Uh-oh. What Have I Done with Night Feedings?

[dandjbowman]

Hoping that the experienced moms with toddlers might have some insight.

Our 9 month old boy still requires 1 or 2 night feedings. I don't think it is a habit b/c he eats more in the middle of the night than he does during the day. This is what he eats (he is in daycare):

6:30 AM -  Breastfeeding
8:30  - Cereal/fruit
9:30 - 4 oz bottle formula
12:00 - Fruit/veggie
1:00 - 4 oz bottle formula
4:00- 3 or 4 oz bottle formula
6: 00 - Yogurt, fruit, veggie and a few cheerios
7:00- Breastfeeding
11:00 PM - 6 oz formula
2:30 - 4-6 oz formula


If he was only eating like 1-2 oz at night when he wakes, then I would say it is a habit and not hunger.  But since he drinks so much at night, it tells me he is really hungry.  When I've tried to give him more than 4oz of formula during the day, he isn't interested.

I've offered snacks and smaller bottles in between feedings, but again, not interested.  In the middle of the night as soon as he finishes the bottle he goes right back to a peaceful sleep.  If we just try to soothe him when he wakes up, it never works.  It always leads to a feeding and then he is happy as ever.

Any ideas of what we can try to get him to eat more during the day so that he only gets up once (or not at all) during the night?   Am I missing something obvious?

[Colin Macs Mom]

Personally, I don't believe that at his age he needs to eat twice in the night. Once maybe, but twice definitely not. And he should definitely be taking bigger feeds than 4 oz during the day. I think he's gotten used to doing most of his bottle feeds at night rather than during the day. I would start by reducing the number of ounces of the 11:00 feed, by an ounce or maybe two every couple of days. You should see the daytime feeds increase to compensate. Then once that feed is eliminated do the same for the second and see how that goes. HTH

[jenniferr]

Hi dandjbowman.

Just wanted to let you know that I have almost the exact same situation with my 9 mo old DD. Her bottle schedule is exactly the same as you DS's. I've tried everything to get rid of the night feedings, from offering water, reducing the amount of formula, watering down the formula, PU/PD and nothing has yet worked. Not sure how big your son is, but my DD is on the smaller side and her doctor said that she may not be able to take much more then 4-6 oz at a time yet and more than likely still needs the feedings. I've decided to just ride it out and see if it eventually falls into place.
Let me know how you make out!

Jenn

[dandjbowman]

Hi Jenn,

First, your DD is a cutie!!  My son is also on the smaller side.  He was five weeks early and has reflux.  So he has always been a 'eat a little at a time' type of baby and we've been on a 3 hour schedule for as long as I can remember.

For about 2-3 weeks he was down to one feeding @ night, but then he got sick and reverted back to 2/night once he felt better.  I assume he was just playing catch-up since he didn't eat much when he was sick.  Last night, he had one full feeding (6 oz), and then only took 2 oz at the second feeding, so I am hoping he is going back to just once a night. 
 
In the meantime, I am trying 5 oz bottles during the day in hopes that he might drink more, and we've added a snack of yogurt around 3 PM.  Yesterday was the first day I tried this.  For 2 of the bottles he drank an extra half an ounce, but for the last bottle he only drank 2 ounces b/c he had 2 oz of yogurt just an hour before...so no progress was made really.

In any case, as long as he is hungry, I will feed him at night and won't try to wean--I'll let him take the lead on that.  I've read that some babies require a night feeding up until a year or so.


Good luck to you. Let me know if you try anything and what works/didn't work. 

[jenniferr]

Hi.
Thanks! Your little guy is adorable as well. I just posted on the bottle feeding board b/c I'm convinced over the past few days that Michela is getting all her calories at night and therefore does not feel the need miss some playtime to eat during the day. Yesterday for instance, she drank only 10 oz of fomrula all day and had maybe, three bites of solids. Then during the night she had two 8 oz bottles. I need to figure out someway to switch her around a little. I have no idea how though without going through one night at least of making her starve (which I refuse to do of course!). How does your son do with solids? Is he fussy?

I'll let you know if I get any good advice.

Jenn

[lilmonkey]

Hi!

OK...I'm going to be brave and tell you what have been working with us.  (Everytime I mention something good about ds' sleep on BW, it goes the bits the next day....must be some sort of curse. )  Anyway...ds was waking several times at night to be bf back to sleep.  So after talking to another mom and rereading some books, we came up with a plan to get rid of the nws.  I dedicated about a wk of getting the bf'ing to just one and then introduce the df at 10 pm.  DF didn't worked before but this time it did.  I send dh in to settle him for all the nws prior to 4/5 am.  When he woke at that time, I would feed him but only enough to hold him over (about 3-4 mins).  Once he is down to just one feeding, I introduced the df.  It has been over a wk and he sleeps through till 6:30 am.  During that time, I have tried offering more milk feeds (I do combine feeding) but he wasn't interested so I just give him yogurt instead.  I have thought of giving other forms of solids but caloricwise, yogurt has more other than milk.  Now, I am in the process of weaning the df.  He used to take 6-8 oz but for the last two nights, he only took 3-4 oz and still slept through.  So, needless to say, he's eating a lot of yogurt! 3-4 pots a day along with his meals.   

Forgot to add, I also have set naptimes.  Nap 1 is @ 9-9:30, nap 2 is @ 1:30-2, BT is @ 7-7:30
HTH

[dandjbowman]

Jenn,

Just wondering if you received any good advice.  We just had an ear infection and now he is totally drinking all of his fluids at night, more so then before.   Last night, from his bed time feeding to the time he woke up for the day, he had 18 oz!  Where during the day, he probably only had 7-10 ounces.

During the day, I've tried to skip solids just to get him to drink more, and it doesn't work.  He likes to drink water from a regular cup that I hold for him, but only a few sips at a time.  So, I poured his formula into the cup in hopes that he would drink it.  He drank about an ounce, but then refused the rest. 

He has been on solids since he was about 6.5 months old.  He can be fussy at times, but it depends on what you are trying to feed him.  He loves sweet potatoes, yogurt, pears, applesauce, oatmeal and now he likes a little bit of cheese.  If I try to deviate from these things, he doesn't each much of it. 

I am dreading the thought of trying to cut back on the number of ounces he gets at night.  I don't want him to be hungry, but I don't want to get up at 10, 2 and 4 every night either.  Sigh.....he used to drink every ounce of his bottles during the day, so what happened?