Feed babies on demand?

[Pure]

Vote on the perennial question of life!


http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/mar/17/babies-fed-demand-better-school
[excerpt]


Babies fed on demand 'do better at school'


Lucy Rock

guardian.co.uk, Saturday 17 March 2012 21.15 GMT



Babies fed on demand ‘do better at school’
Babies who are fed when they are hungry are claimed to do better academically – but exhaust their mothers more. Photograph: Katie Collins/PA

It is a debate that has raged for years, pitting mothers who follow Gina Ford and her routine-based approach to child-rearing against those who prefer the more laidback ways of Penelope Leach. Now the battle is set to intensify as new research suggests that babies who are fed on demand do better academically than those who are fed on schedule – although their mothers are more exhausted and grumpy.

The study shows that babies who are fed when they are hungry – with breast milk or formula – achieve higher scores in Sats tests at ages five, seven, 11 and 14, and that by the age of eight they have an IQ four to five points higher.

However, mothers who keep to scheduled feeding times score better on wellbeing measures, and report feeling more confident and less tearful.

 

[RedMonkeyButt]

I believe that the mother should be able to feed her infant as she pleases, without having to worry about whether or not her child is going to grow up to do well in school. First time moms especially worry more about everything without adding this shit on top of it. Not ranting at you, but I was told in no uncertain terms that breastfeeding was the only good thing for me and my daughter when she was born. It got to the point in the hospital where it took one nice nurse to take her away to the nursery just to give me a break. If I had been worried that if I didn't feed her right then, she would do badly in school five years down the road I may not have let that nurse take her. Three months later when I was back in the hospital and unable to breastfeed due to medication, I would have gone nuts thinking how my baby is going to be at a disadvantage later if my mother-in-law didn't feed her the very second she was hungry.

 

[lovecraft68]

I believe that the mother should be able to feed her infant as she pleases, without having to worry about whether or not her child is going to grow up to do well in school. First time moms especially worry more about everything without adding this shit on top of it. Not ranting at you, but I was told in no uncertain terms that breastfeeding was the only good thing for me and my daughter when she was born. It got to the point in the hospital where it took one nice nurse to take her away to the nursery just to give me a break. If I had been worried that if I didn't feed her right then, she would do badly in school five years down the road I may not have let that nurse take her. Three months later when I was back in the hospital and unable to breastfeed due to medication, I would have gone nuts thinking how my baby is going to be at a disadvantage later if my mother-in-law didn't feed her the very second she was hungry.

You have a good point here and I'll take it further.

The internet has caused an incredible surge in paranoia and hypochondria. People go online with every little symptom they have and become convinced they have anything from herpes to cancer when really all they had was a damn rash or random pain in their body.

This is the "too much information" generation. The more they are aware of the more they worry. Which is exactly what the doctors want because it gives them more excuses to write more prescriptions to people that don't need meds in the first place.

My fav is how every damn kid has ADD. Yeah I day dreamed in school too and got a slap in the head by the old man and told to pay attention, funny how it worked.

When I owned the comic book store we had weekly yu-gi-oh tournaments. So we'd have 15-20 kids ages 8-16 around playing the game. The parents would all talk with my wife (not me, wonder why) and several of them talked of how their little angel had ADD.

I would then watch said child play cards for 6 hours, rebuild his deck, trade cards and sit and explain to me what every single card in the game could do and which cards could beat it. In fact it was a kid who had ADD that spent parts of three Saturdays teaching me to play the game.

There is nothing wrong with the kid except school is boring and the paranoid parents are believing their irresponsible physician who is out to make money.

No better example of that than the people who listen to and abide by DR. Phil a man with no medical degree who was a convicted con artist back in the 70's.

It's time to get off the net as parents (and kids) and live and learn from real life as it comes not take every stupid study and article to heart.

You feed your damn kid when the kid is hungry. If the kid ate a little while ago and is still fussing he's not hungry again, he is just fussing because hello he's a baby!

 

[RedMonkeyButt]

You have a good point here and I'll take it further.

The internet has caused an incredible surge in paranoia and hypochondria. People go online with every little symptom they have and become convinced they have anything from herpes to cancer when really all they had was a damn rash or random pain in their body.

This is the "too much information" generation. The more they are aware of the more they worry. Which is exactly what the doctors want because it gives them more excuses to write more prescriptions to people that don't need meds in the first place.

My fav is how every damn kid has ADD. Yeah I day dreamed in school too and got a slap in the head by the old man and told to pay attention, funny how it worked.

When I owned the comic book store we had weekly yu-gi-oh tournaments. So we'd have 15-20 kids ages 8-16 around playing the game. The parents would all talk with my wife (not me, wonder why) and several of them talked of how their little angel had ADD.

I would then watch said child play cards for 6 hours, rebuild his deck, trade cards and sit and explain to me what every single card in the game could do and which cards could beat it. In fact it was a kid who had ADD that spent parts of three Saturdays teaching me to play the game.

There is nothing wrong with the kid except school is boring and the paranoid parents are believing their irresponsible physician who is out to make money.

No better example of that than the people who listen to and abide by DR. Phil a man with no medical degree who was a convicted con artist back in the 70's.

