Ten week old Ds does nearly all his feeding between 6pm and misnight

[ridingsixwhitehorses]

Ds is a far better sleeper than my older two ever were. He goes to bed around midnight and wakes once for a feed between then and about 8am. He is mix fed and sometimes the night feed is boob and sometimes formula. I start with boob and if he doesn't fall back to sleep straight after then he also has some bottle.

But because of the late night he also then sleeps a lot in the morning and early afternoon, occasionally having a bit of a feed but not that much. He has breast milk on demand but my supply is (and always has been, for all my kids even when doing 20 hours a day feeding and pumping) low. In the morning he'll have about 90ml formula and again late morning.

But when he most wants milk is between about 6pm and midnight when he gets hungry and grouchy and goes through multiple cycles of being fed then burped then changed then awake then repeat. (he hates being wet so lots of changing). He also won't be put down during this time.

Now I feel truly blessed to have a sleeper this time. First two kids slept so badly and everything was utterly exhausting. But obv our evenings are pretty hard at the moment yet I also have two other kids to get to bed (aged 5 and 2).

So any ideas? How can I get Ds to eat more in the day and start his nights earlier? I feel like he gets about 60-70% of his milk intake in that 6 hours.

[Verbena37]

How do you feel at not mix feeding him?
Is there a specific reason not to exclusively breastfeed? If you're pumping anyway? If you only breastfeed, your milk supply will increase to cope.

You could give it a go and if he doesn't settle after one breast feed, feed him more breast until he drops off. By topping up with bottle, he could have tummy ache as formula is harder for them to digest than breast milk.

That said, if you have two other children, you're probably shattered so I can see why you are mixing it. It all depends how well you can cope with less sleep. It's your decision. Most babies do cluster feed between those hours you state. Could your partner get more involved with taking DS from you after evening feeds, giving his bath etc. Milk smells stronger at night and if he smells you, he will want you.

Also, is he feeding on demand during the day? If not, perhaps try offering more breast feeds during the day to see if he will then take less at night.
You don't mention his age but it's pretty normal for babies to feed for longer stints at night.

How about waking him once or twice in the night? I know you're enjoying his long night time sleeps but it's more normal for breastfed babies to wake a few times in the night for feeds through to toddler years. If he wakes during the night perhaps he will then take more during next day.

[leaningtoweroflego]

Cluster feeding (often in the evenings) is the baby's way of getting your body to produce more milk. If I was concerned about supply, i wouldn't top up with formula - your baby is doing all that hard work for nothing if it's on a bottle as cluster feeding a bottle won't up your supply! But cluster feeding with you should.

[ridingsixwhitehorses]

Hi,

Am happy with choice to mix feed. Is for various reasons won't go into here...

Main thing is how to get him to eat more in daytime so not stocking up all evening. As at some point in next few months we would like to start putting him to bed at bedtime not at midnight.

[daluze]

My DS2 was cluster feeding like that till about 11-12 weeks and then suddenly stopped. To be honest, I don't think you can do much about it. You can try offering feeds more often at daytime, but it may or may not help. I could not feed mine if he was not hungry.
We had only one toddler at the time, so it was a bit easier than with two, my DH was doing his bath and bedtime, while I was feeding. He stopped around 11-12 weeks and then I introduced bedtime.

[ridingsixwhitehorses]

He is ten weeks so maybe this will stop in a couple of weeks... X

[Freezingwinter]

I'm not sure you can do anything to be honest. If he's not hungry in the day he won't take Breast or bottle. It's normal to cluster feed in the evening and my son (ebf) did up to about three months when bedtime became normal again.

[NickyEds]

I think some (most??) tiny babies just need to feed a lot in the evenings. My dd is now 5.5 months and she cluster fed like this until around 4 months and then slept but wouldn't be put down until 5 months. It was a great relief when she started to go down into her cot just in time for Christmas. Dd is mix fed in that she has 1 bottle of f a day and we now do that at 7- bedtime, but tbh honest I think they have to just be ready. I'm not sure you'll convince your ds to take more during the day, I suppose you could just offer very frequently but my dd would just refuse the breast if she wasn't interested. I'd be tempted to wait it out.