7mo never sstn but now feeding 4-5 hourly at night again

[zebstiredmum]

Dd has always been v easy - df didnt work for her, but from a few months old she has fed 3.5-4 hourly in the day, with a double feed before bed at 6pm then 8pm and has then only fed once in the night before waking around 7.30am.

The last  10 days hav beenconfusing for me - not sure if this is a routine issue or hunger. She seems genuinely hungry in the night. I had sleep trained my son with pupd long before now and i dont know if dd is ready.

I think my supply may hav reduced but no time to express to up it due to having Ds to take to nursery.

Dd will take a bottle but not a top up following bf.

Usual day:

7.30 wake up bf
8 solids - usually about 100ml normal porridge
10-11 sleep
11.15bf
12.15 solids - about 80-100ml home made blended meal
1.30-3 sleep
3.15 bf - has cut down on this feed
5.15 solids - as lunch
6.10-6.30 cat nap
7.15 -bf - ive been experimenting to try and get ríid of double feed as i dont think she was taking enough due to well established solids. If i bf her. 6.30pm she will take 150ml formula from dh at 8pm but she wont take it from me, then she wakes. around 2am.

Last night she had 1 bf at 7.15, refused a top up, then fed at 11pm and 4am.  This has happ3ned every time she has 1 evening feed. It feels like a huge regression as she was going 7-8 hours at night.

She doesnt feed to sleep and self settles at nap time and bed time.

Is 7m too late to try df again? Mayb with formula to see her through as i want to stop bfing soon. Was hoping to last to 10m but i am sotired as ds is also nw once a night and up early.

[Haribo2012]

Hi, my DS had a huge growth spurt at 7 months...literally would eat huge portions of solids in the day and drain all his 8oz bottles!! I didn't go back to feeding in the night but just tried to get extra milk or solids in him during the day! Maybe add a bit more bulk to diet like pasta or toast along side purée!?
I personally wouldn't start a DF at this age but that's only me and I stopped doing ours at 6 months as he started to wake up for attention rather than milk!!

If you think it's habit maybe offer some water and see if settles...

Plus we had developmental issues at 7mo and was waking practising sitting up to crawl lol

[*Ali*]

There are two things that spring to my mind. The first is that she may be UT as her A times are quite short and she probably needs to move towards a 3hr A time and drop the CN. And the second thing is that she is taking a lot of solids for her age and that may be preventing her from being hungry enough  to take enough breast milk in the day. Breast milk contains more calories ounce for ounce than most solids and milk is where she should be getting her calories and other nutrients from until about 12mo.
Whilst it is still common for a 7mo to be still having a NF if she seems hungrier than she has been then it could be a growth spurt or it could be that she needs to hold back on the solids for a few weeks to give her A chance to up her milk intake before upping the solids amounts again.

[zebstiredmum]

Hi Zoe and Ali

Thanks for your replies. I forgot to say she is small - not yet 15 lbs. Her solid intake does seem a lot which is why i was surprised that her milk intake at night went up. She has cut back on her 3pm milk feed.

I tried her with a longer A time this morning but she didnt handle it then had a short nap. Her A times are usually 2.5, 2.5, 3 then 2 after the Cn which is in place to keep her going that bit longer so i can put Ds to bed first.

Going to go back to 6.30 and 8pm feeds tonight and see what happens.   Fingers crossed. Praying Ds sleeps thru too - between the 2 of them they r the 'no sleep for mummy'  :Ptag team

[*Ali*]

The solids fill her little belly up (hence why she would cut back on a BF ir two in the day) but don't contain the calories she needs to sustain her which is probably why she is needing to make up for it with milk in the night. It is very common when LOs develop a love of solids at an early age. My DS1 did this at 29wo and I had to halve his solid food so he would take more milk for a couple weeks. Then when I gradually upped the solids again at 31wo he was ok with it and didn't drop his milk intake again until about 10mo.