Anyone tried EAESY routine?

[Kaitlynsmum]

DS is 3 months old. He's a touchy baby and bottle feeding has always been somewhat difficult - reflux, allergy, interruptions from big sister etc. He is on HA-AR formula on the advice of his ped.  The volume he's been taking has been steadily dropping from 160 mls five times a day (which I was very happy with) to 100 mls 5 times a day.

This afternoon I tried a second bottle after his activity, immediately before bed and I wasn't surprised when he wolfed down an extra 60 mls after his first 120  making the whole feed 180 mls!!!!!!

What I want to know is if I were to continue this routine would I be making a rod for my own back? How would I return to EASY down the track? Is it necessary to return to EASY at all since DD always had a bottle before bed and it became one of the ways I could switch her off (but I can't remember how I got her onto this).

And I thought having two close together I would remember everything!

[Deb_in_oz]

hi - i have been where you are - not sure if there is a link with having a second but i could have written your post months ago.

olivia was a difficult feeder (breast and then bottle) and we ended up on AR formula for a month or so and are now back to regular formula.  i handled the feeds 2 different ways with EASY:

3-5 months: we offered her the bottle and she woudl take anywhere from 50-90ml, then we would sit and chat with her in the feeding chair and then offer a 2nd time about 5-10 min. later - often taking another 30-60ml.  then right before bed we gave her one last chance (especially if the total was 120ml or less) and just made sure she was fully awake before putting down for nap (did not worry about it at bedtime). = EAESY

5mo - now (almost 7 mo): we were advised by the mothercraft nurses here to stop what was considered "snacking" and set new "rules" for her feeds.  she was offered the bottle once and then given 10-15 min playtime - completely away from the bottle, then offered another time.  amazingly once we started this method within 2-3 feeds she got the message that she was no longer getting offered the top up and started taking 140-220ml in the 2 tries. we would then carry onwith awake time and she went into bed with no food offered = EASY

i guess my points to you are
1. yes we did successfully return to a more pure EASY. and sometimes she takes 140-180 all in 1 hit and is happy with that.
2. be aware how quickly they learn that there will be another offering at the end - i do think that by 4 months she really understood there was  a "second course" and did start snacking. so you can very quickly create a catch 22 because with the top up at the end of the cycle you then have a knock on effect at the next cycle when he won't be as hungry (because he had the top up) so takes less milk and then needs another top up.
3. do what you feel is in his and your best interest - the key things are to ensure he is not using the bottle as a sleep prop - if you are finding that he needs that top up not for milk but in order to go to sleep then you are losing 1 of the key underlying goals of EASY - not associating eating with sleep.  HTH

since he is touchy have you tried doing the feed in a quiet spot (as much as you can with 2) and in dim lighting when extra fussy.  bear inmind we did create a rod with that one as it was effective with Olivia but it took until she was 5+ months old to get the lights back on for feeds - and again she has adapted to the change easily.

[Deb_in_oz]

hi - i have been where you are - not sure if there is a link with having a second but i could have written your post months ago.

olivia was a difficult feeder (breast and then bottle) and we ended up on AR formula for a month or so and are now back to regular formula.  i handled the feeds 2 different ways with EASY:

3-5 months: we offered her the bottle and she woudl take anywhere from 50-90ml, then we would sit and chat with her in the feeding chair and then offer a 2nd time about 5-10 min. later - often taking another 30-60ml.  then right before bed we gave her one last chance (especially if the total was 120ml or less) and just made sure she was fully awake before putting down for nap (did not worry about it at bedtime). = EAESY

