How to get 7mo to drink more than 120mls in one go or eat more? (so i have a chance of him sleeping though the night...)

[Romilly70]

DS has been demand FF since birth (basically I didn?t have enough breastmilk to ebf, so bf on demand and then topped up with a bottle. Now he is exclusively FF, as well as eating solids for the last month.)

Problem is, he can' take more than 120mls of formula in one go, as i have created this bad situation of little and often - he never goes more than 2 hours, perhaps sometimes hourly without a bottle.

He now weighs 7.5kg - about 16lbs and i am struggling to stuff him full of milk at night. He eats a couple of meals a day, depending on his mood / appetite. I was starting off with breakfast - mashed banana, puree, fromage frais, baby porridge at 10 - 11ish and then "lunch" - some kind of fish or meat and veggie puree about 4ish, but now the paediatrician (I am in france - told me not to give him meat in the evening as it is not good for his kidneys.) I thought some protein at night would help him sleep as it would digest more slowly, so I have swapped round and he has protein at lunch (late morning) and the porridge etc in the late afternoon. both meals take up to an hour to feed and I end up giving him milk just to make sure he has enough nutrition.

Also, I am supposed to be reducing his milk to make sure that he has enough to eat, but I want to make sure he has enough milk to try and go through the night. (last night he woke at 1.30am and now 6am, - this is after going to bed around 9pm, he is happily asleep in my bed with DP.).

I feel like I have made such a hash of things and am totally confused by the not giving him meat at night, as the most successful night?s sleep I had was when DS had some chicken casserole about 6pm followed by baby porridge and puree and slept about 9.30pm till 7am. (i have also started putting cereal in his night bottle - it is a french thing, and the paediatrician also recommended it. although i know on mn they are a bit anti it, but i am desperate to get calories into DS to get him through the night.)

I really need to get him into some sort of structure as I am turning into a very grumpy zombie as I think DS has slept through the night a maximum of a couple of week?s since he was born.

He is a particular energetic and active baby. DP says he is like him, fast metabolism and cannot eat loads in one go, but I really want to try and train / encourage DS to eat more in one go. Please advise, as I really have no idea where to begin?

[TanteRose]

phew, I'm spinning just reading that

you need to relax a bit

you can't force feed a baby more than he wants, he is only 7 months and he sleeps 5 hour stretches, which is some people's definition of sleeping through.

please stop putting cereal in his bottle, its obviously not working, and it IS a choking hazard.

you say yourself he is energetic and active and in my experience, this means waking more...

he will naturally begin to eat more as he grows - his tummy is still quite small. He will only feel uncomfortable if you force him to eat more, and it may well mean that he gets tummy ache and sleeps LESS!

BTW, you have NOT made a hash of things - he is who he is! He is a person who needs little and often, and who doesn't sleep from 7 to 7...you may have to get used to it!

[Seona1973]

Maybe he needs more complex carbs as well as protein e.g. pasta, (proper) rice, root veg, etc. At that age ds had 3 small meals - 8am - breakfast of weetabix/ready brek with pureed fruit, 12pm - lunch and 5pm- dinner. He had milk 5 times a day (well, one feed was in the night until 8 months). He had meat in his 5pm meal and have never heard of the kidney thing. It is not just food that gets them through the night as it is also developmental and they can wake even if they are not hungry.

[Sirzy]

He is still only young, a lot of babies don't sleep through at this age. Ds is 18 months and has only just realised it's a good idea to sleep all night, and still not constantly.

You can't force a baby to sleep through Unfortunatly!

[Alicious]

Hi, I'm also in France and I know what you mean about the cereal powders in the bottle-everyone seems to be doing it over here! My paediatrician is dead against it even for my underweight little boys and insists that it won't make them sleep any longer. It is confusing for a british mother in France cos the French way of handling weaning is so different. For DS1 I made a total hash of things because I blindly obeyed the doctor rather than following my instincts. This time I am going BLW all the way even if no one has heard of it here (got odd looks out at lunchtime today when DS2 6 months got stuck into my Salmon and rice and veg, but whatever).
Anyway, remember that your DS is still tiny, and might not sleep through for a while yet, but a couple of things to try...more milk feeds in the day, and spending less time feeding solids-one hour at the 'table' for a 7 mo is a far too long imho. At 7 months the milk still has to take top priority over any solid food. Also do you give milk before the solids? I think it is best to feed the milk first so that they're not starving hungry then give the solids (read that somewhere).
As for the protein thing-not too sure but personally would give a more substantial lunch and a lighter dinner with rice, veg and less meat for easier digestion.
It is hard, especially with all the conflicting advice, out here they make such a big deal out of sleeping through-it isn't the be all and end all, they all do it in the end, it just takes time.

[naturalbaby]

i remember getting to this point with my older boys and stuffing them with milk and food all day! i did the main meal with meat or protein at lunch (12 ish) then 5pm dinner with pasta, potato or rice to fill them up, then bedtime milk then offered more cereal just before bed. when they fed at night i fed until they started dozing off and tried to get them settled with the smallest amount of milk i could. you then slowly decrease night feeds and the day feeds increase. i wouldn't try and decrease milk during the day at this age, they have only been on solids for 1month which isn't very long at all. i fed on demand so if they had as much milk as they wanted and as they got better at eating solids and ate more they dropped the milk on their own.