It's time to get off the net as parents (and kids) and live and learn from real life as it comes not take every stupid study and article to heart.

You feed your damn kid when the kid is hungry. If the kid ate a little while ago and is still fussing he's not hungry again, he is just fussing because hello he's a baby!

The saddest part of the whole ADD thing? A lot of the time it's the teachers (!) complaining because the kid doesn't pay attention. My mom works with these kids and had a very short and easy test she would tell the parents to try out (unofficially, of course) before they took the kid to the doctor and wasted money. In the morning, give the kid a soda or a candy bar. If he calms the fuck down then you should probably have him checked for ADD/ADHD. If he gets even more hyper, don't worry about it. She would go off on the teachers all the time for not being able to control their classrooms. It was epic.

Even new moms get to know their kids eating habits. Infants are hungry just about every 2 hours. If you're not producing enough milk, they may be hungry more often and you should supplement with formula. I finally found a lactation specialist who thought like me when my daughter was about 2 months old. She told me what I just said. As she grows, the child doesn't need to eat often. My daughter slept through the night at 11 weeks, and let me tell you that was the worst night of my life. I woke up dripping and in so much pain I thought I was having a heart attack.

These researchers don't think when they put this shit out. All this will do is make mothers blame themselves for their kids being stupid. Kids are stupid. They just... are. They have these crystalline moments of sheer genius, but then follow up with some of the most idiotic stuff possible.

Honestly, if teachers now would pay more attention to their classes, and the individual students in them, no one would worry about whether or not mommy fed Little Jimmy every time he was hungry when he was an infant, or if she stuck to a strict schedule. I know in bigger schools it's hard to pay attention to every student. It's a government failing when the schools can't afford to pay enough teachers and aides to help the kids they have in the classroom. It's not the fault of the mother who was too tired to get up every fucking 2 hours for 2 months straight to feed her baby. Yeah, dad could have done it, but dad needed to get up at 5am to go to work because he *gasp* had a fucking family to feed.

Sometimes it's the parents fault (OK, a lot of times), but telling a mother that if she doesn't feed her baby the instant it starts crying is jacked six ways from Sunday. We have a world of shit on our shoulders as it is.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I fed mine on demand. One did well in school, the other not so well.

 

[Firebrain]

I don't think feeding on demand has a direct correlation as to how well your child will progress, but I do think that anyone who honestly believes they can put an infant on a schedule is a victim of wishful thinking, lol.

As kids get older, some like routine. But some don't. And just when you think you've got it cracked, they'll only go and change it.

(Babies may need feeding in the night up to eighteen months old though, nutritionally speaking. They're growing at the fastest rate of their lives. All this "don't feed them to make them sleep" stuff is just adult logic applied to a very illogical being).

 

[sr71plt]

Talk about irrelevant threads on a porn board.

 

[TxRad]

Talk about irrelevant threads on a porn board.

Hey, breast feeding can be fun and erotic. Not to be confused with the under aged thing though.

 

[RedMonkeyButt]

I don't think feeding on demand has a direct correlation as to how well your child will progress, but I do think that anyone who honestly believes they can put an infant on a schedule is a victim of wishful thinking, lol.

As kids get older, some like routine. But some don't. And just when you think you've got it cracked, they'll only go and change it.

(Babies may need feeding in the night up to eighteen months old though, nutritionally speaking. They're growing at the fastest rate of their lives. All this "don't feed them to make them sleep" stuff is just adult logic applied to a very illogical being).

This^

My daughter slept through the night starting at 11 weeks. But there were growth spurts right when I would get used to sleeping again when she would wake up hungry two or three times. And then she would switch her sleep schedule to where she was awake most of the night babbling and sleeping all day (that lasted about a month). The good thing was she weaned herself pretty much at 8 months. Suddenly, the boob held no interest to her because ZOMG there was a whole world out there and she wanted to see it!

 

[Stella_Omega]

My fav is how every damn kid has ADD. Yeah I day dreamed in school too and got a slap in the head by the old man and told to pay attention...

This explains so much...

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I have ADD (along with Asberger's) and I did very well in school. That's one of Education's dirty little secrets. ADHK kids who like school do beautifully. Hell, I had one little girl who was so bad we called her Squirmy and she tested out GATE!

 

[TE999]

Sheesh! Yet another 'study' to worry mothers the world over. It certainly seems a stretch to conclude that how and when you feed your baby determines how they'll function academically. Do people have nothing better to do than come up with these nonsensical 'studies'?

Babies are hungry at different times and should be fed then if at all possible. Structure has much less to do with a child's personality development than their observations of their surroundings and interactions with their parents.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Babies should get fed and daddies should get laid on demand. Makes perfect sense to me . . .

 

[Tyro999]

What, pray tell, is 'best practie', Pure?????

Atrocious lack of proofreading in your poll aside, I'm gonna duck out on this poll. Mrs. Tyro and I went childless, so neither she nor I were ever presented with the underlaying conundrum.

 

[PennLady]

I had two kids, and nursed both. For my son, I pumped and gave the milk to his day care provider. For my daughter, since I wasn't working at the time, I just nursed. Generally, I nursed whenever they were hungry and found that it fell into a routine.