Ds is 6mths next week. A few weeks back he was really unwell with Broncholitis and I struggled to get 300mls into him.
However he is now a healthy and for the past 2 weeks has been feeding more frequently and heaps more of it.
It is hard to know what his intake was prior to him getting sick as I had just started weaning him, but he was feeding 4hrly and was down to 1 night feed anywhere between 3.30am and 5am, with no DF. If was only just getting into bottles and agreeing to take them so was having about 180-200mls each feed.
Now every 200ml bottle is drained and often he will have another 50-60mls on top of this (so 250-260mls), but he is still feeding every 4hrs (7, 11, 3, 6.30) if he has more than the 200mls and 3.5-3.45hrs if he only has the 200mls. So in total he is having about 1200mls in a 24hr period-I would have thought that, that was heaps.
He has his last feed at about 6.30pm and then will go through till anywhere between 10pm and midnight, he again will have a full 250mls and settle happily. He then wakes again anywhere between 3.30 and 5am and again downs a full bottle.
I then wake him for the day no later than 7.30am, although he would sleep longer than this.
I have tried settling him other ways but it hasn’t worked. Neither does his dummy, which he doesn’t have at night but does during the day.
I have started him on solids and while he seems to be enjoying them he is only having the lunch at the moment and is eating about 2 tablespoons. He probably would have more if I offered it though.
He does seem to have increased in size recently and has become a little porky.
I have tried reducing the amount for the 2nd night feed, but I think I did so by too much (60mls) and he didn’t like it one bit and complained and wouldn’t settle until I gave him the rest.
He has only STTN once, and as much as I would love him too, I am accepting that he may need one NF. It is the 2 that I am struggling with. Or am I being unreasonable?
So I am wondering a few things:
1) Is he just catching up from being sick combined with a growth spurt? If so how long till he catches up?
2) Is he having too much milk?? I feel like I am over feeding him.
3) Have the night feeds just become a bit of a habbit?
4) Should I try reducing the amount of the 2nd feed by a little less than I tried last time-say 30mls?
5) Is he not actually hungry and is he waking because of the 5mth sleep changes and nothing to do with him being hungry, but since he is awake, he thinks he should be fed?
6) Will bumping his solids up help? Or will it cut his milk intake down and effect his nights even more??
I just don’t really know what to do or the best way to approach it. Any advice will be appreciated.
Sorry, i don't know if this should have been in the night waking board or the bottle feeding board, so please feel free to move it if needed.
