To give 4 and a half month old porridge

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My DD is 4 and a half month old. She wakes 3 times during the night to feed. I offer her 5 ounce and she drinks 4 - 4.5, so she truly is waking to feed. I have been told that mixing some baby porridge in with formula before bedtime will help her sleep longer. However now a days your advised to wait until 6 month to give baby any sort of food, but baby porridge says 4 month+ on packaging.

Dunno what to do for the best. WWYD? Let baby wake for feeds or try and fill up more before sleep?

Once she starts stretching out the night feeds, then you can start reducing them. Although you have to be sure she is still getting her full quota of milk feeds in 24 hrs. If she starts drinking less during her night bottles, reduce them by an ounce. No point wasting formula if she never takes it all.

4.5 months is still so early to worry about getting rid of night feeds. It’s totally normal for babies to keep waking through the night until 2 yrs....more if they’re breastfed on demand.

Amazing grace she has been in her own room since she grew out of her Moses basket at around 11 weeks. She has her Ewen the sheep that mimics real heart beats. Also we only had room for a Moses basket in our bedroom, it's not big enough for a travel cot. Co-sleeping is not a option for me

You're not even remotely funny Lola.

How many bottles is she getting during the day and at what times
usually, OP?

Have you tried feeding her more during the day if she will take it? I was leaving 4 hours between feeds at that age, and my HV suggested feeding every 2.5 to 3 hours instead and it helped, i managed to fit in an extra feed during the day and i think he started waking just once at about 5 for a feed. But he didnt go to bed as early as yours at that age, it was about 10 oclock so would have a feed before that. Also to give water at one feed in the night instead of milk and he would stop waking which he did lol. She is still very young though and might just need more milk in the night

And babies are supposed to wake at night. The obsession with babies sleeping through is insane- it just makes most parents with normal, nonsleeping babies feel like shit.

Here's a jolly thought for you OP- my DS is 18mo, cosleeping, breastfed.... has slept more than 5 hours at a stretch just TWICE in his life. Most nights he wakes twice for a feed.

I'm afraid this is what it's all about, this parenting thing.

Well, it depends on whether what you care about most is what is best for your baby - in which case wait until 6 months as per guidelines, thereby reducing the chance of future food intolerances and gut issues etc - or you possibly getting a bit more sleep. When you may not anyway despite risking her health.

If you are happy knowingly doing things deemed unsafe then that's your prerogative.

Thanks Verbena. I think I might just keep to 5oz, sometimes I think she may just want that little extra haha. I'll just stick to what I'm doing and wait it out. Some more sarcastic comments are heading my way by the looks of things.

Do you really want to get into a game of one-upmanship Queen?

Because your situation? LUXURY. There would be people lining up to tell you how easy you have it.

Or we could help the OP out a bit.

Do you mean you leave your baby lying down and feed like that? Really not a good idea. You need to hold your baby in the right position to ff. Maybe then she would take more milk?

I think the SIDS thing is a little unfair to the op.

People cannot help not having room for a cot in their room. The OP is doing all she can to reduce SIDS and I don’t think criticising a new mum is helpful.

Weebo she has about 5 bottles per day, sometimes she has 5oz or 6oz. I don't remember times she feeds I just know it's roughly 2-2.5hrs sometimes 3hrs in between feeds. She doesn't have a feeding routine. Maybe I should start noting down the times she feeding, I may see some sort of pattern

If someone is unwilling to listen to advice based on research and current guidelines then that's the only advice I have.

Advice based on anecdotes and "what worked for me" is not good enough for me to base by parenting on and it shouldn't be good enough for anyone else either.
Feeding laying down, weaning early, sleeping in separate rooms all go against guidelines and it infuriates me to know babies are being put at risk.
If you want your baby to sleep more then wait. Wait until they are out of the sleep regression, wait until they are older, and wait and see what happens.

Wolfiefan yes from now on I'm going to alert DD more during feeds. But she seems to like being flat when feeding. Even during the day when she feeds, I don't have her completely flat, but if I did have her completely flat she'd take the bottle just the same. But yes I will wake her more during night feeds

Feeding guide....
Sounds about right then...

I weaned ds(14) at 3 months (guidelines at the time) and it didn’t stop him waking a night. Sometimes it just doesn’t make a difference and you can end up with other problems instead, it’s best to keep to the current guidelines where you can.

Is that 5 in 24 hrs? So if you can pop an extra bottle in, that will be the recommended 6.

@weebo

Where was the oneupmanship? I wasn't suggesting it's a superior setup- just that all babies wake up.
I'm actually a lone parent, with no family support, working full time, and juggling an ongoing postnatal MH issue.

I do what works for me, to get me through DS' toddlerhood. It was said in a spirit of solidarity, not superiority.

If you'd like to come round and share my LUXURIOUS evening of frantically trying to meet a work deadline, while pulling my plumbing apart because the washers fucked and I've got no money to fix it, before retiring to my LUXURY bed with my sleepless toddler
Please- pull up a fucking chair.

Amazing grace have you not been reading my previous comments? If you have you will see that I am going to wait until 6 months before giving my baby any solids. Everybody parents differently. I don't love or care for my child any less just because she sleeps in her own room. She is a very well cared for baby and is loved very much.

Queen I think I love you :)

Writing down when and how much she has is a great idea.

Do it for a few days and see what's what.

Verbena yes 5 bottles but recently she's been waking before 12 for another bottle so that brings it up to six. She's gaining weight perfectly

amazing grace that’s all well and good but you cannot live people’s lives for them.
Everything I posted is becasue im a trained doula and breastfeeding mothers supporter...having supported new mums on postnatal wards, I never their homes and in baby infant feeding groups.

However, unless the OP can extend her house, she has stated she doesn’t have room in her bedroom to put a cot. I’m pretty sure that cramming a 4.5 month old into a Moses basket is going to be just as detrimental as anything else!

The guidelines were not 3 months 14 years ago. They changed from 4 to 6 months in 2003 as that's when dd was born.

Weebo I'll start doing that tomorrow I used to do it a while ago when DD was only a couple of weeks old. HV advises it as she was taking a while to regain her birth weight.