Is he hungry?! What do your 7 1/2 month olds eat?

[Creamplease]

My son waks every 2 hours through the night to feed. I'm in zombie mode as I have a 6 year old and 20 month old (who also gets up!) But I am wondering if he is not eating enough.

In the morning he has abowl of porridge or 1/2 a weetabix with 3oz formula milk at 8am. 9.30 first nap and a feed (bf). 11am lunch- bowl of pasta/cheese/tomato sauce blended. He then will often eat bbits of his sisters pasta that has dropped as he is crawling and crusing everywhere. 1ish a nap and bf. 230ish snacks a couple of rice cakes. 330, last nap and bf. 5- bowl of what we areeatingblended. I wouldsay his bowls are equivalant to about 3/4 of them 7plus jar foods. Maybe a bit less. 7pm bedtime and a bf.

Then the trouble starts. His first sleep is good- up to 3/4 hours. so between 10-11 wakes for a feed.. Then after that it is EVERY 2 hours, sometimes less!!

He has reflux but because he is upright now and nearly walking it has calmed down so much- still sick every day but not that much. And only sicks up milk, not the food. So at first I didn't mind feeding throughout the night, but now he is not sick..so I can only think he must be hungry?!

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated!

[SamSmalaidh]

So only 3 breastfeeds in the day? I think that could be the issue - he is making up for it at night.

Does he feed to sleep? The night waking might be less to do with hunger and more to do with needing a feed to get back to sleep.

[Creamplease]

between 7am and 10pm, 5 breastfeeds. He basically feeds when he wants though, he'll start grabbing at my chest, so I feed him. If he wanted more I would happily give more. He is very active and nosey. He doesn't like to feed when we are out/ or if hs sister is playing ect- but he will eat his meals.

I would sat that 2 of the night feeds are 'proper' feeds, longs feeds. The rest are a 5 minute suckle and then back to sleep.

I'm at my wits ends! Today I am trying a day of formula to see if it helps!

[SamSmalaidh]

At this age I fed DS 4 hourly at night - if he woke in between times then DP soothed him back to sleep and he soon stopped waking except at feed times - so 7pm, 11pm, 3am and 7am. Actually I think at 7 months I might have been working on dropping the 3am feed, pushing it later and later and doing a formula feed at 11pm.

[Creamplease]

Thank you, maybe I will try and put him back to sleep without feeding him.. make the gaps go a bit longer!

[Seriouslysleepdeprived]

Could he have problems with cows milk?It accounts for 50% of reflux.

DS has issues with dairy & soy. Once I got really strict with excluding dairy & soy from my diet (as BFing) & his sleep improved massively. He has gone from waking 7 times a night (which was killing me) to once waking once. Couldn't believe it.

I now feel bad as he must have been waking with drummer ache & feeding for comfort to get back to sleep. If the formula makes him sick dairy could be the culprit.

[Creamplease]

Thanks for that, but he only has 3oz of formula a day! The rest is breastmilk, unless it is my diary I'm eating your saying?

Things are improving though, instead of feeding him lying down in my bed and us sleeping together, I am feeding him upright, then when he is sleepy straight back in his cot! Still waking about 3/4 hours but definately an improvement!

[Seriouslysleepdeprived]

Hi yes the proteins in dairy travel through breast milk and can cause reflux. I was have been dairy & soy free & it's made such a difference. I'm pretty gutted he has issues with it thought tbh but hopefully he should out grow it.

[Creamplease]

interesting.. I don't drink milk.. but do like my butter and cook with cream and things.. and he only sicks up his milk, not the food. I will look a bit more closely at what I eat as well. Thanks.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Sounds like he is reverse cycling. Try a bf every 2 hours during the day or 3 at least. Can't do links at the moment but google kellymom reverse cycling.