Dream Feed impacting on morning feed and solids

[Rubycino]

Hi There

I seem to have a skight problem with the DF. I have always done it for our lo since she was born (now 6 months) however she is on 5 (180 - 200ml bottles) and 3 solid feeds a day. I was planning on dropping the DF as she was only taking 100mls or so. However in the last week she has been draining a 200 ml bottle at 10pm (after having solids at 5pm, 200mls at 7pm) and then waking at 2am (exactly 4 hours since the DF) but not wanting food just a cuddle. Now the DF appears to be reducing the amount of milk taken at 7 am. Today she took 90 mls and a small serving of fruit.

Any suggestions on how to adjust her feeding so that she is taking more during 7am and 7 pm? I was thinking since she is not a huge milk lover that a snack may do it but what to give and when???

This is her feeding routine

7am bottle (5/6ozs)
8.30 brekkie
11 bottle (5/6ozs)
12.30 lunch
3 bottle (5/6ozs)
5.30 dinner
6.45 bottle (5/6ozs)
10.30 DF (anywhere between 3ozs and 6 ozs)

any ideas would be great.

[Harvey and Theos Mam]

I dont think you should give less milk and more snacks as milk is the most important part of a baby's diet for the year of their life.
Maybe you could just give a snack instead of a meal at the 5.30 dinner. Your baby is eating either solids or fliuds every 1.5 -2.5 hrs, so i should think she is always full in some way and then come the night time she feels slightly empty.

Maybe if you gave her that last bottle and then her d/f she will be less bloated in the morning and hopefully will want to eat first thing.

HTH

[brightside]

We are having a similar problem. I have started to do the DF earlier so that DS takes less and therefore more in the morning. We are currently doing the DF at 9pm. I'm trying to phase it out. We were doing well until DS got a cold and threw the whole routine out the window!

[Rubycino]

Thanks for your advise. I reduced the amount i gave in the DF last night to 80 mls and that seemed to work. She still woke at 2am and it took me 45 min to settle (finally decided to wrap her)which worked along with a sip of water. At 7am she took all but 50mls of milk which i used in her cereal.

Tonight i will do the same and see how we go. I have definatley noticed in the last week that she is taking less and less of the 12pm and 4pm bottles, however i do not want to combine these feeds yet till she has dropped the DF.

Well will see how we go.