40
It's not generally ideal to schedule night feedings (unless under a doctor's recommendation). You may want to wake your baby if they go lo longer than 5 hours asleep between feedings during the immediate newborn period, but other than those cases, do wait until your baby signals to be fed overnight.
Your nighttime feedings with most likely go one of two ...
21
A diet high in sugar can have an adverse affect on development. Virtually anything can have an adverse effect on development depending on who you talk to. Feeding your child too much or too little, letting them sleep too much or too little or go to sleep too early or late, switching toward mushy foods and then solids too soon or late, beginning to discipline ...
21
Please do not read this answer as bashing your parenting style. I know from experience that it's easy to fall into a pattern of wanting your child to eat more or differently, and end up coercing them into doing so. My daughter was flagged as underweight by her doctors as a toddler, so as a family we have a long history of struggling with helping her eat well ...
19
As a rule, plans made for parenting strategy last until about 5 minutes after birth.
Don't worry. Your little tyke will let you know when it needs feeding, and your parental instincts will kick in. You will be awake within seconds of the smallest murmur. Feed and change, go back to sleep. You just get used to it. This phase doesn't last long, after all.
14
She is not much more than a newborn (that ends at 28 days - or 4 weeks); she's an infant/baby. She has more needs than "habits". In fact, I can't think of a single 'habit' a two month old baby can have. And I'm thinking hard. Maybe she has the gross motor skills to successfully suck her fists now, but it isn't a habit yet. She will develop habits. But not ...
13
A child will not starve itself. She is probably not eating because she is not hungry. Forcing her will only make it less enjoyable for her, imo.
Ask her if she is hungry/if she wants to eat something at some points of the day. When she does, propose food you can give her, and follow her tastes. If she is hungry when you also are eating, propose to eat with ...
12
Popular wisdom is that we shouldn't let the baby get to the point that
they're crying before we feed them.
Umm, no. It's just not realistic to think that you can preempt baby's every need.
Sure, sometimes you will catch baby being restless and sucking on their fingers, and sure, that could be a cue that baby is hungry, and trying to feed before baby ...
11
If your child is younger than 12 months, I would refrain from giving cow's milk altogether, see What Happens If a Newborn Drinks Cow Milk? and Cow's milk: When and how to introduce it. Problems which can occur are nutritional deficiencies (most commonly iron deficiency), gastrointestinal irritation or allergic reactions. In general, babies' digestive tracts ...
10
At this age, we supplemented breastfeeding with about 4 ounces of soup plus some fruits and veggies per day. Keep in mind that this is just a single data point and and not a statistical sampling or a guideline.
There are no nutritional guidelines that I am aware of about soup at this age. Some babies like soup and some do not. As long as the child has enough ...
9
A six month old can sleep up to eight hours without feeding.
We had the issue that I had to work (+ commute) while breastfeeding and was getting utterly exhausted by having to wake up for night-time feeds. A pediatrician told us that our then six-month-old son is asking for his night-time bottles because of the comfort and company and not out of hunger. We ...
9
I think the important thing to realize here is what is spoiling. To be clear anything related to basic need isn't spoiling. My kids can eat as much veggies as they want during dinner. Go to bed as early as they want (as long as they stay in bed till 630) and if they feel the need I'll always tell them I love them. There is no overdoing on those items
What ...
8
Whether you should wake a sleeping newborn for feedings depends on the baby's age, weight and overall health.
Most newborns lose weight in the first few days after birth. Until your newborn regains this lost weight — usually within one to two weeks after birth — it's important to feed him or her frequently. This might mean occasionally waking your baby for ...
8
Depending on the formula that you're using, they might have some probiotics in their composition. For example, Nestlé.
Probiotics have small tolerance to high temperatures, so preparing the formula (or heating it after it was prepared) above some temperature might kill those probiotics, reducing the nutritional value of the formula. For example, this ...
8
Noah & woliveirajr are both correct that there is some risk of reducing nutritional value, I'm sure.
I will offer as counter point my home study (sample size=2) of children who were bottle-fed formula almost exclusively as infants; formula which was on occasion reheated in the microwave. They are now 12 and 9, healthy, and not malnourished. They ...
8
She's old enough to realize what eating is and that it is necessary. If she doesn't want to eat, don't make her. But make it clear that when she refuses, the next meal will be in, say, 3 hours. If that's her choice, stick to it. Don't give in by offering her something to eat in the meantime, don't let her fill up on sweets, etc., be strong and wait for the ...
