Clock + Nothing = Feeding TimeWeakness in practice:
- Feeding based on fixed times ignores legitimate hunger cues by
assuming each previous feeding has been successful. The child who wants
to feed after two hours is put off until the next scheduled meal. - Strict schedules may not promote sufficient stimulation for breast milk
production, leading to the second greatest cause for mothers giving up
breast-feeding: low milk supply.^7
With both child-led feeding and schedule feeding, a tension exists
between the variable and the constant. This tension is both philosophical
and physiological. In either case, as parents are trying to serve their
underlying parenting philosophy, they become enslaved to a method. To
accept either of these feeding indicators as an exclusive guide to feeding
is to endanger your child.
The Philosophy of Parent-Directed Feeding
(^) The Babywise Parent-Directed Feeding (PDF) eliminates the tension of
relying exclusively on the unreliable variable of a hunger cue or the
insufficient constant of the clock. PDF brings into play the critical tool of
parental assessment. Parental assessment takes the best of both and weds
them together. It frees a mother to utilize the variable of the hunger cue
when necessary and the constant of the time when appropriate. Parental
Assessment is the mediator between the two. With PDF both the variable
and constant are used as companions, backups to each other, not
antagonists to be avoided. Consider the PDF equation:
Hunger Cue + Clock + PA = Feeding Time
Notice how the conflict between the variable and constant is eliminated