Useful Breastfeeding Template

[newbiedad]

Hi Everyone. My wife has been telling me about this site ever since she became pregnant. Our little girl was born a week ago and only now have I become converted to the ways of Bub Hub.

This is my first post so please forgive any mistakes or misdemeanours I may commit.

I just wanted to provide everyone with a useful template a graphic designer friend of mine made for us, that we have been using. [link deleted by moderator]

If like me, you struggle to remember feeding times, amounts, sides, let alone read a clock at some ridiculous hour in the morning, then I hope you will find this template handy too.

It has the time started, the duration of the feed, the side the bub was fed on, and whether it was a expressed milk, formula feed or breastfeed.

www.transform.net.au/Input_Chart_Zoe.pdf (http://www.transform.net.au/Input_Chart_Zoe.pdf)

Enjoy.

[the_queen]

I'm not sure something like that is necessary for most babies. If there's health issues, yeah maybe. But for most babies, the best advice is feed when they're awake, feed them to sleep, feed them before they get hungry, and feed them whenever they seem hungry.

[bronny-jane]

im sure most first time mothers would find this useful..

myself,, i just jiggle my boobs and see which one is heaviest and feed of that one....:D

[deb1234]

ah yes the queen, fantastic advice as always...feed around the clock! :D

i did keep a little notebook of feeds and length of feeds for the first few months because i wanted to see an improvement, felt like a feeding machine! so for me writing everything down was a great tool that helped me get through those first months. i still demand fed though and never used it to see if he should be fed. :D

congrats on the birth of your daughter newbie dad :)

and yep the jiggle test is always a good one!

[punkbaby]

Yep i jiggle too :)

I am sure some would find it handy though but i tend to follow bubs and offer it when she wants it :)

[sam's mum]

I have a feeding pillow next to my chair, if it is on the left side of my chair, I feed from the left first, same for right side...

[~Alicia]

im sure most first time mothers would find this useful..

myself,, i just jiggle my boobs and see which one is heaviest and feed of that one....:D

Pmsl I do the same thing :p

[Freya]

Gosh I would love to be able to make the decision of which breast he feeds off!!

He just crawls over stands himself up and grabs my top and chooses a boob starts suckin and thats it.

[UmmInayah]

Gosh, I was so engorged when I first started feeding. I don't think I could have jiggled back then. They were both so massive I couldn't tell which one I last fed off.

[prideNJoy]

im sure most first time mothers would find this useful..

myself,, i just jiggle my boobs and see which one is heaviest and feed of that one....:D

:laughing: Yep, that's excatly what i do! Give them a little squeeze and bingo...there's ya boob! :D

[the_queen]

These days The Boy tells me which one he wants to start on "Star" or "No Star" (referring to my tattoo :D)

But I stand by my original comment, I think a chart just adds to the stress and self-doubt of a new mum. Feed the baby, sleep when bubs sleeps, feed again, feed again, and again, and again again, and again, sleep, feed, sle-.... feed, sle--.... feed feed feed feed feed cry sleep..... feed.... repeat ad infinitum :D

Use a scrunchie or bracelet to remember which side was last, if you have to.


(Interesting that the OPer joined up, posted once about this product, then hasn't come back :detective:)

[Jenko]

In the early days (blurry days) with my first I would probably have used this. DD was tongue tied and I had trouble bf and used to top up with formula, so my feeding was a bit of this and that. I used to write down feed times and for how long...when I remembered to that is :laughing:

With my second child that all went out the window and we fed whenever..ie all the time!

I think some first time mums would find this very useful. Thanks for sharing.

[Mrs AJC]

newbiedad thankyou for posting. I myself would have greatly appreciated this if I was a new mum. The pnd and sleep deprivation was so bad that I really had no idea what was going on and came up with a similar template of my own. Each feed would creep into the next and when ds1 became so out of sinc that he didn't sleep for more than 1/2 an hour at a time I kept trying to feed him thinking that was the problem. After starting a journal much like the one you have posted I was able to see in the harsh light of day that he was snacking too often rather than sleeping and it made it easier for me to try to get some form of a routine and still feed on demand. I actually know for a fact that many women buy a template like this to use, so whilst some women may find that all they have to do is jiggle others will be grateful that you took the time to write this post and share for those who will find it useful.

Perhaps others could leave the negativity at the door.

[Sheer Bliss]

It looks like a nice guide in the early days while you figure everything out. Thanks

Mrs AJC - I agree - the negativity in here is a bit much. Both mine were premmie & WERE fed to a schedule for a little while, on a VERY good Paed's advice. For small babies, feeding takes a LOT of energy, and can actually be counter productive. The energy they use while feeding every second is sometimes energy better used sleeping, growing & resting.

Not to mention the control freaks (like my friend who didn't end up breastfeeding as she couldn't handle the uncertainty) She couldn't handle demand feeding, she likes her routine too much & it freaked her out. A tool like this may have helped her get through the first few months of difficulty, instead she went to bottles within the first few weeks of both her babies lives. Even though demand breastfeeding is definately the 'norm' in b/f, surely a tool like this is better to help mums than not b/f at all?

Although i always do tend to do the 'boob jiggle' to see which one to feed from next. lol.

[nicoleE]

:iagree:.

Thanks for posting and Im sure it will get some use... I guess some Mums like to feel a bit more 'in the know' than others. From DD being a day old I have written down her feeds and eventually sleeps as well. Since she has been on quite a routine every 2hrs and now every 3 i find it helpful to attempt to guess when she will want another one instead of me asking myself every time "now when did she feed last?" :yes:

i just jot/scribble the info down on a note pad, i still do this to the day and DD is 5 months old now. Call me silly but it works for me. :thumbsup:

[LilMissnBoo]

I used to jiggle, but now DD (who is almost 7 months) just pulls at my top and then decides which side she wants :laughing:

Thanks for posting the link though. I am sure that there are plenty of mums which will find it very useful!

[blubber]

The hospital that we had DD1 in provided this chart.

Whlie there were certain things that i did not meet eye to eye on with the middies for first time parents it was a god send. We felt we were trying to understand our baby.

We didn't run our lives by it, bub was not restricted, ignored or had her feeds or sleep planned around it.

It just helped.

Perhaps that is all the OP was trying to do.

Lets welcome new members not scare them off!