4 myh, just over a cold, feeding gone crazy, advice please!

[Ali C]

Hi there, My lo is 4 mths( 3 mths corrected due to 1 mth prem). She was breast feed up to 3 weeks ago ( with ff at night) and she was sleeping really well, Going to bed at 7, waking for feed at 12 then sleeping threw to 6.30/7.
last week she got a cold and her congestion caused her feeding to be difficult, which I expected. But now she's much better she's now not feeding well during the day and keeps waking at night cos she's hungry.
She's back to sleeping from 7-12 but she's now waking at 4 and won't go back to sleep until she's had some milk. Last night I gave her just 2oz, which wasn't enough so I gave her another 1 oz and she went back to sleep until 6.45. At 7.30 I tried to give her her usual breakfast of 6oz, but she drinks 1oz and clamps her mouth shut, She's been doing this for 3 days now.
I thought that if I gave her less at 4am then hopefully she's drink her breakfast milk better, but still no joy! She settles really well and self soothes with her thumb as I've tried 4 different types of dummies but she will just not take them. Please can you advise me how I can help her drop that 4am feed/wake up again so it doesn't interfere with her breakfast. Should I give her breakfast later? It's not a growth spurt as I'm struggling to get full feeds of 5oz during the day. Thanks........

[Ali C]

ok.....I waited for 4 hrs and she drunk 7 oz! ( i think maybe I was expecting to much from her. I was feediong her every 3/3.5hrs.) That's it I'm gonna feed her every 4 hrs then. and if she needs a night feed then so be it. We'll work it out!!!!!

[Lolly]

Too late for advice - sounds like you have a plan!

Let us know how you go!

Laura

[Ali C]

well....My lo ( Hannah by coincidence!)has come out of the cold  and is back to sleeping well. she dropped the 12 feed and now wakes at 4 for nf then back to sleep. she'll wake at around 6.30 and happily coo to herself for half an hour in her cot which is great cos I need that to wake up myself!! I tried doing a dream feed at 11.30/12ish but she'd still wake at 4 and wouldn't settle without my help so I figured might as well let her sleep through till then and then feed her. I give her a small morning bottle for breakfast then by brunch she's famished and will drink a full 9oz! She struggles to get to 4hrs, so I often give in at 3 and half but that's ok, she's going to sleep around 7. I'm thinking of bringing it forward to 6.30 as i think she'd still sleep well. I'll see....

If anyone knows how I could change her 4 am feed back to 11ish I'd be interested!

Thanks.

[Lolly]

I would try the DF a bit earlier, ideally it needs to be done between 10 and 11am as any later can disturb sleep more than help it. Try it for at least a week and see if it makes any difference. You may find if you can get her to take the DF she will go a bit longer, or at least you know she had a good feed so you can try to resettle first before you feed. If she is waking at exactly the same time it *may* be a habitual waking so you could try wake to sleep to see if that helps.

Either way, she is doing really well and should be able to stretch that 4am feed a bit soon.

Laura

[Ali C]

Thanks Laura. I'll try what you suggest and see what happens. Will keep you posted! Thanks. Xx

[Ali C]

Hi, well for the last 2 nights i've done as you suggested and it's not been good. She won't take anymore than 3oz at her df, and it seems to be interfering with her sleep patterns as she's been waking twice more after that, usually at 2ish, then at 4.30 and all times i've tried to re settle her but she ends up crying real tears and it's the "i'm hungry" cry so i've feed her, smallest amounts she'll take are 4oz. I'm not going to do the df tonight as it seems to not only disturb her sleep but i'm walking round like a zombie abit too! Needa good stretch of sleep so i'm hoping i've not messed up her routine of sleeping from 7-4 too much! I think i'll have to just wait till she's on solids and hope that'll get her through those last 2 hrs from 4 to 6. Thanks for the advise tho. I'll let you know how tonigt goes. Hope she doesn't wake til 4!! Sleep deprivation really make you appreciate that it wasn't actually that bad!!!. Lol!

[Lolly]

It sounds like you are right to see how she does without it! My two were rubbish at the DF, *if* they took it they woke more after, but they were refluxers so it's hard to know if it was just them or because of the reflux. We just let them wake when they were hungry so they woke midnightish and then went back (well, DD did DS was a horrible sleeper!).

Hope you have a better night!

Laura

[Ali C]

Thanks Lolly,

She's gone back to sleeping threw til around 3.30/4ish. she woke at 7.20 morning before last..Yippee!! Not so good last night but could be the wonder weeks cloud. Hannah's a reflux-er too! We have quite abit in common!!

Thanks for your support.

xxxxx

[Lolly]

Hannah's a reflux-er too! We have quite abit in common!!

Poor girl - that's not something I wish on another Hannah! Is she on any meds for it? Both mine ended up on reflux formula and ranitidine to get things under control.

Hope you have a better night!

Laura

[Ali C]

We've discovered she has a cows milk intolerance, so I was on a very restricted diet when I was breast feeding, then it got to much for me. I decided to put her onto goats milk as it's alkaline and when she's sick it doesn't burn, so we're coping really well just on that and baby gaviscon.

To be honest it seems to be fixing itself thankfully.

I'm so glad I discovered goats milk formula tho. it's highly recommended in Australia and new-Zealand for reflux baby's. I just keep up upright after feeds as much as poss.

Thanks for asking

Have to say that this is really uncanny...but my middle name is....wait for it!....laura!!!!

Weird or what!!!!!!

Lol!!

Thanks again.

Ali xxx

[Lolly]

It's a small world . I hope your Hannah doesn't develop a major feisty streak when she hits 2 like mine has

It's interesting that goats milk formula is ok where you are because it's been banned for sale in the EU. It was felt after research that it's not as nutritionally complete as cow's milk formula and is higher in sodium. The protiens in goat's milk is also so similar to the protiens in cow's milk that most babies who are MPI are the same with goat's milk. In the UK (and I guess the rest of the EU) babies who are MPI are put onto hypoallergenic formulas like pepti junior (UK only I *think*) or neocate.

Keep an eye on things as reflux tends to flare up at around 4 months and she may need more than the gaviscon as it doesn't do anything for the acid.

Laura

[Ali C]

thanks for the tip....yeah...have a friend in uk whose little one is on neocate. she was advised to wean early as he wasn't doing to well on it. poor wee soul.

I believe that the Goats formula should be ok'd by the e.u soon as they've adjusted certain minerals to make it conform... I was surprised I managed to get it here, as I'm in Malta which it in the e.u.

She has actually been abit sicker lately but thankfully as it's neutral it doesn't make any acid for her stomach to bring back, so it doesn't upset her like the cows based milk did...amazing!.. she's thriving.

nice talking with you!

 

XXXXXXX