Hello again,
Like the others suggested observe or have your housekeeper observe when your baby is actually eating. When I was journaling my LO, not only did I write down when I fed him, I made notes about whether or not he was really eating or just playing around, if he was snacking but not taking a full meal, or if he was passifying himself. It became clear he could go 3 1/2 to 4 hours between actually feeds so I cut out the in-betweeners. I know this can be hard especially if your baby cries and sounds convinced that he is starving but chances are he probably isn't and can be distracted with a toy or a game. Also the book outlines how to gradually increase times between feeds so your not asking your baby to go cold turkey.
Basically I follow the outline in the book:
7am rise and shine - it is time to eat, in the beginning I gave my DS a 45 minute feeding window because he would play around, after a few days I cut it down to half an hour, and now he eats efficiently. If you close the feeding window and make him wait until the next feed time he is likely to eat. Of course if my child is screaming for food and can't be distracted this would be hard and I did not have to deal with that.
7:30 activity time tailored to have him calmer as we get closer to his morning nap ending with his sleep ritual (watching for his sleep cues)
9am naptime
11am I wake him up even if it took the majority of his naptime to get him to sleep in the first place. I know this sounds cruel (to both of you) but it is the only way I could get him on a schedule. I feed him. In the beginning again I gave him a 45 minute window, then 30 minutes and now he eats efficiently
11:30 activity time (SAA)
1pm naptime
3pm wake and feed (SAA)
3:30pm activity (SAA)
5pm optional catnap - in the beginning naptimes were spent doing more intervention than sleeping, so my baby really needed a catnap, now he is sleeping an hour and 45 minutes to two hours at both his morning and afternoon naps so if he doesn't appear tired (no sleep signs) I skip it. If he is tired then I'll lay him down using the same sleep ritual.
6:45pm feed, followed by bath, followed by sleep ritual and sleep - he is usually down around 7:45pm
11pm dream feed, you can also dream feed at 9pm if your child is going through a growth spurt - the book calls this "tanking up", after 11 if he wakes up I don't respond unless he starts to cry and then I try to comfort without picking him up. Only once did I have to do PU/PD and not for very long.
Its not quite as clock work as it reads because everyday is not the same and I have to pay attention to my DS cues but it gives you a general idea. Also I've been really lucky my LO did not cry much for food and quickly fell into the routine. I know I would have a hard time not feeding him if I thought he was genuinely hungry. I've read some other post on weaning where the mothers suggest giving less food or watered down food to tide their LOs over while trying to get them to go longer without eating.
Bottom line it is going to take some time and a lot of consistency.
I hope this is helpful! Kelly
