You Say Schedule, I Say PD Feeding

I’m jumping into the blog world with a sure-to-be controversial topic (if I had any readers, that is. Oh wait! I have had 2 commenters! Holy cow, I can’t believe it!). When I tell people about Baby Z’s schedule, I usually wait to see the look on their face before determining the next route the conversation will take. Either I play down the perceived structure of a schedule – it’s really more like a routine where I watch for baby’s hunger signals! Or, I laud the merits of managing the baby on a schedule that gives me predictability and the miraculous “sleeping through the night.” There really is a whole range of ways to describe my chosen approach, and I have often found people using the same terms for very different things. So, for those unfamiliar with some terms for feeding approaches, see definitions below.*

Since I plan to be discussing scheduling/routine-making a lot, I suppose I should carefully pick my terms and then stick with it. Ezzo uses the term Parent Directed Feeding. I like this term, as it emphasizes who makes the decisions and is a nice balance between hyper scheduling rigidity and take it as it comes on demand type feeding. However, PDF makes this former software engineer think of a file type, and typing out parent directed feeding every time is going to get old fast. So, I will be using the hybrid term PD feeding. If I slip up and use routine or schedule, just assume I'm being imprecise and substitute PD feeding. After all, I did name my blog "Routine Honesty."


*Definitions (paraphrased from Ezzo’s Baby Wise. Experts out there can feel free to correct and fine-tune.)
• Child-led feeding (also known as cue feeding, demand feeding, attachment parenting)- feeding times guided solely by hunger signs from baby.
• Clock feeding (also known as scheduling) – feeding times guided solely by the clock.
• Parent-directed feeding (PD feeding) – feeding times guided by both hunger cues and clock. The key is the parent uses both to determine the best time to feed the baby.