3 month old eating lots at night and not so much during day

[newmum28]

My 3 month old dd is doing pretty well most nights, she goes to bed at 7, wakes 12 ish and then half four or five ish, goes back till 7. Sometimes she wakes more and we have to re settle her. The issue is that she downs 2 full bottles in the night, but often in her daytime feeds she only will take 3 or 4 ounces (formula) which is really frustrating. I know I can't force feed her and I don't want to remotely, but I do want her to have her calories during the day. Would anyone advise reducing the amount we give her at night? We tried a dreamfeed when she was about 7 to 10 weeks but it never seemed to make a difference and she always woke up. I just want her to eat more in the day. Any ideas welcome!

My friend had the same problem. DS was downing bottles at night but just taking small feeds during the day. She eventually realised that it was 'wrong' (or at least would be better for all if DS ate during the day!). Think she had to gradually move some of the night time feed to the day. Obviously you don't want to suddenly stop feeding DD at night so can you gradually reduce night feed by 1 oz and see if you can move it ounce by ounce to the day feed. At the moment her body is probably used to the food at night so you just need to tip the balance the other way.

Any help?

I had this problem with my DD (now 5). She would feed all night and not much during the day and when I started to wean her I found that she had very little appetite for solids. Also I was knackered as also had an older DS so couldn't do the "sleep when your baby sleeps" thing.

When she got to 6 months I used a sleep training method, I think it was in a book called "solve your childs sleep problem", it basically involved reducing the amount she fed at night, gradually night by night. She was bf so it was done by number of minutes fed but obviously with ff you could go by no of ounces. Perhaps you could try a very gentle version of this and see if she would settle at night feeds with less?

Good luck

thank you that's really helpful will try tonight reducing by an ounce and see what happens!

2 night feeds at 12 weeks old is not too bad going at all.. esp as she is 4 -5 hours .

if you respond to her needs, and feed her when she is hungry, she will eventually regulate her appetite and will gradullay increase what she takes in teh day

definitely don;t reduce the amount at night, she is hungry for it and will cry and be distressed due to hunger and much harder to settle

if she wakes, feeds and goes straight back to sleep, sounds far preferable to a baby crying from hunger

sorry, 4 -5 hours between feeds at night