3 n a half month old struggling to establish feeding schedule help

[dipz]

I have a 3 n a half month old who just doesn't seem interested in feeding. He is ebf. This makes it very difficult to implement easy routine. I put him down for his naps 2 hours after he has woken up n he promptly sleeps well. But once he wakes he will start playing n refuse feeds, sometimes upto to an hour. This has been going on for as long as I can remember. He also is a thumb sucker n will not cry or show hunger cues. So from the time he wakes up I will try feeding, he refuses. Then I wait for him to thumb suck n then start to feed. Sometimes he will refuse sometimes he would feed. Sometimes in the afternoon he has woken up from nap refused feed played for 2 hours n then went back to sleep. How can I put his feeding on a schedule. Please help.

[*Ali*]

Is he feeding at night?
It would probably be helpful to see your EASY of what he actually did, yesterday for example.
Has he always been uninterested in feeding or is this new?
Any worries about his growth? Is he having plenty if wet and dirty nappies?

Sorry for all the questions, just trying to establish exactly what is going on.

[linghu84]

my 12 week DS is having the same problems  now. He shows no signs of hunger after waking up from his naps. So I had to take him to a dark room to avoid all the distractions to get him to eat every 3 hrs. Sometimes, he refuses and eat after 3.5 hrs. And each time, it takes almost 1 hr to feed just 4oz. I BF or sometimes bottle feed him with EBM.

During the day he eats between 3-4oz., but for the feed before bedtime (last feed around 5:00 and bedtime around 6:30), he is super hungry and would eat close to 8oz. for the past couple of days!

Don't know why. Is this due to a growth spurt or is it because he is going to have his teeth soon? Our doc told us our LO will have his teeth soon.

[*Ali*]

Have you tried feeding him either immediately when he wakes, still in the dark room before he wakes up properly or at the end of A time when he is getting tired again?

4oz is probably all he needs.  BF babies do take considerably less than their FF counterparts. Some studies show average breastfeeds to be 3oz. The normal range of total breastmilk in 24hrs is 19-30oz with 25oz being average. So even if he did 4 feeds of 4oz and 8oz at BT that sounds ideal.

Yes teething can certainly put babies off feeding temporarily.