What can I do now?

[fivesey]

hello,
I don't really know if I should post this here or in the Feeding section as I have two separate but linked problems.
My LO is 7.5 months. We have been following EASY in a broad sense since birth. Unfortunately he started teething very badly at the same time as I started to wean him so it is hard to know which of the following is down to which issue. We have been through the bottle refusal stage and the only taking 2 - 3oz a feed stage but have now stabilised into the following but I am stuck on where to go next. At the moment he feeds as follows:

6.30am bottle (3 - 4oz) - not so keen
7.30am breakfast (using 2oz of bottle)
11.30am bottle (6oz) - drinks well
12.30pm lunch
3.30pm bottle (2 - 3oz) - not so keen
followed by tea
7.15pm bedtime bottle (6oz) - involves lots of teetha granules, calgel and crying to get this into him.
2am - bottle of 8oz which he drinks straight down with ease .. best bottle by far of the 24 hours.
His appetite for solids varies but he eats a good breakfast and lunch and then usually not so much for tea.

I haven't inserted his nap pattern as there is not one. The problem is that his waking time is erratic. He also is in crèche Monday – Wednesday and then with me the other 4 days BUT on Friday we need to bring his sister to pre-school at 9am. All of this wrecks havoc on any pattern. So generally I give him 2.5 – 3h of awake time and then put him down. He generally goes off easily with his dummy and will sleep for anything from 30min to 2h. Night-time sleep is not good – he wakes a number of times due to teething, coughing or just looking for his dummy. He hasn’t slept through since 2 months.

My questions are these:
How can I get rid of the night-time bottle?
Any ideas on how to improve the bedtime one (he used to take 9oz easily before he started teething).
Is it too early to go to three bottles?
Any ideas on a nap time schedule that I might be able to encourage across the week?


Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks from an exhausted and confused mummy!

[Lolly]

Hi there!

We can certainly help with the bottle feeding over here!

Nightfeed - this is probably causing the decreased appetite for his morning bottle so if you can get rid of that you should see an improvement. With my DD, when she was about 8 months we started limiting and decreasing the night bottle and re-settling her, so she only got a 6oz bottle for a week or so then we dropped an oz for another week or so etc. After a few weeks she got to 4 oz and then didn't wake for a feed on odd nights so we decided just to offer water if she woke and resettle her. She wasn't too impressed the first night, but she did have a good drink of water and after I think 3 nights she just didn't wake for it . He should take a bit more milk in the day to make up for the 8oz at night - in theory .

Have you tried a faster teat lately? That may help the bedtime feed - what time is tea time, moving it a bit earlier if you can could help too. I think it would be best to drop the nightfeed and then see how his milk intake is before you drop to three bottles - take it one step at a time!

As for the naps, post on the nap board for some more help! I know with DD we have a situation like yours, she goes to creche 3 afternoons so catnaps on the way there and back if she doesn't sleep (she will sleep there one of the days, maybe 2 if I am lucky ) there so I know how hard it is. She dropped the catnap early so by 7 months I was really just trying to make sure she had 2 decent naps spaced out and an early bedtime if the second nap was short. With a pre-schooler and working as well there was only so much routine I could have that was set.

If he is waking looking for the dummy it's probably become a prop so it may be worth weaning/ getting rid of it to try and stop the wakings.

Does that help? Let us know what you think and we'll see how else we can help!

{{HUGS}} too - my two refluxers have kept us pretty short on sleep many times over the last 3.5 years - it ain't fun!

Laura
Laura

[fivesey]

Hello Laura,
Thanks so much for your advice. So this is this where we are now.
The nightfeed seems to have sorted itself out though we were armed with cooled water all ready to go if needed. Our LO is still rousing (due to a horrible cough) but is settling back without food.
This has had an impact on his daytime feeding. He is now having a good 7 – 8 oz upon waking and since I have decided to drop to three bottles (just way too stressful to try a fourth due to continued teething) he is having 6oz at 11.30am. Despite the pain and discomfort he generally takes 6oz at bedtime and last night managed 9oz. I nearly died of shock. So overall his milk intake seems ok now.
We use MAM bottles and I have discovered they do a very fast teat so have ordered some online – hopefully they will help too.
I am trying to encourage two long naps and then a catnap in the evenings but coughing and early wakings are making this difficult but I shall persevere!
I realise the dummy is a prop BUT honestly on balance it is just such a comfort to him during teething (which he suffers from VERY badly).
Thanks, Fiona

[Lolly]

That's good news on the bottles! Well done!

Here is a link to some routines for 7-9 months which may help to see where you need to go with naps and the catnap!  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=164030.0

Let us know how you get on!

Laura