My ten week old feeding more at night than in day - any tips?

[Gooby]

My little boy seems to have got his night and day feeds mixed up. In the day he's leaving some lovely 3,4 and sometimes 5 hour gaps, but through the night he's feeding every 2 hours, or every 1 hour 40/50 mins. What's weird is that his daytime feeds are much shorter (he's too interested in everything else) than his nightime ones so have no idea how they keep him going for so long - maybe cause he gets what he needs at night with the long, frequent feeds.

Anyone know of any way to switch this round?

[mears]

Don't let him sleep too long during the day - waken him for feeds so that he is not looking for so much milk at night.

[lalaa]

agree with mears about waking him up in the day - also, when you feed him during the day, take him to a quiet place where's there's little to look at - facing a wall or something - keep noises that might interest him right down (radio, tv, people on the phone, etc), hold him snug close to you and persevere!
good luck

[boyandgirl]

Wake him during the day, stimulate him during the day so that he's more tired at night, also any night feeds should be very subdued, in a dark room if possible, with no eye contact or talking. Also at night don't feed him the moment he whimpers, for the first waking at least wait until you're sure he's not going to settle himself back to sleep.

[Melly]

Gooby, agree with the other advice here, definitely wake him for feeds during the day rather than let him sleep on. I know it's convenient when they do sleep for long periods during the day, because you can crack on with housework or whatever, but young babies need help with establishing their days and nights & I think keeping them awake longer during the day is the way to get them sorted.
Good luck

[runragged]

Agree with others about learnig the difference between night and day, wake him up regularly, put him to sleep in a light room and if possible somewhere other than the bedroom at this stage, eg the lounge, outside, guest room. Then he will start to associate night time things, also, try to feed at night in the dark, I bought a 12 watt light for the hall and this gave enough light to feed and change by but not to let dd or ds have anything interesting to look at.

My ds was a good sleeper early on but he would sleep ALL day. I used to make sure that he was awake for most of the evening so there was a big gap between day time sleeps and night time. For example I tried to keep him awake from about 5pm and put him to bed around 9 after his next feed.

Hope this helps, the first few months are a bit hit and miss for everyone! Try to sleep when he does, every one says it but it's really good advice and forget the housework!

[Teletubby]

Agree with everyone else about waking up during the day. Try to feed 3 hourly during the day so that by the time the feed is due he's really ready to take a good feed i also find that putting my 10 week old baby down for a nap every two hours (read somewhere that babies under 3 months shouldn't stay awake for longer than 2 hour periods) stops her from sleeping too long during the day. Try to cut down the night feeds by giving just enough to settle him back down i also read that cool boiled water (even if they only take a little) can then limit the amount of milk they then take afterwards. Sounds tough but if he was really that hungry at night time then he'd probably take the cool boiled water, if not then perhaps if you've made sure he's fed enough during the day then it could well be habit or comfort and then i would suggest leaving him for 5-10 mins before going to him to see if he resettles himself. They do in time switch their body clock around and one of the quickest ways of doing this is to do all you can to make sure that he remains awake after a day time feed even if it is only for a short time just so as he can tell the difference between quiet night feeds and awake day time feeds.

[Gooby]

I've just been away for a dreadful weekend at the mother in law's house (she disapproved of feeding on demand, plus everything else I did!) and so was pleased to come back and find all your suggestions.

He's actually not too bad in terms of daytime sleeping - he's awake quite a lot in the day, but just doesn't seem that interested in food! So I'm definitely going to try doing the daytime feeds away from noise and stuff to see if he will settle for better feeds.

I'll also try offering 3 hourly and see if it helps him to cut down the night feeds.

The weird thing is, he seems to know it's night in one way - when he does have his night feeds he seems to do them in his sleep and is immediately asleep afterwards - thankfully not having wakeful patches. He usually sleeps (in between the 2 hourly feeds) 8pm - 8am. Perhaps I am offering too early - at the first sign of him snuffling around - so I'll try that tip of leaving it a bit longer to see if I can stretch the feeds that way.

I'll let you know how I get on.... !