Feeding advice for night feeds

[irishgirl24]

I am a bit confused about how to schedule my baby's feeding. We are ff and moving onto next stage which is supposed to be 5 5oz feeds per day. Friends have said that babies automatically at some point drop their middle of the night feed but should I be factoring that feed into the schedule. Surely she will never drop it if its part of what she should be getting?

What timings do others use? Should I feed her the required amount during all the other feeds and count the 3am one as an extra and just give her less?

what age is your lo? What do you mean about moving to the next stage? Surely you give the amount of milk your lo wants rather than limiting to 5oz? Are they on solids yet?

Bit confused - your baby will let you know that she only needs 5 feeds by sleeping through the night therefore automatically dropping the night feed herself, but she will only do that if she has had enough during the day feeds to keep her going for that long stretch.

What are you giving at the moment?

I only use the quantities as a rough guide - when mine moved to formula the tin said 5x 180ml, but I always made the next amount up (210ml) because he took anything from 170ml to 210ml so it allowed for the extra if he chose to take it.

On the advice of our MW (albeit 18 years ago), we used less powder in the night time feeds after several months, and also gradually decreased the amount of formula we offered DD. The night time feed was enough to comfort and sooth her back to sleep, but meant that she'd be hungrier in the morning when she woke up, and she'd take more formula during the day. We gradually reduced the night time feed until it was water, and she gradually took more in the day time as a result. Eventually, we just stopped offering bottles during the night, and just got her back to sleep with cuddles.

Hi she is only 6 weeks so not expecting it any time soon just was wondering how they drop their feed if and when it happens. She is currently on 8 x 4oz per day which is already loads over what it suggests on the tin. The next stage is when she reaches 8 weeks to up the amounts but change the number of feeds but I find it all so confusing because she seems to need so much more than the guidelines suggest.

The guidelines are only guidelines. Everyone, and all babies are different. If she empties the bottle each time try making up a little more. You might find she goes longer between feeds if she has more at each one.

she's still tiny so just give her what she wants when she wants for the time being. She will take larger amounts less often when she is ready to.

We dropped the night feed when they started sleeping through of their own accord, she'll drop it when she's ready which may or may not be for quite a long time, 6 weeks is tiny!

We dropped the 3am feed at about 20 weeks and the 11pm once weaning was properly established.

If she is regulalry draining the bottle up it by an ounce and see how she goes.

Ignore the amounts on the tin (or just use them as a very rough guide of the total daily amount your baby should be having).

Be led by your baby. When she drains 5oz bottles then increase them to 6oz - just feed on demand and you'll get a feel for it and she'll end up making her own schedule after a while. Don't worry about a schedule for overnight - just feed as and when she needs it. If you want to follow a rough schedule during the day, just be led by your baby - she'll let you know when she wants more milk.

IIRC DS had 7-8 x 4oz bottles at this stage, and woke about 3 times in the night. Very gradually he started taking more, but never went more than 3 hours in the day between feeds, right up until weaning.

Some babies will just drop feeds by themselves overnight, but this usually doesn't happen for a while yet - don't restrict night feeds at the moment, she's way too young.

HTH :)

Thank you all, think will up her feeds a bit because she's draining the bottle every time, was just a bit scared to go against the instructions on the tin x

I prefer to go by weight rather than weeks on the tin, I.e ds is on the recommended amount for 5 months, but matches his weight. This is upped or lowered depending on his feeding habits. Wrt night feed I found four hourly during the day with last big feed at 9/10pm ensured he'd sleep around 6 hours, effectively missing the midnight bottle he'd gotten used to. Could only do this from 12 weeks though, at 6 weeks we fed on demand- his stomach is too small to go very long between feeds, and trying to limit to 5 feeds daily at that age didn't work for us at all.

Fwiw ds was on 6 6oz bottles daily at 6 weeks- way over according to the tin, but he clearly needed it. They are only guidelines and all babies are different