B/fed 8 month old dd2 still feeding every 2 hours, and x4 during the nights.. ADVICE PLEASE!!

[twolittleducks]

DD2 is still feeding every 2 hours despite being 8 months old now and having three solid meals a day.. She is only a tiny thing,but not underweight at all, and only takes tiny amounts of milk really, being on the breast for about 3 minutes at a time!! ...
She was sleeping about 6-7 hours at a night when she was about 4-5 months, but now she is waking up about 4 times once she is put to bed at 7pm..

Does anyone have suggestions as to how to get her to go longer between feeds and sleeping through?? She is genuinely hungry for the milk as you can hear her tummy growling but I'm starting to feel exhausted with it all!!!!!!! Someone please help!!!

[twolittleducks]

Do you remember roughly when they started to go longer through the night? DD2 is asleep in her own cot until she wakes up to be fed around 10-11 and then she usually ends up in my bed for the rest of the night! I wouldn't mind the night feeding if it wasn't so demanding during the daytime, every 2 hours still!!

[twolittleducks]

bump

[USAUKMum]

My two were very similar to this as well (and TBH the still eat about every 3 hrs now, though at almost 3 & 6 it is solids ). But they both didn't go through the night until 10.5 mths. By this time they were having 3 meals (huge meals for DS, what I would call 4 courses), two snacks, a BF with each meal and a BF before bed.

The feeds were about 5 min each -- pre-bed time longer about 10 - 15min. When they went on solids both went from feeding on two sides to feeding only on one.

[danae]

Message withdrawn

[twolittleducks]

Lol danae, indeed that is what I do!! I just didn't know wether this is considered as norm or not... Some books that concentrate on getting kids into routines would insist all this feeding as being unnecessary and I should be sticking to set feeding times...

I should know better after dd1 that not all babies work this way

[USAUKMum]

my babies have always been more "freeform" they actively resist any routine Both were over 10 mths before accepting set times for naps (so I could plan) of course I like to console myself that now they are very flexible and are really easy to take other places.

[fearscape]

My ds was a bit like this at 6 months, although only waking once at night (very luckily for me), but I had to start giving him formula to go back to work. I dropped one bf at a time and so had to get him into some kind of routine - if I had bf on demand he would never have drunk any formula, just waited 15mins then had bf! I used distraction a lot to space out his feeds - maybe you could get a couple of new and exciting toys (or just swap with a friend - toys not baby!) and get them out when she's looking hungry? Unfortunately I think the only way to get her to longer at night is just not to give her bf - depends which way you want to go. You don't have to leave her to cry, you could just try giving her a cuddle, even if she won't go back to sleep without bf if you can hold off for half an hour you might slowly be able to delay each feed and get her to wake up less. Sorry if you have already tried all this and it didn't work!

[twolittleducks]

Thanks for your advice.. I am slightly reluctant to just wean her off all together..

Has anyone tried that method of feeding them from one side 3-4 times and then trying the next side to ensure the breasts are fully emptied??? I am currently doing this at the moment, seems to be working little more effectively, like she is getting all the milk, not just the initial quenching thirst part?????

[jorange5]

i hope this helps you a bit (might be a bit long). My DD at around 5.5 months old woke every 2 hours like yours. In the day I demand fed her which would end up being every 2 hours or so for 2 minutes only. I was also feeding her to sleep for her naps which wasn't working as she was often tired but not hungry.

All in all I was very tired so decided to abandon demand feeding and start a 3 hour feeding pattern so she got more each feed. I also stopped feeding her to sleep (I started putting her in a sling to sleep but that is another problem). So she would be awake for 2 hours, then nap for 1 hour, then feed when she woke up. That first night she woke to be fed every 3 hours rather than 2 which made me much happier.

At 7 months I decided to stretch it to 4 hours seeing as she was eating solids too. It wasn't as easy and we had tears at first which made me worry that she was going to starve but as soon as we managed a whole day of 4 hour feeding result! she went 4 hour stretches at night.

I have no idea why this has worked but people tell me that Gina Ford etc advocate 4 hour schedules so maybe they are onto something