doesnt EASY make their naps shorter?

[ridingthetrain]

I understand the reasoning behind the EASY routine, and I do it with my 10 month old. As i have done this, I have wondered if it would be better to have them wake up and do some activity before they eat so that they are not waking up TO eat. You know what I mean, I just feel like its hard to extend my LOs naps because he knows that when he wakes up he gets to nurse.

any thoughts?

[jessmum46]

If I'm honest, I don't think my LOs have really woken up early from naps to eat outside of the first few weeks or so.  It was usually that the routine was off or something like teeth were bothering them. I was never very successful with resettling before being on one nap, but the fact that if I tweaked the routine or gave pain meds when necessary and got the long naps back suggests to me that eating on waking wasn't the cause of bad naps.  It's not like they go straight from being asleep to feeding anyway (at least not the way I've done it) - its usually 5 mins or so while we put lights on, get up, out of sleeping bag, go downstairs etc etc, none of which I'd be doing if I was trying to resettle iyswim?

[creations]

Having read your other thread about dropping milk feeds it could be that your LO is hungry due to dropping the morning feed, or did you not drop it yet?

he knows that when he wakes up he gets to nurse.

This isn't strictly true for an EASY routine. The feeds would be kept at basically their regular times regardless of when they woke up. Yes sometimes they can be hungry a bit earlier than their routine feed if they have a short nap so the feed may be a bit earlier (esp if younger too) but it isn't an automatic feed on waking.  Many LOs with short naps have A time between S and E and feed at/almost at their regular time (say every 4hrs).

If you are dropping milk feeds and calories at any time in the day this could effect hunger at other times in the day.

[ridingthetrain]

I am confused. I thought that EASY was a routine and not a schedule, so I have been feeding my LO right after his naps no matter when he wakes up, I did not feed him based on time.

[creations]

It is a routine yes. The routine though is based on a LO sleeping a full nap (of 1.5 to 2hrs in length) and even then there might be a little A time before the E. The routines (3hr EASY then 4hr EASY) are really based on younger LOs than yours, once solids are established and when nap times move the time between milk feeds can begin to lengthen (likely more so with formula fed) because the nap time might actually take then closer to 5hrs between milk feeds, but with a solids meal or snack between.
Whilst it is not a rigid time based schedule, I wouldn't feed on WU after a short nap as LO is likely not properly hungry so this is a top up feed not a full feed, and it can lead to 'snacking' but possibly more problematic would be if LO takes only a small feed then does A time followed by S and is now getting hungry because he didn't have a full feed at his routine time.  Usually when naps are short you'd have some A time whilst you try to resettle or you'd get LO up and do some A time until you are close to the regular E time, so EASY may look more like EASAEAS.
In fact this is what you suggested in your original post, so you are right, do a bit of A time, let LO become properly hungry and take a full feed.
hope this makes sense