few minutes rest...).

-- Anita --

Irrational Number wrote in message ...
Clisby Williams wrote:

Heck, my son ate every hour on the hour during the day from birth to 2.5
months. I never even
noticed any growth spurts - I mean, how much more often could he
*possibly* have eaten?

Okay, so I don't feel bad that Pillbug
has been feeding every hour these past
couple of days and sometimes stays on
for that whole hour (well, 50 minutes...
I get a few minutes rest...).

to 2.5 months, hey, We are almost there!

I have just had 10 minutes at the computer - without the limpet, but I
am sure I will be back on breast duty any second. He is definatly
growth spurting - he was 7lbs 8oz 2 weeks ago and is now a nicely
rounded 9lbs 4. His knees are fat! I am fine with the feeding all
the time and the clingyness when not feeding as long as I really
forget about achieving anything else, I am trying to think of this
motherhood stuff as my job now and that helps. Its fine when there is
some food left ready for me but a nightmare if I have to try to make a
sarnie or something. And my shoulders ache !

teapot and moo boy 6 and a half weeks

Irrational Number wrote in message ...
Clisby Williams wrote:

Heck, my son ate every hour on the hour during the day from birth to 2.5
months. I never even
noticed any growth spurts - I mean, how much more often could he
*possibly* have eaten?

Okay, so I don't feel bad that Pillbug
has been feeding every hour these past
couple of days and sometimes stays on
for that whole hour (well, 50 minutes...
I get a few minutes rest...).

to 2.5 months, hey, We are almost there!

I have just had 10 minutes at the computer - without the limpet, but I
am sure I will be back on breast duty any second. He is definatly
growth spurting - he was 7lbs 8oz 2 weeks ago and is now a nicely
rounded 9lbs 4. His knees are fat! I am fine with the feeding all
the time and the clingyness when not feeding as long as I really
forget about achieving anything else, I am trying to think of this
motherhood stuff as my job now and that helps. Its fine when there is
some food left ready for me but a nightmare if I have to try to make a
sarnie or something. And my shoulders ache !

teapot and moo boy 6 and a half weeks

You should measure his length too for fun. larry told me they would
measure the length after a growth spurt, so I did it too. I actually
measured her midway in her growth spurt (her spurt lasted 9 days) and
then again a few days later and in 2 days she grew an inch and a half
- amazing.

KC


(teapot) wrote in message . com...
Irrational Number wrote in message ...
Clisby Williams wrote:

Heck, my son ate every hour on the hour during the day from birth to 2.5
months. I never even
noticed any growth spurts - I mean, how much more often could he
*possibly* have eaten?

Okay, so I don't feel bad that Pillbug
has been feeding every hour these past
couple of days and sometimes stays on
for that whole hour (well, 50 minutes...
I get a few minutes rest...).

to 2.5 months, hey, We are almost there!

I have just had 10 minutes at the computer - without the limpet, but I
am sure I will be back on breast duty any second. He is definatly
growth spurting - he was 7lbs 8oz 2 weeks ago and is now a nicely
rounded 9lbs 4. His knees are fat! I am fine with the feeding all
the time and the clingyness when not feeding as long as I really
forget about achieving anything else, I am trying to think of this
motherhood stuff as my job now and that helps. Its fine when there is
some food left ready for me but a nightmare if I have to try to make a
sarnie or something. And my shoulders ache !

teapot and moo boy 6 and a half weeks

(Joshua Levy) wrote in message om...
"Circe" wrote in message news:_PXSa.14436$u51.12043@fed1read05...
Joshua Levy wrote:
I vote for (c): Buy or borrow the book THE BABY WHISPERER by Hogg,
and use it's advice to understand your baby better. Your answer
(a) is obviously wrong buy it shows the underlying problem you need
to fix. You should feed the baby whenever the baby is hungry (NOT
whenever the baby cries!) Babies cry for many reasons. If you feed
the baby every time she cries, you will feed him when he is bored,
gassy, hungry, sleepy, etc.

Except that babies don't eat if they are not hungry and babies who have a
problem *other* than being hungry won't be pacified by being fed.

This is well known not to be true. Babies have a suck reflex.
If you get the teat in the right place, the baby will suck.
(It's called a reflex because the baby doesn't choose to do it,
the baby's body just reacts this way, and it doesn't matter
if the baby is hungry or not.)

Sometimes,
a not-very-hungry baby will nurse for comfort without getting much milk, but
there's nothing wrong with this.

True, but if the baby was crying because it was gassy (for example),
then sucking is not going to help. Ditto if the baby was crying because
it was bored, or for some other reason.

Babies *do* occasionally need to suck even
when they are not hungry and since some won't take a pacifier or suck a
pinky--two of mine wouldn't--nursing them is the only way to meet this need.

Sure, but we're talk about advice to feed the baby every time the baby
cries, and that is wrong. Occasionally sucking for comfort is fine, but
has little to do with advice to feed a baby every time the baby cries.

