Most milk consumed during the night!

[burnysbird]

Hi,

I'm after a bit of advice. Our little girl is almost 6 months now (she is our 3rd) and, apart from 3 days at 9 weeks, has never slept through the night. I'm sure this is our fault as we tend to feed her when she wakes in the night to get her back off again but at the moment it is the only time I can guarantee she will drink her milk!

Like her older sister she isn't a fan of milk and I have had to drop from 6oz to 5oz bottles as we were wasting so much. I have started her on solids about a month ago as she wasn't drinking much milk and I felt she needed more.

So, night times she is waking twice between 7pm and 6am. One around 10/11pm and then another time around 4/5am. To be fair she does drink milk then go back off again, but surely she should have dropped one of these feeds by now?

Daytimes are a bit all over the shop at the moment as she seems to be going through the transition of 3 naps to 2 (she refuses the late afternoon cat nap that she needs grrr!), but our routine generally goes like this:

7am - wake
8am - breakfast (she refuses a bottle here so I just give her 4oz milk with porridge which she eats all up)
9am - nap
11am - bottle (4oz maybe)
12pm - solid lunch
1pm - nap
3pm - bottle (5oz)
5pm - solid tea
6-7pm - bedtime routine and bottle (5oz)
10/11pm - bottle (5oz)
3/4am - bottle (the amount varies here - could be 2oz, could be 5oz)

Her naps vary in length, today for example she had 1/5hrs at each - but normally she will only sleep 40 mins a time! We don't rock her to sleep (although we did in the early days until I realised how sore my back was getting!), she doesn't have a dummy but does like to hug her muslin. She can't be getting cold as we've got an oil heater in her room to keep it warm at night.

I just think she's in a very bad habit and I won't to know how to tackle it! We never had this problem with our other 2!

Many thanks in advance for your help.
Katie

[Erin M]

Hi there!
I've asked for someone who knows a bit more about bottle feeding than I do to come take a look at your amounts, etc but one thing that I do notice is that if she's refusing the cat nap, she probably needs some more A time during the day -- you're ending up with your longest A time right before bed, and while that can work for some babies, it can also lead to OT in others.  I'd start stretching those first 2 A times by 10-15 minutes every few days and see where it gets you.  Hopefully, it will lead to some more consistent longer naps.  There's some info on that here: All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

[Lolly]

Hi there,

Over all in the day she is getting the bare minimum of milk, I would cut back on solids to get more milk in her really as milk needs to be her main source of nutrition until she is 1.

I think that nightfeed is stopping her wanting milk first thing so I would wean that by dropping an oz every 3 nights - the fact she only takes 2oz some nights suggests she isn't really hungry for that feed so it's maybe more prop or habit than true hunger. I would make sure she is offered a bottle as soon as she wakes, if she is having no feed after the DF then she should be hungry.

How much solids is she actually eating? I would cut them by half for now and see if that increses her milk intake. The very minimum they need from 6 months is 20oz a day but most babies are taking 24-32oz, more milk is better for them than less because of the nutrients and fats that aren't in early solids. Also the more she has in the day the less she will need at night.

Laura

[burnysbird]

Thank you both! I will try extending her A time's this week and see how that goes.

Re solids - she doesn't have masses, only a cube of veg and maybe a cube of fruit. I do get her milk in the solids as much as poss too.
The reason we started on solids was because of her refusing milk feeds and being fussy/distracted (even if I'm sat in the quiet somewhere). It became a real battle and she seems to have taken to solids really well. It's a difficult one

You are right re the NF - but if she is only going to take a couple of oz's, will reducing the amount work? What are your thoughts on watering down the feed, so keeping 5oz water but only putting in 4 scoops?

Many thanks for your advice so far.

Katie

[Lolly]

Does she have any digestive issues like reflux? What flow teat do you have her on?

I'm not a fan of watering feeds, it does work for some but if they drink it all they are still having a full tummy from a big drink so it's not teaching them that they don't need it.

If she is consistently only taking 2oz then I would just offer some water and resettle her. We reduced my DD's nightfeed gradually and when she got to 2oz we just offered water. She wasn't impressed but we stuck to it for and after a couple of nights she stopped waking for it.

Laura

[burnysbird]

We thought she may have had reflux when she was younger and tried her on Gaviscon for a week - it made no difference. I think back then she was just a bit colicky. She is on a 2 flow teat (Mam bottles). We only moved up to that one when she was 4 months. It's funny the only time she will drink a bottle nicely without faffing around is the 10pm feed when she has her eyes shut and is semi asleep! Last night she drained a 6oz bottle at that feed and then drained 5oz at 3am! And today, milk wise she has had a few oz's, so frustrating!