Author Topic: Eating too much overnight?  (Read 1176 times)

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Offline cml4314

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Eating too much overnight?
« on: August 06, 2015, 03:30:37 am »
My LO is 6 months old, and has finally gotten on a really good daytime routine - roughly 4hr EASY, but with a shorter morning wake time.  He is taking two, consistent, 1.5-2 hour naps every day.

A few weeks ago, he had what I believe was a growth spurt.  He was eating more often than normal, very vigorously to the point that I was sore, and he picked up a night feeding.  After that was over, his naps sorted themselves out into his current schedule, and instead of dropping the night feed again, he just started barely eating during the day.

He has also started solids, but I always offer breastmilk first, less than an hour before solids, and we are doing finger foods rather than purees, so he is ingesting very little most of the time.  I think the solids are impacting his milk intake minimally. 

He eats at 11:00 and 4:00 overnight, taking both breasts and really filling up.  Then when I try to feed him at 7:30AM, he will only take one breast and only for a small amount of time.  Same at 11:30, and 3:30, and 7, his normal feed times (solids usually around 8AM and 5PM).  Based on time spent eating, he eats as much in two night feedings as he does in four day feedings.  But if I do not let him absolutely tank up on milk at his night feedings, he will NOT go back to sleep unless I am holding him, and will wake up the second I put him down.  He will lie there, and fidget, and whine, and look like he just can't get comfortable, and work himself into a complete meltdown if he doesn't eat to complete fullness. 

He is maybe mildly distracted during the day?  But I don't think he is distracted enough that it is the reason he isn't eating.

He is capable of putting himself to sleep - for naps and at bedtime, we just put him in the crib wide awake and leave, and the worst case scenario is that we have to go back up in 5-10 minutes and rub is back a little bit to get him to sleep. 

A few nights ago I stayed up and held him half the night hoping that if I held him from 11:00-3:00, maybe he'd eat at 3:00 and then be hungry to eat during the day, and hopefully reset himself.  All that came of that was me losing sleep.

I'm just at a loss as to what I can do to fix this predicament.

Offline jessmum46

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Re: Eating too much overnight?
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2015, 09:13:49 am »
I guess my first thought is two night feeds for a pretty much EBF 6 month old would be pretty normal.  You may just want to ride it out a while longer and see where you are as solids increase over the next couple of months.  But if as you say it really seems like he takes more milk at night than in the day, you may need to work on gradually changing that around.  So a couple of ideas - delay the time of the feed.  So he feeds one night at 11pm, next night don't feed before 11.15pm, then 11.30pm etc and once you've gone forward don't go back.  In one day of doing this (I suspected my DS was habit night feeding even though an independent sleeper so similar situation to you) we moved from feeds at 11pm and 4/5am to just one feed at 3.30am!  I just kept resettling him until we went past the previous night's feed time and then he went off for way longer than I expected.  And subsequent nights even if he woke around 11pm would settle very easily no fuss.  Your other option would be to keep the 11pm feed as a dream feed and then work on either pushing the time of the second one or reducing it in minutes.  So if a normal feed is 10 mins each side say, cut down the second side by 2mins every other night until it's a one side feed, then cut that down similarly. Expect some protest but it should work if you are consistent.  Maybe aim to get to one night feed and then reevaluate how things are in the day?

Offline cml4314

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Re: Eating too much overnight?
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2015, 04:16:28 am »
Thanks for the suggestions!

I have been trying for a while to cut down the length of his feeds at night, but I can't seem to time it right.  He is kind of a power eater, so 6 minutes a side is a long feed for him, usually it's ~5 minutes a side.  It is astounding how much milk he can move in just a couple of minutes.  I tried to cut the second boob down to 4 minutes the other night, and he screamed and fussed and couldn't settle him back to sleep despite fighting for half an hour, so I let him nurse for another two minutes and then he conked out instantly for 5 hours!  Two minutes is the difference between full enough to sleep and not full enough to sleep.

I can put him off after his initial wakeup, but I have to literally stand there and listen to him scream.  He won't take the pacifier for more than a few seconds, and just works himself into a complete frenzy in a few minutes.

He used to sleep 7:30-4:00 without eating, so I know he's capable.  He breastfed at 5:00 and 7:00 and had solids at 6:00 tonight, and still is up awake now at 11:00 to eat.  I just don't know what is disrupting his sleep and waking him up for these feeds.  Saturday night he was up three times and insisted on eating every time. 

Offline jessmum46

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Re: Eating too much overnight?
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2015, 15:08:30 pm »
Could still be a growth spurt.....what about his routine though, did you want me to look at that?  Too much or too little daytime sleep could be having an impact. 

It's possible to have a prop at night feeds even with independent sleep at bedtime though, we certainly developed habit feeds as I described above.  Does he always feed to sleep at night feeds?  I wonder if the not settling after a 4 minute feed was that you took him off before he was asleep, rather than still being hungry? 

If genuinely you feel he is eating more at night than in the day or has a prop you will have to grin and bear it for a few nights when you are ready to change things around, and that may mean sticking it out for longer than half an hour of upset.....I would have thought one long stretch at this age of 5-8h is not unreasonable to expect.  So I would decide in advance of the night when you are willing to feed, and make yourself a plan.  If you decide to do what I suggested above and delay the first feed by 15 mins or so each night, then for any waking before the agreed feed time you persist in resettling all the way to sleep, even if it takes you past the planned feed time.  You can then feed once he wakes again. 

Sounds easy when I know it really isn't :-* but remember if he is in the habit of taking most of his calories at night, it will take a little work to change that.  He will have 'learned' to feel hungry at those times, and what you are trying to do is get his body to relearn that calories come in the daytime.  So that may mean he feels some hunger for a short period at night while you aim to delay a feed, but it's not going to cause a significant harm to him. The delay by a short period each time will help him to gradually adjust :)