The feeding cues blues

[californiagirl]

Why does my baby not believe in feeding cues? I was sitting here, baby happy on my lap, an hour and a half since I fed her. She wasn't chewing on her hands, she wasn't sticking out her tongue, she was just sitting around, being mildly fretful but settling for cuddling and singing. And then she starts to howl heartbreakingly. It takes me a good five minutes to figure out she's hungry. Why? Why not spend a while doing something that might tip me off before she screams?

And, if she's not going to use sticking out her tongue and chewing on her fist as feeding cues, could she at least refrain from doing them as soon as she's fed, so that everybody is forever telling me she's hungry when she's just finished eating? Grown-ups do not understand that she's just sticking her tongue out at them for the fun of it.

[amp]

Oh, I hear you on this one! My son went from 0 to 60 in about 2 seconds and we couldn't respond fast enough! Even after he managed not to escalate that quickly, it still sometimes took us awhile to figure out what the heck was wrong! Especially if we'd just tried to feed him 10 min. before to no avail! Waaaah!

[Melanie]

Same here. That's just how I used to describe him, too, "From 0-60..." Good thing he's breastfed b/c the few times Dh had tried, no bottle warmer was fast enough!

[chlobo]

Wow, that's my daughter too. Yesterday we went for a walk before dinner. We got in the car to drive home and she was a little fussy. We got home and after a few minutes was in total meltdown.

[californiagirl]

Today she startled howling from a sound sleep, didn't even bother to open her eyes or move first. Then she kept stopping nursing to smile, only to howl when she realized she wasn't getting any food. Then she tried sucking on her fingers while nursing and howled when I took her fingers out. Now that I've finally fed her, she's gnawing on my arm, doing her patented hungry baby imitation!