feedings - how to stretch them

eileenm21 · March 2010

I am having such trouble stretching the feedings to 4 hours apart. Now my pedi says that where we should be.... i guess my question is, do I need to be at 4 hours, or is 3 fine? And if I should be at 4, how can I stretch them. They scream bloody murder at 3 hours, there is no way I can hold out an hour. I have read babywise, but it is so geared toward breastfeeding and I am EFF. I have also tried playing, interacting, letting them cry (which I think they are way to young for) and trying to stretch even 15 more minutes at a time. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. They are also not great nappers, which doesn't help, but thats another problem all together. They seem to be moving towards sleeping during the day, which they don't do at all now, so I am not as concernced with that since the last few days have been a pattern of moving towards getting used to a nap, but the feeding thing is my issue at the moment cause I think they will get there with the nap. Am I expecting too much at this age? I don't think my pedi is the end all be all, but he is very laid back so when he throws out advice like the feeding should be at every 4 hours right now, I am tending to listen, but I don't want to be hard and fast if that isn't the way. Any advice - must go both are screaming at 2 hours and 45 minutes ; )

lisa&andy · March 2010

Did the pedi give you any reason to go to every 4 hours? I personally think that if they are doing fine every 3 hours stay at it. My kids are 8 months and I just started trying to move them to a 4hr schedule today. You know your kids best, but it sounds like they are not ready for every 4 hours.

DESXF · March 2010

Yeah, did your pedi say why 4 hours is where you should be? I have never heard that...

We are still feeding every 2 hours arond the clock. Sometimes its 3 (and RARELY 4) and sometimes they will only go 1 and 1/2 hours.

Noah usually does 4 oz and Lily usually does 2 - 3 oz.

I honestly think that all babies are different. Some like to eat less, more often, and some eat more, but less often. If your babies are screaming for food, I say feed them.

meldoo2002 · March 2010

We never went to 4 hours. We did 3 hours during the day until they were on 3 meals at 7.5 months. Then we were able to drop some bottles. But until they were eating a decent amount of solids we stuck with the 3 hour timeline.

jalaiaa · March 2010

At that age I don't really think you need to stretch out to 4 hours. If your babies did it on their own or if it was an easy transition, maybe. Ours are 2 months now and we've started to stretch them a little bit but it isn't a horrible fight and when they don't do the stretch easily we let them eat. A good book that we are loosely using is 12 hours sleep by 12 weeks old. It is not a cry it out book like babywise (I'm not using babywise because I don't like that portion). The book says to start stretching at about 8 weeks. They essentially say during the day do your best to distract them and gradually stretch- 15 extra minutes here and there until you are at every 4. It is a really quick read and I found it helpful.

ehpope · March 2010

Mine are still at a three hour schedule, and if they are getting breast they usually only go 2 1/2 rather than the 3 they go with the bottle. The three hour schedule really seems to work for us, and thats what most of the kids their age @ daycare do too.

janjag · March 2010

at that age we were doing every 3hrs, but often 2 1/2 (for audrey). we didn't move to 4hrs until 7mos. we kind of inched toward that starting maybe at 5mos. it happened gradually at their pace.

naps at that time for us, were just sleeping whenever they wanted to sleep. i started focusing on getting a nap schedule at 5mos, and it took a while for us.

hth.

DESXF · March 2010

jalaiaa:
At that age I don't really think you need to stretch out to 4 hours. If your babies did it on their own or if it was an easy transition, maybe. Ours are 2 months now and we've started to stretch them a little bit but it isn't a horrible fight and when they don't do the stretch easily we let them eat. A good book that we are loosely using is 12 hours sleep by 12 weeks old. It is not a cry it out book like babywise (I'm not using babywise because I don't like that portion). The book says to start stretching at about 8 weeks. They essentially say during the day do your best to distract them and gradually stretch- 15 extra minutes here and there until you are at every 4. It is a really quick read and I found it helpful.

This is very helpful, thanks!! I'll have to grab that book!

regenab · March 2010

I think your babies are way too young for 4 hour feeds during the day. I didn't stretch my girls to 4 hour feedings until they were 12 weeks old (8 weeks adjusted). I used The Baby Sleep Solution by Suzy Giordiano, she also wrote 12 hours sleep by 12 weeks old. And she specifically says not to start trying to train your babies before they are 8 weeks adjusted, weigh at least 9 lbs, and taking in 24oz. of formula in a 24 hour period. My girls did not hit all three of these until they were 8 weeks adjusted. At night, I did not wake them to eat at 3 hours, I let them go until they were ready to get up to eat.

I also did not try any kind of nap schedule until they got to this 8 week adjusted age mark. And all I did was stick to the 2 hour max awake time rule, so they set the pace throughout the day. If they got up at 7AM, they were back down to nap by 9AM and so on throughout the day. I also didn't start an earlier or set bedtime until they were 12 weeks old. So at this point you would still want to be feeding and napping on demand, but no more than 2 hours of awake time for naps.

kimarino13 · March 2010

We are sometimes still at 2 hours... 3 max. (But they'll go 6 at night.)

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