Won't take first bottle

[Lindsay27]

We've been struggling with this for a while with brief periods where it sorts itself out, but for the most part my DD will not take her first bottle upon WU, no matter what time her NF was.

For example last night she took a 4oz NF at 12:30am, I tried to feed her this morning at 7am and she only took 2oz    So it had been 6.5hrs after her NF but yet still won't take anything?  It is making it impossible to get on a good bottle + solids schedule, and what I end up doing is feeding her when she wakes (usually about 3oz), then doing solids an hour later, then feeding the rest of her bottle right before nap.  The problem is though because her feed is divided like that, it ends up being divided like that for the rest of the day because I have no idea when she's truly hungry.  So when she wakes from her nap she will again only take 3oz and the cycle repeats.  If I wait to feed her after her nap often times then we don't have enough time to do a bottle then solids an hour later.

I've tried waiting to do her WU bottle until an hour or so after she wakes but it doesn't make a difference, and again if she's going 6+ hours after her NF surely she must be hungry by then?

So our days ends up like this for example:

E 7am 3oz
Solids 8am
E 10am 3oz
S 10:15

E 11:30 3oz
Solids 12:30
E 2:30 3oz
S 2:45

And so on...

[Lindsay27]

Thought it was worth mentioning also that we just started solids, she isn't taking very much quantity wise as she's not overly interested, and that I also don't necessarily offer 3 meals a day.  And also that she is already in the fastest teat/level 4 and that I feed her in her bedroom with the lights off because it is quiet and she's not distracted there.

I mean I guess all signs are pointing to the fact that we need to drop the NF, but given she's not really established on solids yet and her milk intake isn't super high, I feel like she still needs it ya know? She generally feeds 1 x per night.

[Martini~]

Mmmm to encourage morning milk at that age I needed to drop the DF? I didn't established solids very well than - maybe a very small meal 1-2x a day. Just the bottles 4x a day were enough. Quite soon around 7mo we dropped to 3x bottles a day with 2/3 meals a day. He started eating more but re bottles he started to refuse 11am one and it was always a struggle. When I ditched that one he finally started drinking more milk at 2:30 and his overall milk intake didn't drop at all. The same when I dropped the df. Just the bottles became bigger:).

[Lindsay27]

She doesn't actually take a DF  . She just has her BT bottle and then I feed her whenever she wakes in the MOTN.

This morning she took 2oz at 7am and then another 2 at 7:45 and she had solids so I think I am going to hold off on the top up before nap and hope that when she wakes from her nap she takes a good bottle then.

I do remember DS dropped to 3 bottles at 8 months but he increased them to 8oz so his milk intake was still okay, where with her right now she is doing roughly 4 x 5oz during the day and 4oz at night.

[Martini~]

Yep I get that she doesn't take df:). But for us df was similar to your NF as we didn't have any NFs at that age. So from 10-11pm till 7am and he still wasn't hungry . When I was happy that he took some more, one of his next bottles was smaller. In general - they seem to self regulate sometimes:).

[Lindsay27]

Ah okay, I get ya!

So when she woke from her nap at 11 I tried a bottle at 11:15 and she only took 3oz again.  It's just a never ending cycle of small feeds because of that first bottle being split in half.  I guess maybe I should just listen for when she tells me she's hungry, but it does make for introducing solids difficult.  But I guess at this point as long as she is getting solids once or twice a day it doesn't really matter much. 

It also just makes life difficult, like if I need to go out I'd rather go know she has a full belly ya know.  I guess I will just wait for her to tell me when she's hungry in the morning and try every 4ish hours from there.  It will probably mean we are on more of an AEAS cycle.

[Martini~]

Or just stick with hours and that's all. I was panicking so so much at that age that DS will take less milk then he needs but when he dropped df he never ever woke for a feed and being honest his appetite during day was... Changing:). Maybe just don't worry too much? I know it's so easy to say but probably that would be something what I would say to myself 2y ago LOL.

[Lindsay27]

Ya it's true, I do try not to worry about it, she clearly isn't starving!  Some mornings I just get frustrated but really at the end of the day it's not a big deal.  I think I'm just such a planner that it would help me to be able to plan our day around the feeds, but it's just so erratic right now it's hard.  But ya...not going to worry about it too much.  She's obviously happy and has a full tummy

[Lindsay27]

Okay she really is just starting to drive me completely loopy.  Last night she didn't take a NF so I thought great, we can get off to a good start today.

