5 month old eating mainly at night since moving from breast to formula

[Ardles1]

My lo is on an EASY schedule for the last two months and it has been working really well for us,  it stopped us nursing to sleep and made naps and bedtime much easier.  We recently moved from ebf to formula (one feed change per week) and we did not really have many issues with the bottles or formula but he has started feeding mainly at night which has resulted in a night feed being reinstated in the middle of the night.  We do df between 10 and 11. He is a reflux baby but his meds are periodically reviewed and are working well. He is taking 3,3,4,5 then a top up after Bath and before bed if 2, df 6 nf 6. When he was ebf he was a star eater and once his reflux was resolved gained weight consistently.  I will continue the night feed to ensure that he gets his calories but I feel that we are losing the core of the EASY as I spend my day running around after him with a bottle in hand to try to get even 3 oz into him and we lose the joy of the A part because of this.  He continues to sleep well. I really don't know how to deal with this.

[Lolly]

What time does he have the NF? What weight is he, which meds and what dose? Feeding more comfortably at night can be a sign that the meds aren't working as well as they were.

Some babies don't like being fed straight after waking so you could try leaving him for a while then he would have a smaller feed, nap and hopefully a bigger feed for the second feed.

What EASY do you have him on at the moment? Is it 4 hourly feeds? Which flow teat too?

Laura

[Ardles1]

He normally feeds at 7am, 10am, 2pm and 5pm with his pre bath bottle which is topped up and finished post bath with bed at 7pm then df between 10 and 11 and he wakes for nf between 2am and 4am - the time is determined on how he has fed during the day. His weight is 7.2kg and he is on zantac 2 ml three times a day.  (Was increased about three weeks ago). We use the doctor brown bottles with level 2 teat, we tried level 3 but the flow was too much for him.

I will try leaving him to see if he feeds better tomorrow. 

[Lolly]

He is on the top dose of zantac for his weight. Which formula are you using?

At 5 months a formula fed baby should be going 4 hours between bottles, formula takes longer to digest than breast milk so some smaller feeds could be because you are feeding a bit early. It is tricky as if they take a small feed they are hungrier earlier but they don't get fully hungry so take a smaller feed next time and so on. A bottle feed should be done in 20 mins max, so if you can get a bigger feed first you need to get him to as close to 4 hours as possible by distracting him. You don't want to let him get too distressed but you do want him to be properly hungry for the next feed.

Try 7.30 for the first feed assuming he wakes around 7am tomorrow and see how he does.

Laura

[Ardles1]

OK.  Forgive my ignorance on this,  how do I work the four hours into his day?  If I feed at 7.30, 11.30, 15.30 then how do I do the last feed as normally bed is 7pm? Also in the morning,  he only sleeps for 45 minutes maybe 90 if he's had a really bad night,  so his 11.30 feed would come right before he normally naps at 12 noon, is that OK?   When I breastfeed we used to feed directly after he woke from his naps to keep in line with the EASY structure so I am a real novice at this. 

Thanks for the support.

[Lolly]

What time is his wake up and first nap? At 5 months my DD had just dropped the cat nap so she had a bottle on waking at 6.30 then her nap was at 9 so she was awake about 10.30/11 for the next bottle. A 45 min nap often indicates that they need a bit more A time, would that help with the bottles? The last feed at 3.5 hours should be ok, we always did feed and straight into bed, falling asleep on that feed didn't seem to matter to my 2!

If a bottle does fall just before a nap it shouldn't be too much of a problem providing you don't feed to sleep. Make sure he is awake going into the cot, even 10/15 mins between bottle and sleep is enough. Ideally the feed should come straight after a sleep with a bottle feed too, it may just mean tweaking things around a bit to fit in in better.

Have you seen these sample routines for 5 months?  chronological EASY samples, 4-6 months

Laura

[Ardles1]

He wakes at 7am with first nap around 9 to 9.15. Then wakes at 10am generally with next nap at 12 noon when he will sleep for 90 mins with third nap in the afternoon of 45 mins ( which he skips sometimes as he really fights against it in the last month or so). I have looked at the schedules you marked. When I look at his total oz now he is now coming in at around 40 oz, so if we can get him to take 8 oz bottles then he would get enough in five feeds, but at present most of these are still in the pm. I will rework his schedule and see how it works for a few days.

I feel like we are starting at the beginning again which I am finding difficult as we had a lovely routine going before we moved to formula (which I don't regret as it means my husband is much more involved! ).

[Lolly]

Will he not take a feed when he first wakes? If he does, you would feed at 7am and the next bottle would be due at 11am which would be mid A time.

See how things go for a few days, you will probably find that you fall back into a routine once you get things worked out!

Laura

[Ardles1]

Not much has changed.  He Still feeds badly in the morning and well in the afternoon and evening with the night feed continuing.  We have decided just to accept that this is the way it is and enjoy our days with him and the quiet time in the night during the night feed and trust that as he gets established on solids that it will fall away as he is really happy so don't want to detract from that. 

Thanks for all the advice. 

[Lolly]

Sounds sensible to me!

Good luck, you know where we are in you want any further help!

Laura