The baby in question is at the perfect age for a growth spurt, as other
posters have noted. It is entirely possible that he is hungry every hour
during this time. It will pass.

Even during the biggest of growth spurts, a baby that age does not need
to eat every hour. They've gotten in the habit of eating every hour,
that is all. Sure a growth spurt may make a baby eat more and more
often than otherwise, but every hour? That's learned behavior.

Joshua Levy

My feeding approach must have been simplistic. Cry:

- Check diaper. Dry. Check.
- Check gas. No gas. Check.
- Offer pacifier. Never took it. Gave up after about 3 days.
- Offer boob. Good for food AND fun. No crying. AAAAAAAAHHHH.

If he did not want it, he did not take it. But he was particularly non-oral.



Stephanie

(Joshua Levy) wrote in message . com...
"Melissa" wrote in message news:nJbTa.118430$Ph3.15241@sccrnsc04...
"Joshua Levy" wrote
I vote for (c): Buy or borrow the book THE BABY WHISPERER by Hogg,
and use it's advice to understand your baby better. ...

Except that the author has no expertice except for as a mother.

Wrong. She worked for years as a nanny. It is interesting to compare
her experience with Dr. Sears (for example). He is a doctor for 1000s
of children, but as a doctor only sees them for a few minutes every
couple of months. Hogg on the other hand has helped raise scores of
children, spending days, weeks, or months with each one.



Doesn't Doc Sears have a couple zillion kids of his own?

So would you rather take advice from someone who sees kids maybe 20
minutes once or twice a year? Or someone who took care of a baby
for months at a time? It's easy for Sears to say vague things like
and let the parents deal with it. But Hogg was the person raising
the baby. Her advice is specific and useful, not vague.

She
advocates such things as nursing for 18 minutes on a side because, according
to her, that's when the foremilk turns to hindmilk.

Wrong. I challenge you to find any part of her books which says this.

The LC who runs my bf group says to burn that book
(and BabyWise, while we're at it) and stick with your gut (or Dr. Sears'
books). You know what the right thing to do is so trust yourself.

Ah! Have you even read this book? If not, why comment on it?

As for doing the right thing, the OP suspects that she is not, that
is why she asked the question. The answer is simple (if politically
incorrect in some circles): feed a baby when the baby is hungry, NOT
everytime the baby cries. Babys cry for many reasons, and there is no
advantage to feeding a gassy baby, a bored baby or a tired baby (for
example).

Joshua Levy

(Joshua Levy) wrote in message . com...
feed a baby when the baby is hungry, NOT
everytime the baby cries. Babys cry for many reasons, and there is no
advantage to feeding a gassy baby, a bored baby or a tired baby (for
example).

Joshua Levy

True, but I find that when my 7 week old baby (same age to the day as
the OP's) spontaneously starts crying it's almost invariably because
she's hungry. If she's not crying from hunger the cause is pretty
obvious -- we're changing her diaper, I just bonked her head, or she's
really gassy. Periodically DH and I start thinking she's gotten more
complex and wonder why she's crying -- but somehow that at those times
she never seems to stop until she gets the boob. Sometimes I think
hunger might only be a part of why she's crying (she's both hungry and
gassy or hungry and tired), but even then, if I take care of the
hunger she's able to cope with the gas or tiredness.

Kate
and Bug, June 8 2003

Clisby Williams wrote in message ...
Heck, my son ate every hour on the hour during the day from birth to 2.5
months. I never even
noticed any growth spurts - I mean, how much more often could he
*possibly* have eaten?

Clisby

My baby ate almost constantly during the day during her 6 week growth
spurt, but she did still sleep pretty good at night, so I guess it all
evens out.

KC

(Joshua Levy) wrote in message om...
If you really think that feeding a baby every time it cries is a good
idea, then why not try the following experiment. Every time you say
something, eat something! Remember, crying is all a small baby can do,
so they cry to communicate all their wants. So feeding them whenever
they cry is a silly for them, as eating every time you talk is silly
for you.

Joshua Levy

But, I don't need to double my weight in 6 months, and a newborn does.

KC

(Joshua Levy) wrote in message . com...
Babys cry for many reasons, and there is no
advantage to feeding a gassy baby, a bored baby or a tired baby (for
example).

Joshua Levy

Ahhh but there are several advantages to the mother: a calmer baby
whose not screaming at you while you do the other thing the baby
needs. Early on when my baby had a dirty diaper and was crying I
would nurse her for a few minutes before changing her so that she was
calmer for the change. Now she likes getting changed, so I don't do
that anymore, but at the time that was a nice advantage for me.
Another advantage is that putting the baby to the breast builds
supply. I sometimes offer the breast when the baby has made no signs
of being unhappy about anything like right before we go into a store
because I would rather tank her up in my car than in the store, so
there are plenty of advantages to sometimes feeding a baby even when
they are not hungry.



KC