7 month old refusing feeds for the past month

[*Jo*]

Eden will be 7 months old next week and for the past 5 or so weeks she just will not eat more than half a bottle. As soon as she gets the chance she pushes t away and clamps down so we can't put the bottle back in her mouth. This has resulted in night feeds becoming 2-3 times a night. . I can't even start the first feed at 7am. I have to wait at least 4 hours after her last night feed and even then she won't take a full feed. I've dropped solids, tried to reduce the night feeds but she screams blue murder. I've tried making her wait for her bottle up to 5 hours between a feed and still she won't take a full feed!
Even if I do manage to get a couple of full feeds she still wakes at night for those two bottles

From 4 weeks old til about 5 months old she was going 9-12 hours without a feed. Now it's 3.5-4 hours at night. I thought this was a phase but it's been forever! She goes to sleep independently for
most sleeps. I've tried pu/pd but she kept going til it had been at least 4 hours since her last feed so I had to feed her in the end.

I don't know what else I can do to get those calories in during the day. Help?

[Lolly]

Can you post your day for us to see please? How much is she actually taking at a feed and how much overnight?

What flow teat do you have her on now? If it's not the fastest I would try that first.

Do you dreamfeed at all?

What about teething - have you ever tried medicating before any feeds?

Laura

[*Jo*]

She's on dr brown bottles teat 6-9 months, only just started handling those. No dreamfeed, she's never taken tonit and when she did it made no difference to her night feeds. Have tried meds and no change. She has two teeth already.

Her routine is a bit here and there depending on what time she woke up and because of the school runs I may have to wake her from naps etc but her average A time is 3 hours.
So yesterday went like this: we've just had daylight savings changeover on Sunday as well so we lost an hour.
A: 6am (after a 3:30 feed)
E: 7:30 (90mls)
S: 9 (fell asleep in car) woke at 9:30
A: was extra grumpy and acting tired so put her back to bed at 10:30 (quite unusual)
S: 10:30-11:30 (1 hour)
E: 11:30 (110mls)
A: 11:30-2 (2.5 hours)
S: 2-3 (1 hour)
E: 3:30 (225 mls) a full bottle hooray! I was so excited! Lol
A: 3-5:45
E: bedtime bottle, full bottle of 220mls, she fell asleep on bottle so didn't do normal bedtime routine.
1st wake up 9:40pm 200mls
2nd wake up 1:30am 200mls
3rd wake up 3:30am, patted back to sleep and gave pain meds just in case as this wake up is very unusual, this one doesn't usually happen
4th wake up 5:30am 180mls chatted to herself for 5 mins before going back to sleep.
Awake for the day at 7:15am

Offered her a bottle this morning at 9:30am and once again she only took 70mls...

[Lolly]

It loks to m like she's got into a habit of needing bottles to get back to sleep at night - she got practically all the the milk she needs overnight between those 3 bottles! That's why she's not hungry for her first bottle, and probably the others.

I would start cutting back the night bottles, if she has had a good bedtime bottle at his age she really doesn't need more than one overnight. I would maybe allow one at 1.30/ 2am for now but not feed before or until wake up time. Offer water if she wakes after the 1.30 bottle but not milk. You haven't got any solids on your day, start the solids again about an hour after bottle feeds and see if that helps too.

You will have a few rough nights but she will keep taking bottles if you keep offering to her. Once you are down to jus the one and solids are established you can reduce the night bottle gradually and get rid of it.

Laura

[*Jo*]

So just cut the other Feds completely or gradually lessen them? It's 4:50am and she's woken again for a third bottle.
How do I get her back to sleep with three other kids in the house without waking them?

[*Jo*]

So far tonight I tried only offering half a bottle at the 1st wake up. A full bottle at the second and then only a half bottle at the third to try and cut it down. Should I continue with that method?

[Lolly]

If that suits you, yes carry on with that. I would leave the 2 half bottles for a few days then drop them down another 30ml and keep doing that every 3 or 4 days.

It will be hard to resettle without any crying, you will just have to settle in the best way you know with out feeding I'm afraid.

Laura

[*Jo*]

Thanks Laura. Will do that.
Even tho I did that last night she still only took 90 mls at the first feed at 7am and then when I offered solids at 8 she just clammed down again. Grrr so frustrating, I spose it will take a couple days to get her eating some solids tho