hi everyone
my 4 1/2 month old lo has recently decided to get the majority of his calories at night - does anyone else have any experience with this?
we have a bit of a potted history with feeding. he drank fine to begin with, although often seemed to have to have discomfort, which we usually put down to wind and/or reflux - remedies for both those complaints seemed to work well for a while, although whatever we tried the effect always seemed to wear off. somtime around 3 months he got restless and fidgety while breastfeeding, and it took me a few weeks to figure out that i wasn't making enough milk to satisfy his needs, and that i was probably misunderstading his hunger cues too. i tried topping him just before bedtime/naptime with 100ml or so, and that seemed to work very well for a while - better sleeping too. but then he started wanting to eat more before bed and less when he got up. i supplemented him with formula, and expressed and fed him that in a bottle so i could keep track of what he was drinking, and we stopped the naptime feeds over the course of one very stressful day. the next day he took 200ml or so every feed, and seemed very satisfied, and generally everything was better for about 5 -6 days - he was less hyperactive, and slept reasonably well, and he was taking around 200ml every feed. i even thought we might finally be able to wean him off his night feed at long last. but then on the 6th day he started only taking 100ml each feed again. i guess he must have regressed, although i didn't realise it at the time.
it's been the same for the last week - he's drinking very little during the day, but taking full feeds at night. we've tried eating every 4 hours on the dot, but it doesn't seem to make him any more inclined to eat more. we've tried feeding him little, often, and of course he doesn't get very hungry like that either. even worse, over the last couple of days he's started taking even less each day feed - today he drank just 70ml at each feed so far. generally he seems fairly contented, if a little hyper again, and more interested in exploring than eating, but i'm still really worried that he's not getting enough. he doesn't even want to feed in the usual position during the day at the moment i've had to lie him on the floor and feed him that way, because he won't take it lying on me. i don't think it's a physical problem, or anything to do with the formula, because he's still fine at night.
should i cut back the amount he gets at night? i haven't tried this yet, as i am nervous it won't make a difference either and he still won't be getting enough.
i should add, too, that he has just learned to roll over (2days ago) and has been doing that a lot, which is another reason i'm concerned he's getting enough, and that he generally doesn't cry for food at the moment. he's not much of a cryer anyway (which makes it quite hard to figure out what's going on with him at any time), and hasn't even cried that much while teething recently - mostly just a yodelly sort of babbling that seems to happen when he's tired, teething, hungry, overtired etc.
can anyone help?
