In a message dated 1/31/02 9:32:23 AM Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

Jennifer writes:
> "Breastfeed and Bottle Feed
> I would like my baby fed on a schedule.
>
> If you were working with this mother, how would you approach her about
> this?  I have never had a mother in 4 years put this on her birth plan!
> I think she will sabotage her breastfeeding success with this statement
> - do you agree"

Jennifer_ I would ask the mother (gently) what are her expectations and ideas
of what a schedule would be for a newborn. She may have read or heard
something about the need for a schedule to be established right from birth.
Whenever a mom tells me this, I ask what parenting classes or books she has
read/attended ? We then discuss normal biological rhythms of eating,
sleeping, learning for a newborn and how learning to listen to and
communicate with your baby is the most important task of those first few
weeks. I also discuss how babies whose mothers attend to their first frets
and sounds    usually have babies who scream less intense and for shorter
periods because those babies learn they don't have to scream that mom will
respond to quieter calls for attention.
I also ask the mom to recall what she has eaten in the past 24 hrs and if
that is the same eating schedules she follows each day--does she eat every 3
hrs strictly. Follow that with asking how she would feel if she went into the
kitchen for a snack in the evening and her husband told her she couldn't have
it because it had only been 2 hrs since she had eaten. That usually hits home
with moms and dads.

Barb Whitehead, BS, IBCLC
Eastern NC

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