Breast-feeding: Top Tips from the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg & Melinda Blau

Author:Tracy Hogg & Melinda Blau
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books

Four to Six Months: A More Grown-up Eater

This is a stage of relative calm in the eating department if you’ve got your baby on a structured routine. She’ll still be crying for her meals, but, depending on her temperament (and how you respond to her), your baby will probably have a less desperate tone. Some babies will even play on their own in the morning, rather than wake their parents with a “Feed me!” wail. These are often the concerns at this stage:

My baby never eats at the same time of day.

My baby finishes her feeds so quickly, I’m afraid she’s not getting enough to eat. It also throws her off schedule.

My baby doesn’t seem interested in eating any more.

I’ll bet you can guess the first question I ask: Is your baby on a structured routine? If the answer is “no”—and it usually is when parents say their baby never eats at the same time every day—you can’t blame eating problems on the baby. And, if your baby is always eating at random, I’ll bet he never gets a good sleep either. (See “Starting E.A.S.Y. at Four Months or Older,” in Chapter 1.)

If the baby has been on a routine, How long does your baby go between meals? If she’s feeding every two hours, it’s a snacking problem, because no four-month-old or older baby needs to eat that often. At almost five months old, Maura was still feeding every two hours, even through the night. A friend had suggested putting cereal in Maura’s bottle “to help her get through the night”—an old wives’ tale if I ever heard one. As Maura had never had solids, all that did was constipate her, and she still woke up looking for her mom’s breast.

Instead, I advised her parents to tank Maura up at 6:00, 8:00, 10:00, and then not feed her again at night—no matter what. The first night she naturally woke up screaming several times between 10:00 and 5:00, but they didn’t cave in. Dad used my pick-up/put-down method (see The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems ) to get Maura back to sleep each time, but it was a hard night, especially for Mom, who thought she was starving her baby. In the morning, though, for the first time in a long time (maybe ever) Maura took a full half-hour feed at 5 a.m. For the rest of the day, Maura ate pretty efficiently every four hours, too. The second night was a little better and she’s been on track ever since. I suggested that her parents keep her on the dream feed until six months, when they make the transition to solid food.

If a baby at this stage is still feeding every three hours, she might not be snacking, but I suspect that the parents are keeping her on an eating plan that’s meant for a younger child. They need—gradually (by 15 minutes a day over a four-day period)—to lengthen the feeds to every four hours. Amuse them with toys and silly faces, or a walk in the park when they’re hungry.

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