Do they need to eat?!

Just a vent but do any of you get this? So I'm bfing so yes I am the only one who can feed my babies......but every time my kids even make a peep my mom or in laws or whoever asks "Do they need to eat?" It drives me crazy!!!! & they are now almost 4 months old so they have a hurt cry, a feed me cry, heck even an I'm bored cry! And me being a good mommy pretty much knows when they need to eat which surely isn't every time they say wah! Am I the only one who understand babies cry? All in all they are great babies they barely cry anyway so every time they do i just get so sick of hearing do they need to eat? Just on my nerves i guess.....

 

:laughing: That's moms and IL's for you!

 

LOL! I am getting the same thing from DH. Though our kiddos are just 5+ weeks old, everytime he hears a peep, he says they're hungry and thrusts them at my boobs. It really makes me feel like a cow, but I try to chalk it up to him feeling helpless about what to do. I suspect your IL's are in the same boat. They want to help, but are clueless. Try to stay strong and see the humor in your IL's helplessness. Plus, remind yourself that you are an awesome mom because you CAN differentiate your children's cries and you DO know what they need!

 

I've definitely been there. I always just tried to remind myself that the grandma's love the babies & really do mean well (and I repeated it to myself often), even though it can be so frustrating sometimes! :hug:

 

My father-in-law does that to me all the time, and it makes me insane. Just the other day I argued with him that Athan was NOT hungry when he kept fussing (he had just eaten not 30 minutes earlier, and needed a nap). After telling my FIL three times that Athan was tired and not hungry, he told me, "I think he's hungry, I don't care what you say." So of course I took my baby from him, snuggled Athan, gave him a binky and he went right to sleep in my arms.

My in-laws are Greek and no offense to any Greek ladies on here, but they make me crazy. And their being Greek plays a big part in that.

 

I completely understand!! I breastfeed and my mom formula fed me and my siblings. I just think she doesn't "trust" the whole breastfeeding thing. You can actually see how much milk the baby gets from a bottle, but breastfeeding....not so much. So, every time - and I do mean every time - one of my girls made a peep she just assumed they were hungry. "You need to feed them...I think they didn't get enough!" I can't tell you how many times I heard that from her and various other relatives. I just tried to keep the whole thing light and not get upset. I would just say something like, "Let's try a few other things to calm them down before I try feeding them again." Usually I was able to find something to calm them down and my mom or whoever would forget about me feeding them...until the next time they cried! Drove me crazy! You are not alone! Now my girls are 7 months old and I constantly get, "They want some of the food off your plate! Why don't you feed them something?" or "Are you really going to keep breastfeeding them? Aren't they too old for that?" Ahhh, they mean well I guess! Sigh.....

 

:lol: I have to say, that it's not going to end with "do they need to eat?", for the next probably 15-20 yrs, someone is going to tell you what they think your child needs. :lol: Welcome to the world of parenthood!

 

Oh-that's just the tip of the iceberg! Unfortunately! Everyone knows EVERYTHING about your kids, but you. I have my inlaws telling me I need to get Annabella's ears pierced so that she can be more of a woman(yes, FIL's words) at the age of 11 months...

And just today, my mom said I should start working on having the boys use the toilet... Seeing how we are going on a five hour drive in three weeks-I think not.

 

ugh I feel your pain! My MIL is always complaining about how our twins are still too small. She says that they are not gaining enough weight (DH calls her with updates on their weights) even though we've told her that their pedi has no problem with it and actually said they will catch up to where they would be had they been full term in no time.

And the even crazier part? If you tell her (nicely of course!) to back off, she accuses us of being uncaring. ?! She's nuts.

 

This is the curse of the grandmas! Dear goodness, my mother, MIL, and grandmother were constantly talking about how skinny the girls were in the beginning and would tell me i needed to nurse more frequently. Are you out of your mind women? Seriously, for the first 4 months I was nursing constantly! They were in the 1st and 2nd percentiles when they were born and now are in the 70th. They do catch up! My grandmother now talks about how "healthy" they look now and that they looked sickly before (no baby can be healthy without fat rolls on their fat rolls according to her). And my mother still asks if I feed them enough since they constantly act hungry. Yesterday she came over for lunch and the girls had JUST finished their lunch which was a lot of food. Immediately they start hanging on her legs while she eats. They are just interested not starving! You may need to get stern with your ILs and mother. It's hard at first, but now I am a professional. I even softly yelled (oxymoron!) at my MIL when she was feeding DD ice cream at a restaurant. Good luck

 

I agree.

Yes, that's annoying but understand that feeding a nursed baby is something they can not do so they are just respecting your choice to BF and trying to be helpful.