6 mos old very unpredictable

[JamieD2013]

I'm sorry to be a bother, but I am feeling very overwhelmed and frustrated regarding our (lack of) EASY and need some guidance if possible. I realize I've posted before, but nothing seems to be helping and I'm ready to give up!

Here are what I perceive to be our big problems:

• I never know when he is hungry. I have tried to feed him on a 4 hour EASY with varied results. Sometimes he'll take a full feed (6 oz) and sometimes he'll barely eat at all. (1 oz). He will eat solids no problem.
  I never know the appropriate A time. Sometimes he will take a solid nap after being awake for 2.5 hours while 2.75 hours gets us a poor nap. Sometimes the opposite.
  I have to hold him 90 percent of the time to help him through the transition. S/P worked for a few days, but even stopped working after a while. PU/PD has never worked.

Here's what our EASY looked like yesterday, which resulted in a TERRIBLE evening.

WU: 7 a.m.
E: 7:15, 3 oz
E: 7:15 Fruit
E: 9:12 2 oz
S: 9:16

A: 10:44
E: 11:56, 7 oz (veggie)
S: 1:28
A: 2:00 (held him for 10 minutes)
S: 2:10

A: 2:55
E: 3:30, 2 oz
E: 4, 1 oz

Here's where it got rough. In an effort to skip the last nap, I gave him his last feeding and put him to bed at 5:45.

S: 5:45
A: 6:45
S: 7
A: 7:30
S: 7:35
A: 8:30
E: 9, 4 oz
S: 9:10 p.m. -5:45 a.m.
E: 2 oz
S: 6:30-7 a.m.

I feel like skipping the last nap and putting him to bed so early resulted in such a bad evening. Thoughts?

Any tips on recognizing sleep cues and determining the appropriate A time? I feel like he isn't text book, so I don't know if I should follow the guidelines (2:45-3 hr awake time for 6-7 mos)

PLEASE HELP! I'm losing it!

[creations]

Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!
The A time really depends on what your LO is ready for. Early 6 month may be 2hr 30 whilst later 6 months might be as much as 3hrs 15, but every LO is different.
The first nap looked good but the A time was on the shorter side 2hr 15
Second nap after 2hr 45 looks like it could have been OT (did you increase this A time just recently? has this nap always been broken or was he doing a full nap without help before?)
Last A to BT was 2hr 50. As he was perhaps already a bit OT at nap 2 this looks like too long an A time before BT resulting in many OT wake ups.
I probably wouldn't drop the CN until the A times are more comfortably longer although if the CN is a big struggle to settle for then yes EBT can help, I would prob give no more than 2hr 30 before BT, possibly less as he was already a bit OT.

I would suggest trying an A time of 2hr 30 throughout the day. A times don't always need to be the same length through the day but with a short first A and a long last A the result is a short day and still OT by BT.
What do you think?

For feeds I would continue offering milk feeds every 4hr with solids tastes an hour later. If you put solids too close to milk he might skip the milk and hold out for the solids he knows are coming.
So, milk at roughly WU 7, 11, 3, 7
solids at 8am and 12 noon.
I see you gave milk at 7.15 and 9.12 which is very close together with solids between then no milk feed at 11am making him hungry for solids at 11.56 where he took a large amount. Really you need the milk to continue as the primary food, so it should be the milk that is taken in larger amounts and solids are just for tasting and learning about textures at this age.  I would cut back on the noon solids for now.
His milk intake looks low, has he always been on the lower side?

[JamieD2013]

Thank you. I will try consistently putting him down at 2.5 hours and see how it goes.

As far as feeding him on the schedule you provided: the issue is that he simply won't eat, or eat enough. At times he only takes 1/2 ounce! So, if I feed him an ounce and little solids and then wait four hours he isn't getting enough to eat, which I am not comfortable with. Therefore, I feed him what he'll take at 7, and then if he doesn't get enough I'll feed him again when he seems hungry. Does this make sense?

I spoke with our pediatrician about dropping a solid meal and he advised against it since he can get some hydration from the water in the solid foods.

I think one of our problems is that he still wakes at 4-4:30 a.m. for a feed. We have tried to drop this feeding many times, but he cries and cries - even when we offer less ounces. I'm hoping that once we start offering proteins for his dinner he will not be as hungry in the early morning.

Our night went much better last night, because, like you said, he wasn't over tired from lack of the cat nap. He took a 10 minute cat nap around 4:45 pm and seemed much happier afterwards. He fell asleep at 7 and while he cried out several times, I never had to go into his room.

[creations]

Glad to hear your had a better night

I'm surprised by your ped's advice to keep the solid meal for the reason of keeping hydrated, I've never heard this. Do you offer a drink of water along with solids meals?
All advice is to cut back on solids if the milk intake is low and it is milk that gets your LO through the night without hunger, not solids. Solids can fill them up quickly whist not provide the higher fat and calories that milk offers.
Are there any other feeding issues? any allergies or reflux or anything you might not have mentioned?

[JamieD2013]

Thank you =)

The ped said that while 32 oz is the norm, he said not to concerned unless the baby isn't wetting enough diapers (he is) and as long as he doesn't get below 16 oz per day (he's not). He said that the solid food does provide some water to help with hydration and told me to give him juice for constipation (another issue.) He also suggested introducing meats for dinner for the protein.

He does have a suspected milk protein sensitivity that I think he is growing out of. He has a cold and is very congested (which is why I don't mind holding him during the sleep cycle transition), but other than that no major health issues.

I put him down at 2.5 hours for both naps today and he woke right at 30 minutes. Should I keep up with the 2.5 hour A time or increase it? Also, if he's waking after 30 minutes and it takes me 10 minutes to get him back in the crib, is he getting restorative sleep, or should I count it as two cat naps?

THANKS!

[Lolly]

Does he have reflux at all? The feeding issues you describe are very similar to how my refluxers were when it wasn't controlled and if he has MPI then reflux is often a symptom of that.

The UK guidelines say a minimum of 20oz of milk a day from 6 months as milk should be their main source of nutrients until they are 1. It's not just about hydrations, it's the fats and calories in milk that aren't present in early solids that they need the minimum quantity of.

Laura

[JamieD2013]

 Thank you for the reply! I don't believe he has reflux. He rarely spits up and never really fusses at the bottle or after meals - he just doesn't seem interested. The only time he fusses is when I continuously try to feed him when he isn't hungry - he gets annoyed! He averages about 26 oz a day, so I'm not overly concerned about nutrition.He seems to eat more in the afternoon/evening than in the mornings. I just want him on a more predictable schedule.

I read in the Wonder Weeks that around 6 months some babies stop eating well because of developmental leaps. I'm hoping that's all this is.