Sleep association? Teething baby only drinks when sleepy?

[ameliebob]

Hi everyone, I think I may be creating a bad nap habit for my boy as the only way he will drink milk is when he's sleepy.
So first thing in the morning is the bottle, it goes fine as long as we're in a dark room. (7 oz)
After the morning nap is usually the second bottle (4 to 4-1/2 hour after the first one) wich is always a disaster (2-3 oz) even in a dark room.
I started thinking that he could be hungry in the middle of his afternoon nap so I started offering milk before nap (still in dark room) and he drinks 5 to 6 oz!

Yesterday I tried to give him that bottle in a bright room and he refused it, same thing after his nap. He totally skipped a feed!

I'm starting to worry about his milk intake and trying to avoid any new sleep associations... I know he's teething as we can see them starting to cut through but he has no appetite unless he's sleepy, even with meds like Tylenol... His solids appetite as decreased a lot too. Any advice?

[Shiv52]

Is he falling to sleep while drinking the bottles?

It does sound like teeth are at play though x

[ameliebob]

Usually i try to avoid that he falls asleep, but sometimes it happens. I think I'll try to skip the feeding after 1st nap as don't drink much anyway and offer it in the middle of his awake time (SAEAS)?

[Shiv52]

If he's not falling asleep every time then I don't think it's a huge issue but it may be helping him to get nice and drowsy.  You could try offering it a bit earlier and see how it goes?  Both mine had a stage where they had a top up feed as the A time was long and they needed a feed before the nap to have a good sleep . 

How's it been going

[ameliebob]

This is what I've been doing for 2 days now and so far we got naps of at least an hour (which is unusual! So yay for that!!)

E 6:30 milk (7 oz)
A
E solids at 8:00
A
S 9:00 to 10:30
A
E 12:00 solids with egg, then milk (3 oz) after that
A
S 13:30 to 14:10 or more
A
E 15:30 milk (3 oz) if he wants some. Yesterday he did not.
A
E 16:30 solids
A
E 18:00 milk (9-10 oz)
S 18:15 STTN

Could he be at a point where he doesn't need as much milk as he did before? Could it be because he's having more protein? With the previous schedule he had much more appetite for his solids than the past few days, and still the same intake of milk.

[Shiv52]

It would be early to drop milk at 8 months. I think 24oz is the minimum you want them to have so you wouldn't want to reduce too much. Teeth could be affecting solid intake though.  You may want to give milk first then solids an hour later to make sure he's getting enough. 

Yay for the longer naps. Your A time is still a bit short for 8 months so you may well find if you increase further starting with the first one you will get consistently longer naps.

Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!