Schedule or demand???

[Courts21]

Ok just wondering with those who bottlefeed whether you do it by schedule or demand. With DS1 I fed him schedule, every 4 hours or so, same time everyday, spreading it out as he got older. He did very well like that. My DS2 (7 months) however is another story, because all I've known is to feed by schedule that's what I do with him. But he is a pain in the ass. His day feeds, he is mr distracted, not wanting the bottle enough to sit there and drink it, I only get about half the recommended amt into him a day and most of that is his bottle before bed and his one in the middle of the night. Every feed seems to be a fight to get his wriggle ass to try and drink. So I'm thinking there must be a better way to suit him.

So I'm wondering what do you do. Schedule. Or by demand, ok I get breastfeeding by demand but I'm wondering about bottlefeeding by demand. When I breastfed by demand they have that rooting reflex searching for the milk. But what are the cues you look for in bottlefeeding by demand. I'm thinking DS2 would prefer that, but I don't know how to do it. Or do you just give your bubs a bottle before nap or bedtime. DS2 loves his night and bedtime bottle the best but he's kind of addicted to them and I'm not sure I want him expecting a bottle everytime he goes to sleep.

I'm just curious.

[Lolly]

I fed on demand in the early months, tried to space feeds to 3 hours but if they were crying for food earlier then they got fed earlier. My two showed signs like crying but unable to settle with the dummy, frantic sucking on the dummy and sucking fists in the early days. Bottle fed babies tend to be able to go the full 3 then 4 hours on the EASY sooner than BF babies so really by about 4 months they had both settled into just being fed at the intervals.

It does tend to change with solids however and mine were both really fed by the clock by the time solids were established and if they didn't drink a whole bottle then they were getting dairy in their food too so I try not to worry about it too much.

Have you tried a faster flow teat to get more milk in during the day? What's your EASY like now?

Laura

[Courts21]

Our easy is a little all over the place because I have 2.5yr old as well with a super busy schedule.  And as I said ds2 isn't much of a conformist to schedule.

But I do have some basic rules that we follow by:

I watch tired signs
The longer he sleeps, the longer his A time.  Some days he sleeps only for 1hr naps all day - they tend to be 2 -2.5 hr A time.  Other days his naps are 1.5-2hrs so then A time is 2.5-3 hours.
And bedtime routine is superstrict, no matter what day we have.  Most days we have a fairly basic sleep routine.  Kind of looks like this

6:30am-7am wake and bottle
8am - solids
9-9:45am sometime within this time goes for a nap.  Next nap depends on how far he sleeps but.
11am Bottle.
12:30-1:30pm sometime within this hour goes down for a nap
3pm bottle
4:45pm solids
5pm sometimes has quick cat nap here but more and more rare.
6:30pm bath and bottle
7pm Bed
1-3am somewhere in here he wakes for a night bottle, this bottle is a comfort bottle and we all sleep so much better if he has it.

[Lolly]

That looks like a fairly usual 4 bottle routine. My DD had a night feed until about 8.5 months (no DF as she wasn't any good at it) then we just started offering water instead. Hers was a comfort/ top up bottle really, drank it and straight back to sleep.

We actually went to 3 bottles at around 7.5 months because she was refusing daytime bottles (reflux issues as well) so we dropped the mid morning bottle and had an afternoon bottle before or after nap depending on the time of her nap. That could be an option, if he isn't taking so much make lunch earlier if you can and offer a bottle either before or after his nap - depending on when the nap is. You may find he takes a better bottle in the afternoon then so will take more overall.

Laura