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Home › Articles › Feeding Baby › On a Schedule

On a Schedule

Does Baby Need Structure or Freedom?

By Shannon McKelden

Pages:  1  2  3  4  

Rosenberg found that scheduling her twins created babies who were well rested and content. "My girls rarely fussed, which resulted in a calmer mommy who got a lot more done around the house," she says.

However, she admits there were occasional monkey wrenches thrown into her carefully structured days. Expecting perfection will only cause frustration. "I noticed on the days when everything went haywire, my girls would get very fussy and carry on 'til I was at wit's end and running for a quiet bathroom so I could take a few calming deep breaths," she says. "Those were also the days I put everyone to bed early, including myself."

No!
"Babies absolutely should not be on a schedule," says Brenna Lyons, a mother of three from Haverhill, Mass. Lyons believes in following Baby's cues. "They cry when something is wrong. They coo or laugh when everything is right. They eat when hungry and they don't when they're not."

One argument Lyons offers against placing babies on a schedule involves how they grow and develop. "Babies do not grow in an unbroken and consistent manner," says Lyons. "Neither do they eat in such a manner because growth spurts mean an increase in food demands to support that cycle – and a decrease at times when the body isn't growing as fast."

Babies are creatures of need, Lyons adds. "A baby needs," she says. "A baby cries to demand satisfaction. A baby is then comfortable, trusting and well cared for. All of these things are ideal in a developing baby. A gross schedule will evolve from the child when he/she is ready for a schedule."

Lyons also believes that Baby's instincts are pretty accurate when it comes to regulatng themselves. "Babies drop the middle-night feeding when their systems mature enough to do so," she says. This may "give the parents an unbroken sleep cycle of at least four to six hours," she says. "Coupled with a parental nap, the parent will get adequate sleep." Lyons points out, too, that for millennia babies have slept with their mothers and fed without much disruption to the mother's sleep cycle.


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