Schedules: The first step to getting your chlild to eat

Let me first explain what happens when your child is not on a schedule:

Infants, tend to be cranky all day, have strange sleeping patters, and "graze" instead of taking a full feed.  If you keep this up, you will have a baby who hates eating and mealtime because they are CONSTANTLY being fed in order to achieve your daily goal of ounces. 

Children who are not on schedules were those babies only now they are older and think that is a way of life, and so they are up all night eating because they can't get enough calories during the day.  So, as a parent you go to your pediatrician and you ask, "Why is my child like this?"  And the pediatrician says, "Well try to get more into them."  or "Get them to sleep through the night."  In all reality that is a GREAT idea, but HOW?! That is usually when you are hopefully referred to a feeding therapist. 

Life could be so much easier... 

When your infant turns about 3 months old, you should begin to think about putting them on a schedule.  Most breastfeeding moms are told to feed as needed, however the problem with this is A LOT of babies don't know how much is needed and they will snack all day, which promotes horrible eating habits.  For those of you who are reading this, and say to yourself, "This lady has no idea what she's talking about, my baby ate as needed and is fine", then you do not have a "picky" eater or a child with feeding concerns.  And you are lucky.  For the rest of you, it is important to understand that babies, just like adults, need consistency and structure to decrease the chaos.  All people, including infants and children, should eat 6 times throughout the day, and then fast all night.  For infants, it is a certain volume of formula or breast milk and for children it is 3 meals and 2 snacks.  I tell all my parents, there is a FORMULA, it is math, all you have to do is figure out what formula works for you and your family and your child will be sleeping through the night and eating in no time.  

Here are some examples of a schedules gone wrong and tricks and tips to fix them: 

 EXAMPLE 1:
You have a 4 month old baby, who is supposed to be taking 28-32 ounces of milk (formula or breast milk) according to your pediatrician.  Your baby is currently taking 20 ounces and most of those ounces are during the NINE times he/she is waking up in the middle of the night.  You are exhausted because you have to wake up and go to work in the morning. What do you do? 

You need to get your baby on a schedule.  9/10 when this scenario is presented to me in my office, the parents say, well we try to feed her ALL day but she wont take it.  Yes, this is because your child is exhausted just like you are and she is beginning to wonder why she is having to work so hard every hour to attempt to feed.  So, you take one feed at a time.  Feedings (for a 4 month old) should not last more than 45 minutes and they should not be more frequent than every 3 hours (unless there are extenuating circumstances for your pediatrician or GI doc telling you otherwise).  If you stick to this rule and divide the number of ounces you want your child to take by how many feedings you should be doing (usually 6) you will get the total number of ounces your child should take every feed.  Then you strive for this.  At night, you try to soothe without feeding and I guarantee you will feed less and less at night, until your child is only waking up once or twice, which is much better than 9!

EXAMPLE 2:
You have a 3 year old child who lives off oatmeal and gold fish and will not accept any other foods.  He requests goldfish all day long and you give them to him because he is in the 5th percentile for weight.  He just started preschool and you were hoping seeing other children eat would help him learn to eat new foods... but it didn't help.  What do you do?

Get him on a schedule!  This does not just mean times to eat, it means no snacks like goldfish or other low calorie crackers.  Once you stop the crackers all together one of two things will happen.  Your child will all of a sudden branch out to those foods that he will "sometimes eat" and/or your child will begin eating more oatmeal, which is better than just living off goldfish.  Then you set up feeding times:  Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.  Usually for my picky eaters I eliminate snacks all together until their appetites are back.  Lastly, you introduce smoothies to increase their daily nutrient intake and caloric intake. 

The bottom line is: Feeding your picky eater, or your baby that can't quite regulate themselves is TRICKY! You have to figure out the pieces of the puzzle and put them all together.  Leave comments or ask for help from a Feeding Specialist in your area if any of the above sounds like you and your family!