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Infant feeding

Help with hungry 4.5 month old

5 replies

MtnBikeChick · 10/03/2014 07:33

My 4.5 month (20 weeks) baby is big (8.5kgs) and is EBF. He doesn't love the bottle although he will take an oz or two from it. He's slept all night 7-7 from 11 weeks and I found the dream feed never worked with him, unlike DS1. This last 4 days he has started waking at 430am ravenous. This is understandable given his age/size! I am in a quandary as to what to do and don't want to leap to weaning if not yet necessary. Does anyone have any advice? I was thinking of trying to get him to take a decent bottle top up before his bath (his hungriest time of day) or trying a dream feed again at 10pm. Any experience? Thank you!

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Rockchick1984 · 10/03/2014 08:17

Totally normal to have a growth spurt at this stage - it does pass fairly quickly. Weaning wouldn't necessarily lead to a longer sleep or feeling less hungry, as there's more calories in milk than in early weaning foods :)

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callamia · 10/03/2014 08:27

We are experiencing similar - going from no waking to two overnight. I'm just going with it and hoping it phases out. My son is 5 months and similarly sized. He feeds for about 10 mins and then goes back in his cot asleep. I think his waking is also about changes to his sleep cycles.

I've tried giving a top up ebf bottle, but no difference. Bm is digested pretty quickly, so I'm assuming that it won't make much of a difference six hours later. I also wonder whether it might have precipitated an epic 3am poo...

I've not considered introducing food as a method of managing night hunger - I don't see that it will necessarily help things in the short term. I am looking forward to starting though!

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Midori1999 · 10/03/2014 08:43

It's totally normal. All you need to do is BF on demand. No need for solids or other milk and there's no evidence that these will increase his sleep anyway.

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KatAndKit · 10/03/2014 08:50

If he is sleeping through till 4am I would just feed him then. If you do the dream feed you risk ending up doing two night feeds if he wakes at 4 anyway.