Tanking up

[Jewell]

Hi everyone,

I have a 5mth old and was wondering how to tank him up during the day so that i can get him to sleep through the night. I give my DS a DF between 10/1030 pm and this has him sleeping till 2/330 am, last night i didn't give his DF until 1115pm and he slept through till 605am...great.

I have tried to add more to his bootles in the daytime but he doen't always take it, we are on an 4 hour EASY routine that looks something like this.

Day starts at

6/7 am
715 feed - has between 90/120 mls
730 A till 845
845 wind down
9am nap for about 1-1/5 to 2 hours
11am up
1115 feed - 150/180 mls
1130 A till 1245
1245 wind down
1300 nap again for about 1-2 hours
1500 up
1515 feed - 150/180mls
1530 A
1630/1700 down for about 45min to an hour nap
1745/1800 feed, bath then bed at 1915/1930 - 120/150 mls
DF 2200/2230 - 120/180 mls

Now this is a lose routine that can change by about 30mins to 45 mins depending on the time he gets up.

How do you increase his intake if he will not take it?

Any help / feedback / advise would be great.

Helen

[Jewell]

is there anyone out there? or is it just coz i'm in australia and time zones are different, would love some help 

[* Paula *]

Hi,

Sorry for the delay in replying to you.  I am in the UK.

Have you thought about trying to clusterfeed?  You could offer a clusterfeed at around 4:00 and then again at about 6:00ish before you do your windown routine for bed.

Also have you had a look at this link under our FAQ's Section?

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=67403.msg380316#msg380316

[Jewell]

Thanks, the issues i have is that he is very, very sure when he doesn't want his bottle and it's then very hard for me to encourage him to take it. We have the same issue some mornings if he wakes up at 4am because if we give him a bottle then he will not then feed @ 7am, as it's only been 3 hours since his last feed. We have tried to give him a half strength bottle but then he only takes say 30/40 mls. Last night he took a whole 180 mls so i know he was hungrey. Does that mean on the nights he had only half strength he was also hungrey?

Questions, questions!!! 

 

[* Paula *]

My DS was exactly the same - he was very adament that if he was not hungry he was not having a bottle.  This is why we could not DF or clusterfeed, we had to wait for him to wake at 11pm 

What times is he waking for feeds in the middle of the night?  Does he wake at the same time all the time?  If not it could be that he is hungry.  Have you tried to resettle without a feed?

[macdee]

Hi Jewell- I have my daughter (just over 4mths now) on the exact same routine as you, except I dreamfeed about 11.15/11.30pm. She then sleeps thru and starts stirring about 5am-ish, at which time I pop the paci in her mouth and she sleeps thru til half 6-7am. Very occasionally, she'll wake at 3 or 4am but the paci usually gets her back to sleep.

RE increasing intake during the day, I had similar issues when we transitioned to the 4hr routine when she was about 3.5mths. She had previously been taking 4.5-5oz per feed and then refused to take more after getting into the 4hr routine. I stumbled on my solution by accident- for a few days, I broke up the feed for just say 5-10mins. I'd change her diaper or just walk around the house to pass the time or just sit and watch the telly... When we went back to the bottle, she took a bit more each day until now, she's downing 6 to just over 6.5oz per feed without any breaks (I stopped taking the breaks for the last week and half now).

For dreamfeeds, she doesn't take that much, only about 3.5-4oz but I guess because her intake during the day is sufficient, she seems happy enough to sleep thru til next morning.

I hope this helps...

[Jewell]

Thanks for all your help, he is waking up at about 3-4am most nights even if i DF later say @ 1030/11pm maybe I'll try to DF @ 11/1130 but it's hard to stay up that late I'm normally asleep by 9ish, and DH has a very manual job so is also asleep at that time. I have tried not to feed him and just re-settle him but then I'm up ever hour on the hour to put the paci in his mouth or shh pat him, so i feed he as this will get him back to sleep for another 3-4 hours...maybe it's now become something he needs to fall asleep on, i don't have any issues with this any other times, like his naps etc.

[* Paula *]

It is suggested to do the DF as close to 10:00pm as possible, as feeding after 11:00 could start interferring in their night time sleep, and cause disturbances.

At this age it is still quite common to have a night time feed.