Child Led Feeding (on demand)

Clock Feeding

Parent Directed Feeding

Those are the three dominate feeding philosophies out there. On Becoming Babywise discusses them all. I love how they put it. They don’t tell parents that one method is right over another. Instead, they suggest parents look at the typical outcomes of all feeding methods and then choose one that suits their baby and family.

Because really, it’s the end results that are important and not so much how you got there.

Most people reading this are probably familiar with the first two methods but aren’t as familiar with Parent Directed Feeding (PDF).

I know I wasn’t familiar with PDF until I read Babywise. I read Babywise and knew the typical outcome of Parent Directed Feeding was the method for Little Bug and me!

Here’s why:

While demand feeding is feeding guided by only hunger cues and clock feeding is guided only by the clock, Parent Directed Feeding is guided by both hunger cues and the clock plus another wonderfully, brilliant contributing factor: Parental Assessment (PA).

On Becoming Babywise defines Parental Assessment as “an acquired  confidence to think, evaluate and respond to real need and not just react moment by moment.” (page 36) 

On demand feeding and clock feeding are polar opposites, but PDF brings the two together as companions who work together. PDF is the middle ground.

Depending on the needs of your baby you feed baby at 2.5, 3, 3.5 or 4 hour increments or a combination – the feeding schedule you choose is entirely up to the needs of your baby.

For example, Little Bug always seemed to need to eat less, more frequently. She was on a 3 to 3.5 hour feeding schedule way past the average age. She finally moved to a four hour feeding schedule at around 11 months old! I tried to move her to the 4-hour feeding schedule around 9 months but she just wasn’t ready.

The idea behind Parent Directed Feedings is to regulate baby’s metabolism. If you feed baby at consistent intervals of time, the metabolism regulates and baby is hungry and ready to eat every 3 hours or 4 hours or whatever time combination you have established. The reason this happens is because the hunger mechanism acts as if it has a metabolic memory reinforced by routine.

I didn’t want Little Bug “snacking” all day long. I wanted to establish meal times and know Little Bug was getting the calories she needed during the day so she wouldn’t need to eat all during the night. I figured if she was snacking all day she would need to snack all night as well. (Obviously, there is a natural time period where baby needs to eat during the night. But once we reached past that time – and I will write another post about night time feedings and how I knew Little Bug was ready to drop them – I made sure she got her feedings in during the day so she would learn we eat during the day and sleep during the night.)

Babywise says that when you regulate eating patterns it helps to regulate sleeping patterns and vise versa. This was most definitely the case for Little Bug. By 5-6 months Little Bug was sleeping through the night (8ish to 7ish) with no feedings. (Most likely, had I started Babywise from birth with her, she would have been sleeping through the night even earlier.)

I remember clearly when she started consistently doing this night after night. It was heavenly. It was like I gained a couple hours to each day! With Little Bug in bed at 8pm, I suddenly had a couple hours to myself before going to bed. Dave and I have also had numerous at-home date nights starting at 8pm!

PDF has worked beautifully for our family. It has created a sense of stability for Little Bug which helped her develop good sleeping habits. 

A loving, stable environment and a well-rested baby and Mama (and Daddy too).

What more could we ask for?

- Elaine