dropping feeds

[chell]

Hi, Harrie is just over 6 months. He is on solids (dinner and tea) and has been having 4 BF a day and usually one at night. The last 2 days he has not wanted to feed in the morning after waking or even like today after his first nap. He wakes at about 6am (NF was 1.30am) and now its 10am and still not interested!  Do they drop feeds, does this sound normal or do you think he is going down with soemthing?
 
TIA

[Tay]

Hi there,
Some mums whenever they have their LOs well established in solids would make an attempt at stopping the DF and just keeping the 4 BF of the day. TBH for BF babies a lot of mums don't manage to do so until much later (8/9 months).
I would suggest you try to cut the NF rather than one of the daytime feeds. Do you think it would work?
xxx

[chell]

HI thanks for your reply. I do agree, it would be much better to drop the night feed. We don't do a DF. I did post in NW and decided that when he wakes at night that he is genuinely hungry, so to feed him. I think I would find it very hard not to feed him, knowing that he is hungry. I haven't tried to cut out any feeds, but he has just done this on his own. I tried very hard to get him to take the morning feeds. He hasn't seemd terribly hungry, for milk today, but ate solids well, so I expressed and mixed this in with his solids, in the hope that I could increase his calories during ths day, so that he could go for longer at night. (generally he goes for 8-10 hours, btu has an early bedtime, hence I get a disturbed night).

[Tay]

Have you tried settling him at night without feeding? How does he react? Does he go mad really looking fed?
Does he fall asleep independently for his daytime naps and BT?
I'm thinking, if the answer to the questions is yes, that maybe you could try cutting down the length of the feed at night... I've done with DS and it worked (although I know quite a few mums whose LOs would have none of it!).
Let me know what you think
xxx

[chell]

Hi thanks again. I tried to settle him once a few weeks ago, because he started waking regularly at 3am, so I thought he was developing a habit. It took 45 mins of pu pd and he went to sleep , but then after a night or 2 started waking at different times. I think he was hungry (I feel bad about having done pu pd now), so didn't try again.

All naps he falls asleep independently, sometimes needs a little reasurrance, sometimes cries a bit, other times falls asleep silently, but generally independently without help, and falls asleep quickly. At bedtime and at night, yes he does fall asleep directly after his feed. But even if he wakes at night and is not hungry, occasionally he gets windy (more often recently -  I think due to the solids) he will go back to sleep without crying (after winding)with just a brief cuddle or pat shh in his basket.

I like the idea of trying to cut down the time of feed. I will have to time it properly I think to start with. His feeds are so short, sometimes I find it hard to believe he has fed properly, he has always been like that (DS 1 took up to an hour per feed!) Harrie only takes 5- 10mins max, occasionally its been more.

How many mins did you cut it down by each time??

[sarahjoy]

Hello.  I am working on cutting down on my lo's night feeds too.  My lo is 9 months and I'm down to feeding him at night for about 1 minute each time I feed (1-3 times a night) and then he's back asleep, and for some wake ups just a hand on him works to get him to settle down.  I've been doing a version of the gentle removal plan.  I started just watching the clock for night feeds to see how long my lo was feeding than every 3-5 days I would shorten the amount of time I'd let him nurse.  It's taken a long time but it's been a very gentle way to eliminate his night feeds.  So when I was working on shortening the feeds I would watch the clock and take him off the breast at the number of minutes and see if he'd settle, if not I'd let him nurse for another 30 seconds than take him off again and see if he'd settle, and repeat that if necessary.  You can find the info on the gentle removal plan under the night wakings board FAQs.  Good luck!

[chell]

HI Sarahjoy! Thanks for posting, that gives me a good plan. I timed him last night and he fed for 12 mins. His pattern changed again and he woke at 11pm then slept through till 6am, which was great! and took a good feed when he  woke up in the morning.(it wouldn't bother me, if that was his pattern always!). I think I will time him again for the next couple of nights first. I don't mind if it takes time. I'll check out that link.

[Tay]

Hi there,
 here is the link Sarahjoy is talking about: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=52857.0
What I done with DS was pretty similar too, I started by cutting down the length of feed on one side until he was only feeding one sided for the NW, then started working on reducing that feed. i must say though that I would always try to resettle him without feeding, and only feed him if he wouldn't settle and seemed very agitated/ crying.
Let us know how you get on
xx

[chell]

Thanks Tay, I did leave him for a while last night. He was just wimpering, but it went on and on for about 1/2 hr . I thought he would probably just continue, so I did get him out to feed him and once i picked him up he was sucking my shoulder a lot, and he fed well, so not sure if that was the right thing to do or not?

[Tay]

I would have probably done the same! Did you time him?

[chell]

12mins! thought I'd time him for 2 more nights first amd then see.

[Tay]

I would suggest you try to resettle him without feeding every night before actually feeding him to start stretching the feeds out a bit . Although... he doesn't wake up at the same time everynight does he? So it wouldn't really matter.
Keep us posted when you decide to start shortening the length of the feeds
xxx

[chell]

ok, will let you know!