can you help us get back on track?

[micah'smom]

hi everyone,

ds' schedule is all messed up and i'm almost positive it has to do with his eating. that is, i've been trying to "fit" all his bottles and solid foods in to fit into the "standard" EASY schedule, but it's not working. here are our main concerns:
 :arrow: looks like he wants to drop a bottle (only takes 3 oz at his 11:00 and 3:00 bottle. ped said this is fine and keep giving it at those times???)
 :arrow: sometimes isn't even interested in his morning bottle until right before his first nap, so i tried giving solids first, then the bottle ( to fit both in before his nap) so then that means that i end up giving solids before every bottle the rest of the day, and i wonder if that is why he isn't taking much milk these days (usually 4-5 oz these days)
 :arrow: we're still battling 45 minute naps (he's always been a short napper). on the days of short naps, i end up having to up his bedtime to about 5:30 or 6:00 rather than 6:30-7:00. so that means his bedtime bottle gets shifted up and he's not hungry for that either!!
 :arrow: if he doesn't take much at his bedtime bottle, he wakes twice for night feeds (he usually only wakes once). so that affects the next day.
 :arrow: sometimes he starts the day at 5am!!!!

can you tell i'm very confused? am i being obsessive about this? i just worry b/c i don't want everything to go off-kilter.
thanks for reading this mess!

[tylersmommy]

Would you mind posting his whole routine for the day? It might help if I can see when his naps are and exactly when he eats and how much. Thanks!

[micah'smom]

thanks melissa. like i said it's been crazy, the day depends on his wake up time which these days has been anyhwere from 5am to 7am. let me give you a sample day from this past week:

6:15am  wake and 4-6 oz. bottle
7:30am  solids (1 oz. cereal, 2 oz. fruit)
8:30-9:15 nap
10:00  2-3 oz. bottle
11:00 "lunch" - about 3 cubes, fruit and veg combo
12:00 - 1:15 nap
2:30  3 oz. bottle
3:30-4:10 nap
4:20  "dinner" - 3 oz. fruit and veg combo
5:00 bath and massage
6:00  4-5 oz. bottle
6:15 sleep
 night feeds: 1:00am 3 oz., 3:00 am 3 oz.

hope that wasn't too confusing. on a day like today when micah started his day at 5am, all his bottles so far have only been 3 oz.  he'll chow down on his solids but doesn't seem to like the bottle these days.

is that enough info?
also forgot to mention - i've been reading "healthy sleep habits, happy child" and he suggests that if baby is between 6-9 months old, just cut out the 3rd catnap and bring up the bedtime. so sometimes if micah wakes from his 2nd nap around 2pm, i give him a bedtime of about 5 or 5:30.

[Little Bear's Mum]

Hi Selina and Melissa, I have the same problem with my son, except he's fully breastfed, so I'm not sure how much he takes. We did a weight/feed measurement and it showed he should probably take both sides to get a full feed, of around 250mls, but he's only ever taking 1 side, unless it's the middle of the night! He's only taking about 2 cubes of food or 60gms of bought food.

To make matters worse after sleeping for about a week from 6.30 - 5.30am without waking to feed he's started waking again but now to feed 2-3 times a night!

I look forward to any suggestions of solutions you come up with Selina.

I have just wondered what would happen if I fed him b/milk then solids much closer together (I currently wait an hour) as maybe then he'd be hungrier for his next b/milk feed. But I guarantee he wouldn't want the solids then. I might try tomorrow though.

[tylersmommy]

Selena-

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you! It's a lot easier to fit in all 3 meals of solids once your baby is down to 2 naps. However, whether or not he's ready to drop that catnap is a whole other issue. Dropping the catnap MAY fix the short nap issue you're dealing with, but only if he's ready for more awake time. I held off on introducing that 3rd meal until the catnap was gone, as I found that there just weren't enough hours in the day to stuff all that food in!

It looks like you may need to cut back on his solids to get him interested in the bottle again. On average, each serving should be around 1/2 to 1 food cube (1-2 tablespoons). Obviously, that's just an average, but if you're having trouble getting formula into him, too much solids could be the culprit. I'd cut back a bit, and not worry about getting 3 solid meals in him just yet. If it works out that you do have enough time in a day, and he's hungry enough to eat some dinner, then go for it. It takes a LOT of tinkering to find out what works...hope that's given you some ideas!

Hayley- Moving BF and solids closer together may work, but if not, you might try cutting back on solids to see if that gets him interested in nursing again. Just a thought!

[Little Bear's Mum]

Thanks Melissa and Selina for letting me jump in on here. That makes sense about cutting back the solids. I was worried he wasn't eating enough solids, but I guess milk is more important for now. Thank you.