Breastfeeding, Routines and Schedules
One of the biggest barriers to successfully establishing breastfeeding is the use of routines or schedules.
From the innocent-sounding “feed, play, sleep” to the extreme regimes favoured by some sleep training advocates, using the clock to structure babies feeding patterns is not compatible with the natural relationship between baby and breasts.
Breastmilk production relies on feedback from the baby to regulate supply. When babies are limited in access to the breast by time-based schedules, the breasts respond by slowing down production. Stretching out feeding intervals by using dummies in place of feeding, actively settling babies to roll into another sleep cycle or simply leaving them in distress until the designated time for feeding - these are just some of the practices which will interfere with the supply and demand system.
Babies cannot learn from any of these strategies. Placid babies might fall asleep and miss a feed but typical babies become confused and distress.
There is no evidence that breastfed babies can or should follow parent-led feeding schedules. The qualifications of many who profit from mass-marketed books promising parents more time, more sleep, more control are often non-existent or dubious. Frequently they are simply churning out the same timetables developed 100 years ago by Sir Frederick Truby King, based on his observations of dairy cows!
“King recommended a strict, and largely loveless, schedule. An extraordinary man, whose career took in dairy farming and the cultivation of roses, King was also superintendent of a lunatic asylum. He observed that calves thrived when they were fed regularly. Babies, believed King, should be fed every four hours (not at night) with sleep in between. Even their bowel movements should be regulated. Over-stimulation (too much play and excitement) was to be avoided; physical contact was spoiling..”
“You and your baby will find health and happiness, if you follow my father’s rules … Truby King babies are fed four-hourly from birth, with few exceptions, and they do not have any night feeds … [the Truby King baby’s] education begins from the very first week, good habits being established which remain all his life.”
While parents do need to regulate the intake of the formula fed baby, dividing the daily requirement into equal amounts across the 24 hours, this is unnecessary and detrimental in breastfeeding where it is the baby’s feeding which regulates milk production. It is the baby who establishes and maintains a mother’s milk supply and the baby who controls the milk they receive from the breast at each feed. Interfering with this by restricting the time at the breast or between feeds is a risk factor for low milk supply.
Setting parents up for failure
The book titles promise solutions to problems the industry has created to solve. Responding to marketing strategies and language, tired parents buy them. And when babies don’t conform to the standard of those in the book, they buy more books, hire private consultants or book into residential sleep schools where more promises are made.
When parents gather in groups, they don’t always feel supported to be honest about their baby’s real sleep and feeding behaviour and tend to exaggerate a little. Or as surveys have found, bend the truth significantly. Parents aren’t always truthful about where their babies sleep or how long they do it for at night. Peer pressure is a thing.
There are great books which educate you about how babies feed and sleep. Our recommended ones are here.
“‘Is it safe? Is it respectful? Does it feel right?’”
