Diluting bottle to drop night feed

[waterdragon]

Hi
Dose any one have any suggestions on this.My lo is a big baby >6 kg easily.11 weeks old. She is on 3 hr easy but really not intrested in feeding that regularly but not ready yet for 3.5 hr EASY from A time point of view.I want to drop the night feed(like every one)
Currently
0730 2 oz
1030 4 oz
1330 3 oz
1630 3 oz
1900 3-4 oz  bed
DF 2330 (late but my DH wont budge on time) 5 oz
wakes for feed used to be 0400 or 0430 but now 0500 and today 0610
I did manage to get her back to sleep after the 0610 feed but that throws the day she wont feed at breakfast
I was thinking of giving her and increasing diluted bottle at about 4.30 or 5 to increase her am intake and hopefully learn to last the night
Total intake 25-28 oz in 24 hrs
Does this make sense??
Thanks for you opinions and how dilute would you suggest

[~Emma~]

 I am personally not against diluting milk feeds in the night to wean them but I feel your LO might just be a wee bit too young at this point.

 My advice would be to push the DF to say 10pm insterad of 9.30pm.

[waterdragon]

Our DF is 11.30 pm!! I know this goes against the recommendations by DH isnt 'ready' to do it before then!! We did this with DD1 and she just decreased her 4 am feed down to 1 oz and stopped at 22 weeks but she was a really skinny baby.

[Lolly]

In your first post you have the DF time as 9.30! Was the DF this time with DD1 also? It's something to watch as a DF after 11pm can cause more sleep disturbances than help sleep.

 I also agree with Emma, 11 weeks is too early to be cutting out nightfeeds if they are not doing it for themselves. I personally think that big babies need more milk than smaller babies - they need more calories to maintain their weight as well as the calories needed for growing. Both mine had hit 6 kg by 8 weeks old and neither were ready to drop a nightfeed until well after the 6 month mark. Really, 1 nightfeed at 11 weeks is totally normal and the fact she can go from an 11.30 feed til 4/5am is very good.

Which teat is she on? Have you tried a faster one to get her to take a bit more in the day?

Laura

[IheartR]

Laura,
I'm really interested in what you said about big babies still needing the night feed until later on. My DS is 12 weeks and at least 15lbs (not been weighed recently!) and definately needs a night feed. I know it is very normal for them to need a night feed at this age but was led to believe that once they got past a certain weight they should be able to go through the night. Sounds like that isn't the case?

X

[waterdragon]

Im not overly concerned with having to get up once in the night to feed my problem is the imapact it has on the following mornings feed. This am I felt I was force feeding her at 8am, I feel really uncomfortable with this but if she didnt feed I wasnt sure she'd last till her 10.30 am feed.
Its the knock on effect of having 4-5 oz after 0430 am that it my big issue.I tried stopping feeding her at 3 oz once or twice but she was having none of it!!
I am also a little worried , her weight puts her on the 91st centile , my DD1 was on the 9th!!! in terms of weight and both me and  my husband are of slim build I was a 25 th centile as a baby (mum still has my chart) Anyway thats just a side issue. DD1 also had DF at 11.30 pm ,infact after my DH admitted it was some times closer to 1 am . DD2 is earlier so far her night sleep is good and she dosnt really wake at all during the DF.

[Lolly]

It's quite common for a late night feed to impact on the first feed and really the advice is just to top them up at the first feed to tide them over until the next "proper" feed time. For an 11 week FF baby her day feeds are on the small side - have you tried a faster teat? If you can get more calories in her in the day combined with the DF you may find she can last until wake up pretty soon. If your DD1 was having a DF after midnight that is probably why she reduced then dropped that 4am feed - it would only have been 3 hours since her last feed on some nights!

I wouldn't worry about where she is on the charts either - it will all even out! My two are little and large at the moment, both were big babies but DS dropped down the charts and is now on the 9th centile whereas DD has stuck very firmly to the 91st since not long after birth - and she really doesn't eat a lot!

Laura

[waterdragon]

Tried faster teat but she chokes and gets upset so we are on a medium .
So if every one feels its not ok to try and drop night feed should I wake her between 4-5 am to prevent wakenings nearer 6 and risk early am starts.If i wake her will I be creating a habitual NW???

[Lolly]

It's really up to you. I personally wouldn't wake to feed at that time - I think you would create a habitual wakening and she would expect food at that time and it would be harder to deal with. I have never woken mine at night, they didn't take a dreamfeed either so we always let them wake when they were hungry and dealt with whatever they threw at us. We activly stopped DD's nightfeed around 8.5 months by reducing her bottle and then just offering water.

There are some ideas here http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=67403.0 for getting more into her in the day - I really think that's your best bet also just feed when she wakes for now, top her up as much as you can at the first feed and re-evaluate in week or so. If the fast teat is too fast it may be worth trying a variflow if your bottle type does them.

Another though I have had is if she is having her DF at 11.30 at the earliest then she is going about 6 hours before needing a feed. So, if she had her DF at 10/10.30 then 6 hours from that would give you a wake between 4am and 5am so maybe have a serious word with DH about trying the DF earlier to see what happens. Is there a reason he won't do the DF any earlier?

Laura

[waterdragon]

Was that a DF or a middle of the night feed you stopped at 8 months.?... cant imagine getting up at night to feed once Im back at work (6 months) .  The DF feed time is not going to change we talked about this with DD1 .He says he,ll do it earlier but will not get around to it till then.

[Lolly]

It was a nightfeed we stopped at 8 months - she wasn't having a dreamfeed because she wouldn't take it.

I don't know what else to suggest then - if the DF won't be given any earlier I think my suggestions in my last post are the things I can think of

Laura