How to shift night eating to the day?

[Pats1980]

Hi,

I have a 13 week old. She's taken very well on EASY but we have one small issue that I don't know how to approach and was hoping someone here could help me sort it out!

I shifted her to a 315 EASY and then 330 one week ago because she showed no interest during her feeds. Our typical day is as follows:
E: 7am
S: 845
E: 1030
S: 1215
E: 200
S: 345
E: 530
E: 7 and sleeps immediately after she's done
Df:1015

She wakes once at night, usually between 2 and 3 (she was waking at 130 consistently but I've been doing w2s and she now wakes between 2 and 3). I breastfeed her all day except for the df when I give her formula. She takes between 5-7 ozs at the df.

I don't mind her waking up once at night. She eats and then goes back to sleep. However, she barely eats at her 10:30am feed (5-10 minutes at my breast and today I replaced the breast with a bottle of expressed milk and she took less than 2 ozs). She then goes to 2pm without eating anything else. I must add that she's definitely getting enough through the day...she's almost 90th percentile in weight (was born 25th and has gone up to 90th this week). I still worry when she's not eating enough in one of her feeds.

Should I be thinking of feeding her every 4 hours during the day so she takes a good feed in her mornings? She's definitely not ready yet for 4 hour EASY as she can't stay 2 hours awake but I wonder how can I increase her calories during the day so she drops her night feed if she doesn't really need it?

Any thoughts would be really appreciated!
Thanks,
Patricia

[Erin M]

Do you think distraction is a factor at all here?  Is he not paying attention to his nursing because he's too interested in other things?

[Pats1980]

I don't think so because I always feed her in the same room and this happens only in the 1030 feed? But I obviously don't want to starve her waiting 4 hours between feeds when she's this little

[lily_layne]

When my DD started losing interest in her daytime feeds (a lot more playing than eating), moving them to 4 hours apart solved the problem quickly.  If your LO isn't quite ready to stay awake long enough you could probably still feed every 4 hours by having a bit of A time before feeding so it would be AEAS.

[Erin M]

Doesn't sound like distraction then.  It wouldn't be unusual for her to go longer between the first two feeds than for later ones -- so you could always space 4 hours for the first 2 feeds and then push them together later on in the day if that works.  She's little, but if she's having good diapers, gaining well, etc, she should be if you need to space the first two feeds further apart. 

[Pats1980]

Thanks, I've tried it the last couple of days and she seems to be eating better now that we're waiting until 11 for her feed.

[Erin M]

Great!