5:30am  - bottle 6oz (yay!)
7:30am - solids
10:30am - bottle 3oz...so here is when I run into trouble.  Since she only took 3oz I have no idea when to feed her next, so I just try to listen to her cues.
1:30pm - was screaming bloody murder so I offered a bottle.  3oz again 

She just takes these 3oz feeds all day long even though I am usually going 4hrs between bottles or more (if it's less it's because she's acted hungry).  Not only do I not have any idea when to feed her, I am throwing out a silly amount of formula every day because I will make a 6oz bottle and she's only taking half.  So now again, no clue when to feed her next.  4:30? 5? 5:30?  Then it pushes her last 2 bottles so close together that she never takes a good BT bottle, so then I'm up feeding her multiple times in the night.

I am just so confused.

[Martini~]

Can you stop feeding be cues and breaks but just set times? We were feeding at that age 7am 6-8os, 11am (but this bottle was usually 3-4oz), 2:30pm another 4-5oz and than 6:30 pm - 6-8oz and nothing at night. I also protected BT feed - with afternoon feed after 3pm he was taking small BT bottle. I know it's hard but if she is eating the minimum so 18oz and doesn't want more I would try to be relaxed.
Usually when I was trying to feed "all-the-time" it ended with a whole day of small feeds, as he did take small portion as he wasn't hungry and than when I feed once again - he took small amount and another feed was small:). DS was having 3 meals per day that time - but I when his appetite went down I was cutting out breakfast as cereals seemed to "block" his appetite for the whole day.

[Lindsay27]

Someone else mentioned set feeding times but I'm not sure how it would work because her WUs vary so much, which means she's napping at a different time each day.  So take the 11am feed for instance...on a day when WU is 5:30 she's likely already done her morning nap by 11 and can feed at that time, but on a day where she's up at 6:30/7am she's likely napping at 11, ya know?  Honestly everything is just a complete mess.  Her feeds, her naps, her nights.  EWs are throwing her whole day for a complete spin so nothing is consistent.

Some days she eats 3 meals a day of solids, others not.  And that is mostly just me trying to gauge whether or not to feed her solids if I think it is going to impact her next bottle.

She ate 3oz at 1:30 and then I went to put her down for a nap around 1:45 and she finished the rest of the bottle then (so 6oz total).  She only napped 30mins so since BT will be early, maybe I will just feed her solids around 4:30 and then hope for a big BT bottle at 6.

[Lindsay27]

Just to update we ended up with:

5:30am - 6oz
10:30 - 3oz
1:30/45 - 6oz
6pm - 7oz

So not too bad, this is actually one of the best days we've had, but I think that was totally dependent on the fact that she didn't take a NF.  Not sure what to do about that going forward...if we should try to drop it.

[Martini~]

Hmmm can you keep that routine wo NF for couple of days? Roughly 4 bottles a day? I think it dodany matter if you feed 10:30 or 11:30 just do one bottle around 11. If it's earlier it can be smaller I guess, so don't stress. I wouldn't be afraid of bottles of 3.5-4.5h apart if you have a small solid meal in between. I would only probably miss/reduce breakfast if she has an EWU bottle so she don't feed too much and refuse totally bottle at 10-11. However my experience was that solids didn't impact so massive milk intake - it was rather a previous bottle which dictates how log the next one will be.

[Lindsay27]

So she actually STTN from 6:15pm-5:30am.  Wowzers.  Here's the thing though, when I tried to feed her at 5:30am she only took 3oz . Why does she do this!? Now again with the guess work.  I am going to assume she can't make it to 10:30/11am on a 3oz bottle after a nearly 12hr night.  But then do I top her up before nap? If I do that she definitely won't take a good feed around 11am.  Or do I hope she can make it to 10:30/11 and sort of reverse what she did yesterday with her first 2 bottles? I don't know.

Jeepers she sure likes to keep me on my toes

[Martini~]

Haha Lindsay - I am expecting a baby in Dec so just waiting on the moment I will be so confused as probably first baby won't be such as the first one:))).

I would do two things. Firstly do not feed at 5:30. I know it seems impossible for you but if she takes only 3oz she doesn't seem hungry at 5:30. Just try to resettle and wait closer to 7am with a feed. As a paradox - resettling in a crib may be a bigger success than takin out for a feed. DS was that kind of a child - he was much better resettled at some age without being taken out from the crib. Secondly from 7am bottle /no matter how much she takes/ I would give small breakfast and still wait until 11am for a next feed. Seems long but she is not a tiny baby so if you do it once - she will be fine and you will see how she goes with that kind of routine. What do you think?