8
First and foremost, a 2 month old should not be losing weight, speak to a healthcare professional (midwife, doctor or both).
To answer your question, properly formulated stage 1 formula milk is suitable from birth, but it's best to discuss this with your doctor or midwife as there might be other things you want to try.
And something else to think about, ...
7
I think you can talk to your child at any time, keeping in mind that it may be distraction, especially when it is time to go to sleep.
During breast-feeding, the child will be focussed on feeding, and will generally be in a quite relaxed state. Talking gently during this time is likely to be good for the bond with the child, but it could also be distracting....
7
First of all, your baby is still very young. At less than one month, it is normal that he needs to be fed around the clock. His stomach is still very small, so he can't really stock up on food! Also your baby probably doesn't know the difference between day and night yet.
Sleeping through the night is not really about how the baby is fed or how old is the ...
6
Most babies have growth spurts at 7-10 days, 2-3 weeks, 4-6 weeks, 3 months, 4 months, 6 months, and 9 months approximately. I don't think it's comfort feeding since, when you put her down without feeding her, she wakes up again a few minutes later. I'd be more inclined to believe that she's either gearing up for or in the middle of a growth spurt and she'...
6
For completeness, our baby was scheduled for a Continuous feed NGT tube, the tube from her nose to her stomach. Then was to be a slow drip feed, the equivalent of her normal feeding oz/per bottle feed now oz/hour.
The advantage to this, for her, was no big bump of food at any given time, so no chance of a big dose of reflux. The bad news, you have a tube ...
6
First: don't worry! The fact that he chokes is scary, but it also shows that his body reacts to speed of the milk.
My daughter had a similar issue (the milk came to fast for her to handle properly). We used the following tricks to great effect:
Breastfeeding: use a Nipple shield. This enabled her to latch on and drink comfortably.
Bottle: we switched to ...
6
You could try giving finger foods on the table and standing back. You break the habit by avoiding it. At this age, it will probably only take a day or two. Then you feed something with a spoon and if she spits, do not react. Just walk away and give finger foods. No reaction gives her no reason to act out. Then start again if necessary. I think she will get ...
6
If your daughter is gaining weight well, I would just let her self soothe back to sleep and consider it a blessing that she is able to do so. I would not wake her up to feed. I think that if she was really hungry, she would eventually cry.
My own daughter (second child) was also breastfed and began sleeping through the night at 2 months old. She also sucks ...
6
Here's an opinionated answer: Toddlers do make a mess.
I don't really think it's possible (at least not in any humane way) to teach a small child to start using cutlery without making a mess, but more to the point: the approach we've used with both our kids have been not to try in the first place.
Getting messy is, in most cases, only a concern to the ...
5
We microwave our infants formula all the time, it's all we use to heat the formula. We always swirl and double-check the temp before feeding. I disagree with the losing nutritional value statement. I don't think that warming milk to 20 degrees celcius is considered "cooking" to anyone. There is a fine line in microwaving time to go from feeding temperature ...
5
You didn't answer our questions, so I'll give a rather general answer:
For very young or premature babies, nursing can be quite exhausting. This may mean that they will actively "drink" for a short while, then take a small break ( nipple in mouth, sucking or not), then start over. Sometimes, they will even fall asleep during the meal.
For breastfed babies, ...
5
When my son was that age, he also started to refuse his food. Turned out he was fed up with the bland steamed veggies etc we made for him, and wanted to eat real food. We started to give him our food (and started to cook without adding salt, for his sake), and he went back to eating well.
BTW, you're painting yourself/your kid into a corner by calling her ...
4
Our baby was full term but smaller than usual (5 lbs 6 oz, 4lbs 11 on discharge). The pediatrician advised us to feed her every 2 hours which we essentially did even through the night. (I breastfeed so this frequency also really boosted my supply.) Though most times she would ask to feed, there were times I had to wake her to feed without demand, in order to ...
4
This actually sounds fairly normal to me (they pretty much sleep the first couple of weeks), although the frequency of eating seems slightly lower than average. Talk to your pediatrician.
You might also make it a habit to keep track of when and how much he is eating. It is hard to keep track when breast feeding of exactly how much he is getting, but I ...
4
Others have addressed dietary issues, I'll just comment on teeth and gums.
There's nothing any worse for your kid's teeth and gums with chocolate (or any other sweet) than there is any other fermentable carbohydrate. It might take up residence in more places in her mouth than, say, bread would, but nothing about it will be worse than apple juice would be or ...
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