Author Topic: 5 month old 2-3oz during day  (Read 4001 times)

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Offline Maxsmum2014

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5 month old 2-3oz during day
« on: January 27, 2015, 00:28:58 am »
I am very concerned about my 5 month old son and need some insight.

For about a month now he is only taking 2-3 oz everyone 4.5 hours during the day and draining 3 6oz bottles every 4 hours at night like clockwork. Up until 4 months his eating habits were very good and he was sleeping 6 hour stretches at night with less formula.

He is a pretty chubby boy and is meeting his milestones. No visible teeth buds but has been excessively drooling since 2 months.

I am at my wits end and don't know why he doesn't wasn't his bottles during the day. I've tried changing the teat size, distracting him, feeding in a quiet room but nothing works. Please help!

Offline *Liz*

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2015, 20:05:48 pm »
You have probably got stuck with night calories ruining his appetite during the day  :-\.

Have you tried reducing his night bottles to first 5oz, and then 4oz and see if you can switch those calories around?

It is often caused by the 16 week growth spurt, and then they can be very busy and  distractible during the day at this age and the calories get stuck in the night as the growth spurt ends.

Do you do a dream feed?

Offline Lolly

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2015, 21:43:33 pm »
I agree with Liz!

If you reduce the night time calories you can increase the day time ones. What times is he taking those 6oz bottles at night?

Laura


Offline Maxsmum2014

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #3 on: January 27, 2015, 22:36:03 pm »
I did try to reduce the night bottles to 4oz but it did nothing for his daytime intake. He has one at around 2-3am and another at 6-7am.

I did get him to take a whole bottle this afternoon by rocking him in the glider and singing. Really don't want to make that a regular thing. It may have been a fluke anyways.

Offline Lolly

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2015, 13:40:38 pm »
What time is his bottle before the 2-3am one? He is only having one nightfeed then? 6-7am isn't really a nightfeed, that would be the first bottle of the day :).

I see you are new to the site - have you read the Baby Whisperer books at all? Have you started solids at all yet?

Can you post your typical day in EASY format for us to have a look at please?

Eat - what times, how much
Activity - how long
Sleep - what times, how long for.

Laura


Offline Maxsmum2014

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #5 on: January 28, 2015, 15:11:22 pm »
I dream feed him at 11pm before I go to bed. The reason I count the 6-7am feed as a night feed is because he is a late sleeper.

His schedule used to be a lot more regulated before this phase started, as he would nap for 1.5-2.5 hours. Now his naps are 30-45 minutes and I can't get him back down once he wakes.

He eats every 4 hours, can only stay awake for 1.5 hours before getting cranky for a nap, and then has a little cat nap.  So as you can see, we have gotten away from then EASY routine.

Any suggestions?

Offline Maxsmum2014

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #6 on: January 28, 2015, 15:15:29 pm »
The main issue is exactly what Eva's Mummy mentioned in her post below. He feeds well when asleep but not when awake. Doesn't matter if we are in a silent dark room or not, he's just not interested. Very frustrating!

Offline Lolly

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #7 on: January 28, 2015, 19:33:29 pm »
I dream feed him at 11pm before I go to bed. The reason I count the 6-7am feed as a night feed is because he is a late sleeper.

Ok, so what time is he asleep for the night and what time does he wake for the day? Ideally you want a 12 hour day/ night.

It's hard to give you proper advice without seeing exactly how your day pans out but short naps are common around the 4 month mark and are usually solved by stretching the A time, average awake times for 5 months are 2-2.5 hours. What can happen is the first nap is short because he is under tired and then he gets progressively more tired as the day goes on so the naps get short because he is over tired. Yes, they get grumpy at their normal nap time because that's what they are used to so we need to help them by keeping them up a bit longer, so 10 mins every A time for a couple of days and then 10 mins more etc until you get to a better A time for age.

It could be the short naps that are having an impact on his feed sizes, he may well be too tired to eat but he is hungry which is why he feeds better asleep.

I would start by treating that 6/7am wake up as the start of the day and run the EASY from there.

Laura


Offline *Liz*

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #8 on: January 28, 2015, 22:06:48 pm »
Feeding rocking in the glider might be a good option to help you switch the calories around though - and maybe he will go back to feeding anywhere once the developmental distractibility settles a bit.

I love feeding in the glider as I am nice and comfy (my DS2 is a difficult feeder due to reflux and being a prem), and I find it takes less time and he takes in less wind that way.

My DS def starts to feed badly as he gets OT, which he often does due to the reflux.

I would def decrease the 6/7am bottle for a few days, and then decrease again and start to switch his hunger round. It might not work the first day, but it should within a few. Overall his intake is fine, and a couple of lowish days wouldn't be a big issue while you did it.

Offline Maxsmum2014

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #9 on: January 28, 2015, 23:49:16 pm »
Our days lately look on average like this:

6:30am - eat/back to sleep
8:30am - wake
9:00am - eat then play
10:00am - sleep
10:45am - wake/play
12:00pm - cat nap
12:30pm - eat then play
2:00pm - cat nap
2:30pm - play
4:00pm - cat nap
4:30pm - eat then play
6:00pm - cat nap
6:45pm - play
7:30pm - eat
8:30pm - bath
9:00pm - sleep
11:00pm - dream feed
2:30am - eat/directly back to sleep

He has never wanted to go to bed early than 9:00pm. If he happens to fall asleep before, he treats it as a nap and will not go to bed until around 10:00. We take baths daily as part of his bedtime routine. He goes down very easily.

Offline Maxsmum2014

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #10 on: January 29, 2015, 00:34:39 am »
Mind you, during the "play" times I am also trying to get him to finish the bottle about an ounce at a time.

Offline *Liz*

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #11 on: January 29, 2015, 04:01:48 am »
Naps look UT really. A time is often more like 2.5hrs at this age.

Offline Lolly

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #12 on: January 29, 2015, 12:20:31 pm »
What time do you want to start your day and have him in bed by? 9pm was too late for me, but it suits some families!

If you are spending his A time getting his bottles into him bit by bit he is actually snacking through the day which is probably why you can't get a full bottle in him. A bottle feed should be done within 20 mins, if he doesn't finish the feed you stop feeding and leave it until the next feed time. This is why he is taking better feeds at night, because he isn't grazing. He may protest about being hungry sooner, but keep the feed intervals as long as you can by distracting him so he is good and hungry. He should be properly hungry by the next bottle then. Are you using a fast flow teat too?

I totally agree with Liz about the naps being under tired too. If you are taking 8.30 as the start of your day then he needs to go down for the next nap 10.30 at the earliest. If he wakes early you extend the nap by using ssh/pat or PU/PD to get a decent length nap, but with a proper A time he should sleep longer. Their sleep cycle is about 45 mins so you may need to be on hand at the 45 min mark to ssh him back when he starts stirring. He is able to do 2hours + as your last awake interval is 2.25 hours!

I really think if you regulate the A times to get longer naps and keep the feeds to 20 mins max you will find that he feeds better and is better rested.

Laura


Offline Maxsmum2014

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #13 on: January 29, 2015, 15:00:08 pm »
Thanks everyone! Will start today and let you know how it goes!

Offline Maxsmum2014

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Re: 5 month old 2-3oz during day
« Reply #14 on: January 29, 2015, 19:40:35 pm »
So far keeping him awake for 2 hours has been a bust. He has only taken 2 thirty minute naps and refuses to go back to sleep.