15 weeks on and still snacking?!

[huggiemom]

Hi
I wonder if someone might be able to give me some advice/reassurance on how my 15week old DD is feeding. She's exclusively BF and seems to need to feed every 2hrs, sometimes more frequently. At night she had been lengthening out her time between feeds (going down around 8 and best ever length was to 5am!!) but over the last 2 weeks this has gone down the pan and now she wakes up every 2-3 hours looking for food. Is this normal? Sometimes I feel she just feeds for about 5 mins. Should I just ride it out and hope we go back to longer periods at night? Or do you think this might be a comfort thing and I'm creating a terrible habit? Perhaps I should be trying to encourage less feeds at night? Any advice would be welcomed...I have a fairly high energy toddler and am feeling exhausted!

[leedy]

Sounds unfortunately normal to me - Google "4 month sleep regression". It's not a bad habit, or "snacking", it's sadly how most 4 month olds operate: there's a huge developmental leap around then and they a)need a lot of fuel and b)need a lot of comfort. The annoying thing is that there's not much you can do about it, the good thing is that it tends to go away by itself.

[vichill]

This happened to me and I hate to say it but its still going on at 14 months. Its probably less to do with snacking in a nutritional but a way of checking in with you at night. If it does persist my only advice would be to try and accept this behaviour makes her feel safe and loved rather than a habit that needs to be broken. As soon as I changed my way of thinking I felt much more able to cope.

[Hedgehogging]

My 18 week old is the same.

During the day is fine as I'm a little and often eater myself and have never had any weight problems or issues with food so I figure maybe she's taking after me!

Night times WERE reasonable but then went to pot between at 3 month growth spurt and 4 month regression- every 2 hours or more frequently at night having had a spell with just one or two wakes prior.

I just went with it, and she's sllllllooooowwwwly getting better . I have started offering her a soother and head rub if it's been less than 2 hours since her last wake/feed and this often now pushes her on for another hour or two- if she's hungry she'll spit that out and let me know!

Seems to be yet another phase. She's gone through so many "phases" now I just accept each night as it comes

[huggiemom]

Thanks, that is reassuring and I feel much better knowing that this is pretty normal. I'd forgotten about the 4 month sleep regression. My HV was extremely unhelpful and told me that if she wakes frequently at night I should put her back in the cot, shut the door, walk away and let her cry. How desperately unkind that would be.

Thank you
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