LO will not eat in the morning

[Doj]

Hello

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I have a 5.5 month old who does not like eating the first bottle in the morning
She is on 4 Hr EASY eating at 7, 11,3, 7 and DF at 11.
 She usually wakes up at about 5am in the morning due to hunger or habit. Will eat sometimes. She goes back to sleep till 7
 I also started her on solids about 1 month ago eat 1 tlbs of cereal at 7, 1 tbls of veg at 11 and 1 tbls of cereal at 7pm.
I feed the solids before I give her milk.

I have tried the following.
1. When she wakes up at 500. I do not feed her. She will go back to sleep and get up at about 7. I think in this case that she woke up at 5 due to hunger and because i did not feed her she was not hungry at 7. (hope this makes sense)
2. Feed her a couple of oz at 5. When she gets up at 7 still does not want anything
3. Waited about half an hour after she got up 730. She does not want to eat.
4. I have tried giving solids after milk.

One thing that I have noticed is that if I feed her at 5am, she would take an entire bottle, but she would be too full to eat anything later in the morning.
If I give her a bottle at 5 when she wakes up is this just going to reinforce the habit of getting up to eat at that time to eat and she will never eat at a later time?
This would also throw EASY off as I do not want to give her last bottle at 5pm. As well since she goes back to bed at 5 all of her feeding would be during nap time.

She may not be a morning eater. Just wondering if this has happened to anyone else and if so did they find anything that works.

Thanks so much for all of you help

[RachelC]

Does she always wake up at 5, like clock work?  Have you tried wake to sleep?  I'm not sure I understand, if you don't feed her at 5, she still does not eat at 7?

[Sarahboh]

Maybe you could give her the bottle at 5am if she will drink it and then put her back to sleep, later when she wakes up you could give a solid meal then give her some formula in a bottle wirh ir. Maybe try increasing the amount she takes in solids in the morning if she will eat it. What I would be prone to do is ride it out, give the bottle at 5 am, attempt to give some at 7am when she wakes, let her take none or as much as she wants, give her solids a little later in the morning at about 8am to get her belly full and also give her a little formula at that time. Thus when she goes down for her nap she will have a fully tummy and give her the next full bottle at her regular time 11. Please let me know if you need clarification. Sarah

[Doj]

PaigeJalyn,

Its not like clock work, Sometimes she wakes at  5 sometimes 430, but always between 415-515 am. That's correct, if I don't feed her at 5, she still will not eat at 7. I don't know if its because she was so hungry at 5 (not cyring) and once 7 comes she just doesn't want to eat. I am really not sure. It bizarre to me.

Sarahboh,

I just want to clarify something, are you suggesting that I give her solids at 7 (if she will take) and then again at 8?

Thanks for your help

[Sarahboh]

What I would do is feed her at her first waking in the morning her bottle(as much as she wants to take), then when she wakes up for the day offer the bottle again, even if she just takes a few ounces, that is fine. Then do her solids at 8am (maybe increase the amount you are giving slightly from 1tbsp to 2tbsp) mixed with her formula and offer some bottle again (if you are using a sippy cup this would be optimal) just to get a few ounces into her again. That way she will make it to 11am and not being hungry. Why I am saying this is eventually she will drop that early morning feed because obviously she still needs it if she will take it all at that time. I am sure in the near future she will move that early morning feed and wake at her normal hour (7pm) to eat. Ella did around the same thing from around 4-5 months. I will give you an routine example, she adjusted this on her own towards 6 months to waking at 7:30am for her first feed of the day.

Routine 4-5 months for Ella

4-5:30am (treated it as nightfeed) 4-6 ounces
7:30 wake and give bottle as if first feed of the day, offer it she would take only 2-3 ounces
8:30 solids 2-3 tbsp rice cereal+2-3 ounces formula mixed with cereal, as well rest in sippy
9:30-11:30 nap
11:30 5-6 ounces
1:30-3:30 nap
3:30 bottle 5-7 ounces
5:30 2-3 tbsp rice cereal+4 ounces formula (mixed and in sippy)
6:50 bottle 7 ounces
7;00 Bed

This 4-5am nightfeed ended just after 5 months. You can try this and see if it works as Ella was pretty good and just kept waking later and later until now she wakes at 7:30 for her first feed. If you think it is habit you can always try the wake to sleep as Paigejalyn suggested.

If you are confused by my big jumble of words, please ask as sometimes I am not 100% clear
sarah

[Doj]

Thanks so much Sarah, I will let you know how it goes.