Still Night Feeding at 8 Mos

[jenniferr]

Hi There.
Not sure where to post this so I thought I'd start here. My DD is 8 months on MArch 8 and was ebf until about 1 month ago. She caught a cold at this point and with her nose being all stuffed up, she started to prefer bottles and is now on a combo of both. She's also on three meals of solids. I posted her approx. food intake per day below:

Between 6 and 7 AM - bottle feed 5-6 oz
8AM - breakfast about 2 Tbsp
10-11 AM - bottle feed 5-6 oz
12PM - lunch about 3 Tbsp
2-3 PM - bottle feed 5-6 oz
5 PM - dinner 3 Tbsp
6:30/7 PM - bf before bed (I'm guessing around 3-4 oz as she'll only take one side)
10PM - df bottle of 6 oz
2AM - ALWAYS wakes and bf probably only 2 oz

All bottles are formula. Regardless of what time I do the df she wakes at 2AM almost on the nose. I initially thought that it was habitual. Tried w2s and other methods...nothing worked. The past three nights tried PU/PD with no luck after 1 hour and last night I was pretty sure I heard her tummy growling. But I'm confused b/c she hardly takes anything. I thought to offer her water or water down a bottle, but since she's already taking so little, I wouldn't think that would do much. Just wondering if any other 8 mo olds still are feeding through the night? I would've thought will all the food she consumes during the day that she should be able to go through the night. Increasing her intake during the day is not an option as the max she will take at one time is 6 oz. She's also on the smalller side for her age (40th percentile of weight and 10th for height - her mum's a shorty so she doesn't have much of a chance to be tall!)

Thanks.
Jenn

[lisi's mum]

Jenn,
if it's any consolation my dd only dropped the night feeds at around a year    have you seen this thread about night feeds and bf babies? Arrgh, the page won't load, it's on the FAQs

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

To be honest, it still sounds more like habitual waking than hunger to me.... Yes, many 8 month olds are still waking over night and often still nurse during the night - although I'm more familiar with EBM than the combo...  Is it possible you just didn't do the w2s or pu/pd quite long enough?    Waking at exactly the same time really seems more like a sleep issue than a hunger issue, but it's hard to tell....  As Katie said, a lot of other babies at that age still have one waking.

BTW, what sort of flow nipple do you use on the bottle?  If you want her to take more bf, it might help to use a slower flow, if you're not already...

[jenniferr]

Thanks for the replies...

Michela actually (almost) went through the night without eating last night. She wouldn't take her df (breast or bottle), woke at 12:30 when I assumed she must be starving, nursed her but she only took about 3 sips then fell back to sleep then didn't wake until 6:30. So that's pretty much 12 hours without a feeding. It's most likely just a fluke thing so I won't get my hopes up but now I know she can do it.

Erin - I do agree that it's most likely habitual as she hardly takes anything at this feeding. That's a good point about the nipple flow. Maybe I'll try going back to a level one flow. Although my supply is way down - my poor pump just couldn't keep up. I'm still getting at least one good bf into her per day so at least it's something. I'll give it a try though b/c I wasn't nearly ready to call it quits yet..

Thanks.
Jenn

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

You know....some people find that when they stop the dreamfeed, the baby will sleep BETTER overnight - something about the disruption in the sleep cycles that some kids are more sensitive to....

[rinajack]

That is correct about the DF, I think Tracey actually recommended in BWSAYP that the DF be dropped by about 7 months, when solids are well established.