to PDF or not to PDF?

Um sjoe if your babies are screaming then clearly you feed them! It was more that as a first time mom I was a bit rubbish at knowing what his cues were and stuff. So I fed on the routine unless he was unhappy and the standard burp / nappy / cuddle didn't cheer him up. And of course if your baby has a low birth weight then you feed more frequently. James was 3.8kgs at birth so he wasn't exactly wasting away

But yes - I absolutely agree that it is best to decide when the time comes. The first 2 weeks a blur of constant feeding anyway as far as I can remember. Demand or routine irrelevant!

I demand fed my kids. If I hadn't done it would have gone insane listening to my poor babies screaming their lungs out. I mean when I am hungry I eat, if somebody had to tell me NO, you have to wait 2 hours till you can eat i'll go out of my mind. I had low birthweight babies who didn't pick up weight very well and so they needed constant feeding. Your Friend will definately have to bear the medical side of things in mind before making a decision like this. This is not something you can really do before you have your baby in your arms. It's good to know your options though but I think better to check the scene out at the time in question.

Do you mean a routine? I put James on a flexible routine at about 6w (both for my sanity and his). I basically fed him every 3.5 hours and put him down to sleep inline with the babysense book based on previous wake up time. If he was going through a growth spurt or particularly hungry i fed him earlier. Worked for us. He is still on a flexible routine at 9m.

So wake up whenever for milk
breakfast 2h after wake up and bed 3h after wake up.
Lunch usually somewhere between 12 and 1 then milk and a nap 3.5h after previous wake up.
Dinner 2h after previous wake up, bedtime routine starts 3h after previous wake up and bed 4h after previous wake up. I usually throw some stacks at him mid aternoon depending on how things are going and where we are.
Works for us but some parents (and kids!) don't like routines.

The routine I was given at 6w (and used up until I intorduced solids) for a bf mom was as follows

Wake up 6 and breastfeed left boob (lb)
7: express right boob (rb)
10: lb
top and tail & massage
11: rb
2: lb, nap (and mom must nap here too)
3: express rb then mom and baby go for a walk or at least get outside
6: lb
bath, rb, bed

10pm: dad gives bottle expressed milk
Feed on demand during night.

Theoretically the 2 cluster feeds at 10am and 6pm give you a better shot at a longer night sleep.

I still use the routine from 6pm onwards however the rb after the bath is now a bottle and he goes until morning without another feed.

Hi, I was 3 hour feeding mom!
It worked for me.
I sometimes struggled to wake her up for her feed but would continue to try (especially if it was in the day). At night I tended to leave her to sleep until she woke up for a feed.
She was a happy healthy baby. she eats well and has always eaten well. She slept through from about 8/10 weeks old....
I preferred this way, being a new mom and not knowing any better. I wanted to make sure that she got something in every 3 hours or so, as the nurses at hospital said that i should not let her sleep for too long or she will get fatigued and then not have the energy to eat.....
i don't know if that is true - i just followed what they told me to do.....
so the 3 hour feeding worked for me and it slowly moved out to ever 4 hours etc.
I think it is a personal choice and whatever works for you.....

Reluctant mom, demand feeding is when you baby is hungry you feed him, if it was 50 mins after last feed or 4 hours, you baby decide when to feed.

With the other side is, you as mom decided to feed every 3 hours, and that is what you do, so you will make the baby wait to feed if the 3 hours has not passed yet

Pais am i correct.

I only know demand feeding as that is what I have done with my LB, sometimes he fed every 2 hours and sometimes every 50 min and sometimes every 4 hours, I did not look at the clock and said, no he can not feed now, if he was awake and hungry I will feed him.

Lots of mothers do the every 3 hours and it works for them, it is up to the mothers to decide how to feed.

Maybe for the slow-kids (like me) you can explain the principle behind both, so I just get a frame of reference.

Honestly, i do not really grasp the concept of parent directed feeding, but a friend of mine is nou deciding between demand feeding or pdf for her baby that is due in may. From what i have read about the PDF principle it is highly critisized by peads etc.

My little one is demand fed and sleep trained the baby sense way, which works for us - but for my friend that likes to be in control - she really wants to go the pdf way!

Any suggestions or input regarding parent directed feeding and the eat sleep play principle?