That early morning feed

[*Jo*]

Asher takes an early morning feed at around 4.30-5.30am... Then of course refuses his morning bottle at 6.30/7am... I keep trying but be flails his arms around, aggressively grabs at the bottle and pushes away, turns his head away, making it a darn mission to get anything into him, then of course he's hungry in the middle of his morning nap because he's not eaten since whatever time in the morning it was... Putting our routine out if whack!

I've tried giving him less but he's hungry at that time. He also has a feed around 12.30ish as well. If I so a strangers he still wakes up for those two other feeds as well so I just dropped it

What can I do?

[Lolly]

Have you tried giving him a small feed just before his nap to tide him over? If not try reducing the 4.30/ 5.30 am bottle by an oz or 2 and see if you can resettle him, he should be a bit hungrier at wake up or mid A time then.

Laura

[*Jo*]

He doesn't take much at the early morning feed. Last night it was 3.30am and about 80mls (I think that's about 2 oz?)
He woke up at 6.30am and I didn't feed him til 7am and he still only took 3 0z

He wakes up early frm his nap bcse clearly he hasn't eaten enough to tie him over and so then he does a full bottle and our whole day is out of whack again

[*Kara*]

I remember having this issue for a month or so too Jo!  I found the best way to deal with it was to give a full feed at the early wake up and then to not bother with the wakeup bottle, but instead do a half feed just before nap to get bubs through nap and then a full feed after nap to get the day back on track.

Not ideal in terms of trying to eliminate night feeds but it was the best course of action here for a bit.  It wasn't long and she stopped waking super early and would start the day around 6/630am with a full feed.

[*Jo*]

Thanks for that! Will give that a shot if I can get him to take more at the early morn feed, sometimes he simply refuses more
All the other feeds he can go about 4 hours apart but after that first morning bottle today he could only last 3 hours cos he just hadn't had enough to tie him over.

[*Jo*]

Ok I tried it and nope! He took about 80mls (at both flipping night feeds!!) and clamped his mouth down shut, refuses to take more!! Then we get to the first morning bottle again, it's been at least three hours but again only 60-70mls and he's refusing more

[Lolly]

What's his day routine and bottle amounts like? Does he have reflux like your others?

Honestly 80mls isn't a feed - if he's only taking that much I'd say he was using it to get back to sleep and he isn't really hungry.

Post your EASY for us and we can see if anything jumps out!

Laura

[*Jo*]

well he usually does 1 hour 45min A time but after a short nap he does about 1 hour 15min

today i forgot the time (busy with the other two) and he went down at 2 hours A time and woke after 45mins not able to go back to sleep...

so today so far has been this

nightfeed 4am - 80mls
awake 6.30am
E 7am 80mls, attempted to give him a top up before nap at 8am but he only took about 30mls and pretty much refused the rest
A
S 8.30 - 9.15
E 10 (he seemed really hungry) 40mls refused more
A 9.15 - 10.15 (happy at beginning but very unsettled by the end)
S 10.15 -  this is where we are now

he does have reflux but hes on more than the recommended dose for his weight already for omeprazole. hes had a cough for about 6 weeks, it was originally bronchialitis and the dr said that the cough can take up to 5 weeks to disappear but hes had a small cold since then and I wondered if its flared the cough up even more. he just coughs all the time including at feeds which makes it difficult for me to figure out if its a reflux cough or the yucky cough that hes had for ages (the cough has a rattly sound to it which is normal for the bronchialits cough apparantly)

[Lolly]

How much does he weigh now? I noticed on another thread you said he is on 5mg of omeprazole daily - is that right? If so it doesn't sound like a large dose at all, a low dose is 0.7- 1.5mg per kg per day. My DS was about 6.5kg at 4 months so if your DS is anywhere near that he's only just getting the very minimum dose.

Taking small amounts and refusing more is either snacking or reflux in my experience. How did the rest of the day go feed wise?

Laura

[*Jo*]

Feed wise wasn't too bad the rest of the day. Last weight was 7.5 kg and that was 2 weeks ago

[*Kara*]

hmmm, so if he is still on 5mg/day he is on the minimum dose.. I agree with Laura that this is reflux flaring

[*Jo*]

Ok will look into it, thanks