How to be baby wise?

Parenting is a tricky art. In fact this is all the more true in case of infants. Unlike animals, all human babies are solely dependent on their mothers for all their needs for a few years till they grow to be self dependent. Once babies are given birth, we can’t expect them to grow on their own. Caring for babies has to happen in a wise manner so that the parents give the best to their children during the growing phase so that they turn health, happy and free of any diseases. There are several guide books available on becoming baby wise. There are a number of dimensions to baby wise. This article throws light on one such important baby wise issue namely scheduling the tasks of attending to your babies.

There is a concept called parent-led schedule for rearing babies. The meaning of this term is that the parents evolve a particular agenda drafting a timetable for the baby ranging from eating, sleeping and playing. Some parents fix up a particular schedule and strictly adhere to it without even a minute deviation to the extent possible. Quite a many experts believe that this style of implementing strict timings for the different activities of babies helps in regulating the internal biological clocks in babies and provide the babies the right kind of input conducive to an ideal growth.

Baby wise methods are not evolved in a day. They are the result of the knowledge regarding the various phases in babies’ growth, the varying needs of babies on the whole, observing the natural rhythms in their growth during different developmental stages. Most of these tips are evolved out of the experience with a large number of babies by a large number of parents over generations and so they are highly dependable and useful to parents who are new to rearing babies. Experts believe that once the babies start experiencing a structured pattern in their days, they tend to fall in close line with the schedule and sleep better and easier over nights.

The most popular advocates of parent-led scheduling are author Gary Ezzo and childcare expert Gina Ford state that the ideal stand in rearing babies is to take a middle approach between the rigorous four-hour feeding schedules of the past and the popular baby-led schedules of the contemporary times. They do not subscribe to on-demand feeding that means following the cues given by the babies with regard to deciding the time of the meal. On the other hand, they suggest depending on their guidelines, following the baby’s hunger cues and also the parents’ common sense. All these aspects must go hand in hand in rearing the babies.

The one downside to on-demand feeding is that parents who are new to rearing babies might mistake a baby cry for some other reason to mean ‘feed me’. Under these circumstances, both the parents pursue a tireless cycle of constant feeding that will go on for quite some time till a particular stage in development. This would result in frequent waking for nursing and a consequent lack of sleep for babies as well as parents. On demand feeding also might lead to under-feeding since babies sometimes tend to sleep for a longer time foregoing their food. Parents therefore need to take the appropriate stand to rear their babies the right way.


Author is a freelance writer and having successful experience in writing about Baby Care. Currently he is writing about Baby Wise and No Cry Sleep Solution for more information about Infant Baby Healthcare visit: Twelvehourbaby