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Infant feeding

Changes to routine (bottle fed) 5 months

3 replies

peaches27 · 04/05/2006 13:47

I should be able to work this one out on my own, but I would like to share and see if anyone has any helpful advice.

My DGD is 5 months. She was previously very happy with a routine of 6 am 10am 2pm 6pm 10pm 2am etc. She is now having tastes of solids at 10 am and 6pm. All of a sudden this routine doesnt work for her or for us. She wakes at about 1 am no matter how late we stretch the 10pm bottle and wont settle with a cuddle and her dummy. So we feed her. She feeds well. Again at 4 am, feeds well. Goes back to sleep, sleeps while 9am (bliss!).

Then at 10 am when she would normally have baby rice and milk, she has ceased to be hungry or particularly interested in eating. But I persisted with the routine and she fed at 2pm and 6pm as usual.

Today when she was so wriggly and fussy at 10am that she hardly had anything, I decided to try some solids at 12 noon. Again not interested.

Obviously we need to change the routine because she has outgrown it. We also need to persuade her to be more hungry in the daytime and less hungry at night. Something that we havent relished, but perhaps ought to try is water at 1 am. But we have put off doing this because we dont want her waking us again in a couple of hours.

Any ideas? I know I should be able to figure it myself but Im a bit stressed and also have sleep deprivation.

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MumtoBen · 04/05/2006 21:14

I would start by watering down the 1am feed. It was the only way we managed to stop night feeding, in conjunction with controlled crying. My HV recommended this (my son was 6 months). But I don't think you can do cc before 6 months. Cut the bottle down 1 scoop at a time every few days and gradually cut the water down. And at the same time increase the milk for the day feeds.

My son wasn't particularly hungry for food until 6 months though. At 6 months (when I switched from b/f to bottle feeding) he was still on 8 feeds a day, plus 3 small meals . I just think some babies seem to need this amount of feeds.

Good luck and hope someone else can offer more advice.

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dreamteamgirl · 05/05/2006 22:21

Hiya
Could you try bringing the milk feeds closer together, to every 3 hours daytime so she eats more often and gets filled more in the day?

I agree with watered down night feeds sugestion -I would start with watering down the 4am feed, and feed her her milk as soon as she wakes at 9, followed by babyrice 2 hours later (i.e 1 hour before next milk feed is due)

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peaches27 · 05/05/2006 23:00

Last night I made the mistake of giving a half strength feed at about 2am. She was most offended and I had to go and get the real thing before she woke the whole street! Next time will try just leaving out one scoop. But today she has been off colour, having slept from about 3am to about 7.30 when she had her first feed and then it altered the schedule so her bedtime bottle was 8pm. I will top her up before I go to bed and see what happens tonight. She might even be making the changes herself as she doesnt seem to know what she wants at the moment!

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