They just WON'T eat!!!! HELP PLEASE

[M&M'sMom]

I have 5 month old iden. twin daughters. Recently I've noticed a change in feeds. They are supposed to be on a 4 hour schedule, and have 6oz in a bottle. Most days they aren't even hungry until 5 hours so it cant really be a 4 hour schedule. Even at 5 hours they dont want to eat! They wake at night due to hunger ( because it is never the same time and they will scarf a full bottle). I want to get more food into them during the day but I dont know how. They will even still wake after a dream feed. They weight 14lbs 12oz and 14lbs 2oz. They have slept 9 hours in the past ( that is the longest they have ever gone). Just to note they were 1 month premature. Also, when they dont finish their bottle I will make cereal out of the leftover oz's. They will eat most of that.

HOW DO I GET THEM TO EAT MORE SO THEY CAN SLEEP WITHOUT NEEDING FOOD???  I am losing my mind!

oh, and have you ever noticed that everyone else's child started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks... or is it just that everyone I know asks me if the girls sleep through the night- I say "not yet" and they proceed to tell me that their lo was sleeping through at 6 weeks. Yah, thanks for the info.

[Netspi]

Hi, not sure what to do about the feeding but please don't worry yourself about sleeping thru the night. People have different definitions of this. My daughter wakes at 3am for a feed but goes to bed at 7pm. Now that's 8 hours sleep and some would say that 8 hours is sleeping through but we're still getting up before light. Babies brains can't cope with the concept of sleeping 12 hours straight, their sleep patterns are completely different to that of an older child or adult and they have more wakeful periods when they could wake themselves easily. If someone tells you that their child is sleeping through and their child is under 10 months, I would say that that child is either an enigma or they're actually sleeping from midnight to 6am, which to me isn't sleeping through. Your lovely daughters will establish longer sleep patterns once their feeding pattern gets sorted. Good luck xx

[Deb_in_oz]

when you offer the food at 4 hours how much will they take?

my 6 mo old is a very erratic eater and can often take only 4 oz at some feeds - 6 oz is her good feed and sometimes she takes 7-8 oz.  we only recently started solids but now i stress even less about it because if she takes 4-5 oz and then later had some cereal with more formula or some other solid then she is managing it herself. i would still stick to feeding every 4 hours because if you do it every 5 hrs they miss a whole feed and will of course be up in the night looking for extra...

if they were to take 4 oz + solids every 4 hours = 20 oz + solids for 5 feeds including dream feed so assuming they take some feeds more than 4 oz or take quite a bit of cereal they will still be ok for food between 6am and 11pm.  then hopefully they will have 1 good feed in the night and improve from there.

FYI babies sleeping even 6-8 hours at 6 weeks are truly RARE.  a lot of babies DO start sleeping through between 3-6 months but it is also just as common to make the change between 6-9 mo by 9 mo the MAJORITY (but not all) of babies will be sleeping at least 9-10 hours at night without a feed (and starting their day between 6-8am).

my cousin insists that her daughter never woke for a feed after 11pm after 1 week old and i find that very hard to believe  :roll: .  if they said 1 night waking at 1 week i woudl have been impressed, but most babies feed in the night because they have small stomachs and even as they grow some are less willing to be "tanked up" than  others (just the same as they all nap different amounts)

[M&M'sMom]

Thanks Gals,

Last night was the first night that I tried p/u p/d with the girls at night and after 1 hour they were on there own, they would wake every 10 mins after that for 45mins, but would only be doing the "mantra" cry. So we never ended up feeding them after the dreamfeed... they actually went back to sleep after this hour and 45 mins of "fussing" and woke finally at 8. So I fed them right away, they took a full feed of 6 oz! Also I gave them a tbsp of cereal and a little bit of bananas... we will see how the rest of the day goes. My Dh works night shift for the next few nights so I will have to tackle the pu/pd by myself for 2 nights... ahhhh! I know if was a bad night to chose to start, but it was the first night they made it to 5am after the dreamfeed, and they were only "mantra crying" when they woke... so I gave it a try.... I will keep you posted- if I survive!  :shock: