Can You Breastfeed On Schedule

At the hospital, you were most likely encouraged to nurse your baby on a tight and nurse controlled schedule. As you come home, you are likely to continue in this manner, not because it is...

At the hospital, you were most likely encouraged to nurse your baby on a tight and nurse controlled schedule. As you come home, you are likely to continue in this manner, not because it is the best schedule to go by, but simply because this is what you learned from the nurses. Little did you know that the sole reason for some of the quirky scheduling had to do with the nurses’ floor schedule, their break schedules, or simply because they were trained to uphold this kind of breastfeeding schedule, not because your child is hungry. In those moments when you wonder if your child should be nursing following a rigid schedule, you are likely to pick up a parenting book and before long read a chapter on how to put your baby on a schedule.

Granted, children need structure and this requirement begins in infancy. On the other hand, whereas a lot of the scheduling ideas and suggestions make sense, eating and nursing are two such activities that really do not lend themselves to rigorous scheduling. After all, will you allow your child to scream for an hour while you wait for the arbitrary time set to feed him? At the same time, will you force food into a child who is still sated from the last feeding he received and really has no need of additional nutritional intake at this time? The odds are good that you do not want to force feed your child and breastfeeding should not be done on a compulsory schedule either.

Moreover, just like your child might not enjoy breastfeeding on schedule, so you most likely do not like breastfeeding on a set schedule either. The resulting struggle between you and your nursing child could easily be avoided, if you consider the big scheduling issue from its practicality but also common sense angels. For example, ask yourself why you want to put your baby on a schedule at this point in time and also why it is the schedule you are currently crafting. Does the breastfeeding schedule harmonize with the hunger patterns of your baby? If it does not, you are likely to impose a schedule on your child that will not come natural and may actually be the beginning of numerous power struggles.

Moreover, remember that the nurse advise to feed your baby every three hours – on the hour – and to refrain from any snacking in between was not so much an outcropping of a predictable, and clear-cut need, but instead it was more of a hospital induced rule since nurses had to ensure that all the little babies in their charge were looked after and offered nutrition at regularly scheduled intervals. Even the books that suggest a rigorous scheduling of breastfeeding times do not know exactly the rhythm that works for you and your child. In some cases, many family arguments result from the setting up of an unreasonable schedule that requires not only the baby to conform to its tenets but all the other family members as well. It does not take long until you are facing a full fledged rebellion.

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One Response to “Can You Breastfeed On Schedule”

1. Landon says:

   May 7, 2011 at 9:31 pm

   Happy Mother’s Day to all wonderful mothers in the World! Tomorrow is Mothering Sunday here in the US and I know that eventhough it is celebrated on a different dates depending on your location, I still want to greet all mothers!