for those w/ babies on schedules, do you....

let them cry and wait until feeding time to feed them? my babies are 6 weeks old preemies (born at 32 weeks).

 

let them cry and wait until feeding time to feed them? my babies are 6 weeks old preemies (born at 32 weeks).

 

No, not at that age. I'm kind of a believer in demand feeding, though, and we had a hard time at the beginning getting ours to gain weight like they should. There's other reasons babies cry, though, so if you've ruled out everything else & they're still crying before feeding time I'd go ahead & feed them.

 

At that age we tried everything before I would give in and feed them. I would say that there were only about 4 or 5 times that one of them was crying because she was really hungry.

We were feeding them every 3 hours round the clock. If I remember correctly (the first couple of months are a bit of a blur) we would try bouncing on the exercise ball (worked 9 times out of 10), singing while holding tight, pacifier, shushing, really you name it. If nothing worked than I fed them.

 

Nope, I'll let them fuss a little if feeding time is close (although I didn't do this at 6 weeks, that's young to schedule feedings IMO) but if they're crying it means they're really hungry and I feed them. Now I know what their 'hungry cry' sounds like so it's easy for me to tell.
We always think of the schedule as a guide rather than cardinal law. It helps to keep track of things, but we don't follow it rigidly because the babies vary from day to day just like us. They have days where they want to eat ever 2 hours and other days where they go 4 and if I try to feed them sooner they won't eat. I find it less frustrating to just go with the flow. Maybe when they get a little older we'll follow it more closely but for now this is working for us.

PS - since your babies are preemies I'd feed them when they get hungry even if it hasn't been 'x' number of hours. You probably want them to eat as much as possible to pack on those pounds

 

Not at that age! I can't remember how it all shook out.....

What we did was Ali was in the NICU and they had her (how? ) on a strict 3 hr. feeding schedule and we kept Martin on that at home. We would call the NICU and find out and get him as close to that as possible. I wish I knew exactly how....sorry!! It is a great question!

 

FYI, we kept our babies on the same schedule that they were on at the NICU. We know that they are hungry because they're rooting and opening up their mouths as if they're searching for something.

 

We always tried the binky first. That usually held them off for a bit. But when they are hungry, you have to feed them, especially at that age. If only one wanted to eat, we went ahead and fed them both anyways, so as to try and keep them on the same schedule.

 

Not at that age, I started CIO at 3 1/2 months.

 

Not that young. If they were hungry and wanted to eat we fed them. Now though we try to make them wait.

 

No, if they were really hungry and crying, I would feed them at that age. We'd do everything else first, change diaper, give them pacis, and then if it didn't work, we'd feed them as close to the scheduled time as possible. Actually even now, if they are super hungry and crying, I don't feed them exactly on schedule, I feed them early. But they pretty much stick to their schedule.

 

Please don't let your babies (especially preemies) cry for the sake of a schedule. They are 6 weeks old! They shouldn't even be born yet! They need to eat as often as they are hungry, so they can grow and be strong and healthy. There will be plenty of time later to worry about schedules.

 

Rule of thumb, feed the baby!!! Schedules really shouldn't be enforced until 4 months or so from what I've read.

Babies are doing alot of growth spurts in that time frame, you need to make sure they ahve the fuel to get through them

Teri D

 

We kept the boys on the same schedule they were on and used to in the NICU - every three hours.... but they also didn't cry for food before then... I would have probably fed them early had they been hungry - especially at that age... if you want to kept them on a schedule, you can just follow the same sort of routine each time you feed... i.e. if they cry for hunger, feed them, and then have them do the same activity you would have had them do after feeding them at the regular time - then they will know what to anticipate next...

 

quote:
Originally posted by betseeee:
Please don't let your babies (especially preemies) cry for the sake of a schedule. They are 6 weeks old! They shouldn't even be born yet! They need to eat as often as they are hungry, so they can grow and be strong and healthy. There will be plenty of time later to worry about schedules.


Ditto. Same here, I NEVER let them cry if they're hungry just because it isn't time. If they're hungry, I feed them.