Refusing 7pm Bottle

[Rubycino]

I have Ruby on the 4 hour EASY and have introduced solids 3 weeks ago. Only this week she has started to refuse the 7pm bottle before bed but still sleeps through till the dreamfeed where she is now taking a full 5ozs where as before introducing this feed she had cut right down to 2-3ozs.

I feed her as follows:

7am Bottle
8am Solids

11am Bottle
12pm Solids

3pm Bottle

between 5 or 5:30 Solids

6:45 or 7pm Bottle

at each solid feed she is taking a good 2 heaped tablespoons of veggies or fruit and cereal.

Any ideas on what i can do as i should be dropping the DF not the 7pm feed?

[Sarah O]

Hmmm...my DD was doing the same thing.  How old is your LO?  Maybe it's time to remove the DF and she'll adjust her feeds so that the 7pm one is when she fills up.  I found that doing this helped in our situation.  Maybe pick a day when she has had a 'better' 7pm feed than usual and start weaning her from the DF from that point.  Also, how about giving her dinner at 4:30 for a few days....maybe she'll be a little hungrier for her 7pm bottle.  Another thing you might try if you haven't already (the BW hardcore people are going to kill me for this one but...) is try giving the 7pm bottle again right before she goes to sleep.  For my DD, she has a quirk where she has 3-4 oz of her bottle at feed time and then I take her upstairs to bed and she has to have the rest while I hold her in our rocking chair...to my surprise she had an additional 8 oz the first time I tried that and she slept much better!  A 12 ounce bottle!!!  Pretty nuts. 

Sarah

[tylersmommy]

You might try cutting back on her solids at dinner. It sounds like she's getting too full in the afternoon and early evening, so that might help her appetite.

[Sarahboh]

Just as tylersmommy said, I would cut down on her solids early evening so as to make her hungrier for her bottle. Or you could also try doing the solids at 5pm if she is hungry and then nothing until her 7pm bottle thus making her hungry enough to take the bottle. As well maybe also to fiddle around with things even more, give her solids at 4pm then nothing until her 7 pm bottle thus making her really hungry to take it. I haven't had a df since 14 weeks and this helped adjust her taking more food during the day. Ella's routine is pretty close to yours and this is what works for us.

7:30am bottle 6-7 ounces
9:00 am 1.5 tbsp rice or oatmeal, 1/4 jar fruit or veggies 1-1.5 ounce formula with cereal
10am-11:35 nap
12pm bottle (5-7) ounces
1pm solids (just veggies or fruit, no cereal) 1/2 jar-3/4 jar
2:30-4:00 nap
4:00 bottle 6-7 ounces
5:30 3 tbsp rice and oatmeal mixed, 2-2.5 ounces formula, 1/2 jar veggies
6:30 bath, massage
6:50 bottle 6-7 ounces
7:00 bed
Sleep till morning, no df or nightwakings.
Hope this helps

[Rubycino]

THanks for your replies. It was also brought to my attention in the nap forum that she is getting toooo much solids. I am going to drop lunch today, try to keep her awake till 9:45amish and drop the dream feed. I know we will probably be in for a rough night but in needs to happen!

Last night i think demonstrated she is getting too much as she refused the 7pm but then took 7ozs at 10:30 and another 7ozs at 4:30am and then 2oz's at 8:30am. So we will try it and see what happens.

Thanks
Amy