5mo - now (almost 7 mo): we were advised by the mothercraft nurses here to stop what was considered "snacking" and set new "rules" for her feeds.  she was offered the bottle once and then given 10-15 min playtime - completely away from the bottle, then offered another time.  amazingly once we started this method within 2-3 feeds she got the message that she was no longer getting offered the top up and started taking 140-220ml in the 2 tries. we would then carry onwith awake time and she went into bed with no food offered = EASY

i guess my points to you are
1. yes we did successfully return to a more pure EASY. and sometimes she takes 140-180 all in 1 hit and is happy with that.
2. be aware how quickly they learn that there will be another offering at the end - i do think that by 4 months she really understood there was  a "second course" and did start snacking. so you can very quickly create a catch 22 because with the top up at the end of the cycle you then have a knock on effect at the next cycle when he won't be as hungry (because he had the top up) so takes less milk and then needs another top up.
3. do what you feel is in his and your best interest - the key things are to ensure he is not using the bottle as a sleep prop - if you are finding that he needs that top up not for milk but in order to go to sleep then you are losing 1 of the key underlying goals of EASY - not associating eating with sleep.  HTH

since he is touchy have you tried doing the feed in a quiet spot (as much as you can with 2) and in dim lighting when extra fussy.  bear inmind we did create a rod with that one as it was effective with Olivia but it took until she was 5+ months old to get the lights back on for feeds - and again she has adapted to the change easily.

[Kaitlynsmum]

Hi Debra - I think we have left messages before.

I am not too worried about snacking as the top up is offered an hour after the first feed and then there's three hours until the next one. I wouldn't feed any more frequently than that, but you are right about learning to expect a second bottle and I was wondering how long that would take.

However I was wondering how long I should stick to the AR formula for and you said you only used it for a month? We are seeing the ped. on Friday and I'll ask him if we can go back to HA formula. AR formula is a pain! Half the problem is it's so thick that if he doesn't get it down in 15 minutes he gets tired and gives up. He also has difficulty coordinating his sucking swallowing and breathing and his mouth is terrible at latching onto a teat so he doesn't get much in the 15 minutes before it goes like custard. Although AR formula was great for reducing the vomiting, I think it's causing more problems now.

Where possible I feed in a quiet environment, but that's not all the time. the 10am and 5pm feeds are impossible to do in his room, but big sis is asleep for the 6am and 2pm feeds.

Thanks for the useful hints - I won't do EAESY regularly but might just use it if his volume goes down and I might use it for the 5pm feed as clustering.

BTW dd always has a bottle before she goes to sleep and although this is not recommended I have found I can usually switch her to sleep mode whenever I decide - a very useful ploy. Then as day time sleeps decrease so does the bottle in line with increasing solids. WHy is this wrong?

[Kaitlynsmum]

I forgot to mention DD is 16 months and spirited (love it!) and DS is 3 months and touchy - what does Tracey say in her latest book - avoid a playgroup that mixes spirited and touchy!!

[Deb_in_oz]

well for us we were on AR because we suspected she had dysphagia (swallowing disorder) - turns out eiither she outgrew it after a month or so on AR and a change in feeding styles from us or just had an oral aversion issue (caused by mommy and daddy being stupid and forcing her to take more food  :oops:  even when she protested at 120ml)  we ended up with heavy speech pathologist involvement (a godsend - thank you australian government!!) a lovely lady who came and observed feeds about 5 times and gave us so much help and even beyond feed issues.  she wanted us to try regular formula again after things had improved (feeds had been huge battles with tears, arching away, fear, etc) and olivia drank it fine - we were so relieved and have not looked back - it was more expensive and constipating (already had poop issues before the AR  :roll: )

we used S26 - AR and although constipating it never went like custard - is the hypoallergenic version that different? i assumed that is what HA stood for...

we were the same with the quiet times - 1st feed (while Dh gave dd1 bkfst) and then 2-3pm feed while dd1 napped.  Now Alex mostly respects that if Olivia's door is almost closed it means to wait quietly or go play. if she barges in or lets olivia see her - that is the end of it for a while.  Olivia cannot even feed in the living room with no one else around because she can hear birds, see trees, watch shadows, anythign distracts her from feeding (the other day i got hiccups at bedtime feed and she refused to continue  :roll: )