Time to wean df and/or night feed??

[aMei]

Hi! DS is 7.5 months old and has eczema. He's a great nurser and eater, so he's a chubby baby of 25 lbs. He still gets a dream feed and a night feed. I feel like he doesn't need it, but he ALWAYS wakes up for both. I'm thinking of cutting one or both out. Just wondering if I were to wean just one, which one should I wean first? Or, is it time to wean both? If so, still which should I wean first? I mainly feel that his eczema causes a lot of itchiness/discomfort, so I think he's waking to comfort nurse.

He falls asleep on his own, except df where he nurses to sleep.

Here's his general routine:

8:15am wake up
E (nurse) 8:30am
A play & solids
S 11:30am-12:45/1pm

E (nurse) 1pm
A play & solids
S 4-5:15pm

E 5:15pm (nurse)
A play & solids & bed time routine
E 7:30pm
S 8pm

DF I aim to do it around 10:45pm, but he will usually wake up once before then and we try to get him to go back to sleep. Occasionally, I have to just df him early. He will usually go right back to sleep after nursing.

He then wakes up again around 4am and I'll nurse for about 20min. He's usually awake for about an hour during this stretch before he falls asleep again.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Since milk is supposed to be the main source of nutrition until one year and he is getting 3 bf in the day personally I would leave the nf's for now. Has he seen the dr for the ezcema? Sometimes it can be a food related cause (it was for my youngest two kids).

[*Ali*]

Or add a feed back in in the day. 3 probably isn't enough and could be why he is waking to eat at night. It's unlikely a 7.5mo could get enough milk in 3 BFs I should think. Although, a NF or two is within the realm of normal at this age. If he doesn't seem hungry enough in the day then could it be he is eating to much solid food in the day to fit in more milk?

[aMei]

Sigh..he has seen a dr for his eczema, but I feel like they keep brushing us off like its no big deal. I had to ask for an allergy test which his ped seemed annoyed about. They only did the prick test and tested for 7 things of which 4 came back positive. I've cut them out which seems to have helped some but not a lot. I feel like there may be more. His drs are a sore subject right now.
I've tried offering more nursings and he just ends up with shorter sessions. He also loves his solids. I am always questioning how much to give him, because im told that babies will stop eating when they are full, but he doesn't seem to ever get full! Or his stopping point is a lot more than I would expect at his age. He can eat a half of a sweet potato if I let him, but I usually stop him about 1/3. He just started signing more and keeps signing for more or is reaching forward and kicking his legs for more solids. Also, a few weeks ago, there's been a few times when I've skipped giving him solids because we were out. I didn't think it was a big deal since he had just started solids. He would wake early from his nap starving.
So, keep doing df and nf? He has slept through 3 nights so far without a nf. No patterns for why that I can see. 2 of those nights were within the last 2 weeks which was why I started wondering if he was ready to be weaned from either df or nf. No?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

If you don't think you can cut back on solids or add more daytime feeds I would probably keep the df for now and then see how he wakes for a feed after that. Would he take a top up bf after a smaller solids meal?

That is too bad with the dr's! What have you already cut out?

[aMei]

I dnot think I've ever tried offering a top off bf after giving some solids. I have offered bf if I didn't give solids and even then he does a short session of about 5min when usual session is closer to 10min.

I've cut out dairy, peanuts, and soy. Except, I HAVE to take lecithin supplements or I get plugs or blebs. Even with it, I've gotten some. I am now also cutting out coconut

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

What about eggs or gluten? Not sure where you are, I know coconut is classified with nuts in the US but it is actually a fruit. Here in Canada I don't think they lump it in with tree nuts yet. I think soy lecithin is supposed to be tolerated by most with soy issues anyways.

[aMei]

We "demanded" and allergy test and they only did the basic prick test that only tested for 7/8 things and surprisingly wheat and eggs came back negative. He's allergic to dairy, peanuts, soy, and cats. That's a relief that soy lecithin is usually ok. His soy reaction was really minor. I just know that if I stopped the supplement, I would not be able to continue nursing. I was up to 4 lecithins a day and still battled a bleb for almost 3 months. :/

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

There can be false negatives and false positives though, here they don't normally do testing under two and our allergist will only test for foods we have already clearly seen a reaction to as that really the only for sure way to know. Does he eat eggs & gluten himself? Also intolerances would not be picked up on a scratch test...I know my DD2 reacted to eggs and had no rxn to the test and even her blood tests showed nothing. Lol we are kind of getting off topic for this board...there is a food allergy board if you wanted to post for advice specific to that!

[aMei]

Thank you! I will post on the appropriate board when I have additional questions.

I do have a related nf question: what do I do when he wakes up for his nf at say 5:30am? Occasionally ds will sleep longer. I have just fed him and he will still wake around the same time in the morning (8am), but since it hadn't been very long, he doesn't nurse for very long. Should I just delay the morning feed? Or just go ahead and have a shorter morning feed? Or, what else do u suggest?

[*Ali*]

If he isn't hungry then yes, I would delay the feed by half and hour or so.

[aMei]

Thanks!

One last question (for now), at what point/time would you just wake up for the day? There's been a couple time where he's woken up around 6am. One time he went back to sleep and another he wouldn't. 6am just seems too early for going to bed around 8pm. I would think that's not enough night time sleep. What should I do then?

[*Ali*]

If he wakes at 6 and won't go back to sleep then I would just start the day. If he is only doing a 10hr night on a regular basis then I'd look at his daytime routine to see if a tweak was needed. Does he have too much sleep or a late nap that he is seeing as BT for example?