Not eating-any suggestions?

[Averysgirl]

My LO is a healthy, happy 4 month old, who weighs almost 20 pounds.  She is exclusively BF, with no supplementing, and give her a bottle of milk a few times a week just so she has the experience of the bottle.

I have been struggling for a while to get her to eat in the mornings.  We are currently on a 3-3.5 hour schedule, and I would like to try 4 hours, but considering how little she eats at her first two morning feeds, I haven't been able to make the transition, nor has she.  She rarely eats for more then 5 minutes at her 6:30/7 first feed or her 10/10:30 second feed.  She eats pretty well at the other feeds, especially the one right before her bed time.   

Currently, she gets up for a NF between 2-4am, and we do not do a DF because we could not get her to rouse enough to eat and she wasn't "missing" it, so we just skipped it.  My concern is she is taking in a full feed during her NW, but then does not want to eat in the morning.  I would like to teach her to take her in calories during the daylight hours.  I have thought about cutting back the amount of time she eats at her NF, but don't want to deprive her either.  Any thoughts or suggestions?  I do not mind doing the NW and feeding her, but it seems to be interfering with the amount of food intake during the day-HELP! 

[NoelleChristine]

I think cutting back on the time you breast feed for the NW would be a good place to start.  It will slowly get her taking less and less (theoretically) and hopefully get you to where she'll take a nice morning feed. 

I've done this myself (many times as we've ALWAYS had night waking issues) and it usually works for us.  Until the next milestone anyway and then we start all over again.

Good luck!

[Averysgirl]

Thanks for the input.  I figure I will cut back a minute each night and see what happens.  Hopefully this will cut back our NW and also allow her to eat more during the day.  Thanks again!  Like you said...until next milestone:)

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

Hi, all sounds good. I agree with reducing a min a night, like you say shes gaining well so she should adjust to it fine.

Kate x Let us know how you get on

[Averysgirl]

How long should I start with?  Last night, I let her nurse for 10 minutes, and she probably could have kept going.  She did eat for about 15 minutes at her 6:30am, first feed, which is much better then usual.  Do I eventually just go to no time for her feedings?  Like I said before, I don't want to deprive her of food, which believe me, DD is growing very well:), but I want her to eat during the day, which is a struggle.  Let me know if you have any other suggestions for dropping this night feed.

[NoelleChristine]

I cut back a minute every couple of nights starting at 10 minutes because he was such a fast feeder during the day.  He only lingered for his bedtime feeds and night feeds.  When they got to about 4 min he would just stopped waking.  If he would root after I pulled him off I would just let him suckle for a little bit and then try again until he stopped rooting.

We still usually have 1 nw, which I'm ok with so I kinda camp here once I get him to this point.  I say that because WE have struggled with MULTIPLE nw's.    You hopefully will even be able to get to 0 nw's it just hasn't worked for us.   

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

Whatever the normal time of feed is say 10mins just do 9 mins for a couple of nights then do 8 for a couple and so on. If things look there getting worse you can always go back to the 10 mins, all i would say is take it slow.

Kate x

[Averysgirl]

Last night I cut back to 9 minutes, and she seemed fine with it.  She ate only for about 5 minutes still this morning, so maybe she is just not a morning eater, but ate for 35 at her 10:30 feed, so hopefully we are getting somewhere.  As much as we would all love to drop the NW, it is only one, and I truly don't mind, as long as she is eating through the day.

Thank you for the suggestions.  I will keep you posted!

[NoelleChristine]

Sounds good!

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

 

[Averysgirl]

I am getting extremely frustrated with my LO and her lack of appetite.  I feel like BFing her at times is a battle.  Sometimes she will only eat for 5 minutes and then be done.  I don't know, is this a sign that I need to do 4hour EASY?

  We tried this (doing 4 hours)over the weekend, but she took so little food at her first meal, 7am, that she barely made it to 10:30, so I had to change the schedule all together and cluster feed in the evening.  I have scaled back her NW feeds, which are now occuring around 4am, but now I am considering totally trying to get rid of this so she has an appetite during the day.  I don't know what to do.  Any suggestions? 

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

I'd be very weary of dropping the nf, even at 6mths many lo's don't go through. But saying that some also do, you know your lo better than me so its somethig you have to decide for yourself.

Does she wake at 7am for a feed, or do you wake her? Does she cry when she wakes and do you feed her staright away?

If she does wake on her own at 7am could you hang her out for a while to make sure she will take a good feed, ie bath/play with to make her go longer.

I know from how zane is that if he wakes up crying then i feed him and if he wakes up laughting (which he mostly does). I take him downstairs, put him in activity gym, make a cupa turn on computer and then when he gives a few growns i feed him (30mins roughly).

Kate x

[Averysgirl]

She usually wakes at 5:45 (EWer) and we usually try to get her to sleep until 6:30.  If that does not work, I typically let her stay in her crib and don't feed her until 7, so no, she has not slept until 7 in a LONG time.  Sometimes, if I over stimulate her, she has a harder time settling in to take a feed, so I just usually leave her to chill in her crib. 

Should I try to switch to 4 hours?  If she doesn't take good feeds in the AM, this is really hard for her to do. 

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

You could maybe stretch a little, but i wouldn't just go to 4hrs (i've tried it and belive me its best to do it slow). If you can destract her for a little while to hang it out but don't let her get upset or it could make things worse.

Kte x

[Averysgirl]

So should I stick with what I am doing-feeds at 7, 10:30/11, 2, 4:30 and 7?  It seems to work well with that cluster feed and helps her sleep through the night.