should I go back to bfing dd more at night?

[HeadFairy]

She's 8.5 months old and very active, crawling, cruising, really wants to walk. She's also going through that phase when she wants to feed herself, so no more spoon feeding. The problem is that she doesn't really want to bf much either, to the extent that it's affecting my milk supply.

I know milk is very important until they're 1, and I had stopped night feeds as she didn't really need them, but should I go back to doing them? She does wake at night but usually just for a cuddle, she goes back to sleep fairly easily without feeding, but she does wake a few times in the night, so perhaps I'm mistaken in thinking she doesn't need bfing?

bump

I personally wouldn't go back to feeding at night. Need to ensure a good varied diet during the day and still offer BF during the day. Maybe she's just going to self wean early.

If you still wanted to offer breast milk (and shes not interested) would you consider expressing and offering in a cup?

Waking a few times at night at this age is normal - there are big developmental spurts at around 37 and 46 weeks (8/9 months ish) which cause many babies to be more wakeful at night in the weeks running up to them.

I would guess that if she settles easily without feeding, she's not waking because she needs feeding IYSWIM. But I don't know much about whether it might be a good idea for you to reintroduce a night feed.

If you offer solids before milk, then she is likely to fill up on solids and may not take so much milk. If you aren't already doing so, you could try offering milk before solid meals.

angeldog, I've been bfing before meals usually so hopefully she hasn't been filling up on solids (unless I'm giving her so much she's still full from the previous meal!).

Previously her feeding has been as follows...

7.30am bf
8.30am breakfast (porridge or something similar)
midday bf
1pm lunch
3pm bf
5pm tea
7.30pm bf
10.30pm dreamfeed.

I realise it's quite a lot of feeds for 8/9 months but she takes so little at each feed I think she might need that many.

I've really noticed the change in her sleep patterns (more so than with ds), we had one hellish night when she was awake from 1am to 5am just frantically bouncing around wanting to walk! She's also teething - just to make her night waking even more regular. However, she does settle pretty easily (well, I lie down on the spare bed in her room with her and she goes to sleep straight away - as do I!)

If she really was hungry in the night she would not settle without a feed.

5 BFs is a lot if she is having 3 meals, and at the age can probably take full feed very quickly. If you are concerned change the times so she has her solids right after a BF, this will cut the amount of solids and increase the amount if milk.

That's a good idea MumNWLondon, I'll try tomorrow to bf her immediately before her meals. Her general food intake has reduced quite a bit anyway, I think it's part of the whole "muuuuum I haven't got time to eat, I'm going crawling... seeya!" thing :o

Ah, and while I think of it, the developmental spurts definitely can affect feeding (milk and solids) as well as sleep, behaviour etc. More info here.

Sounds like you're doing okay. The wanting to be awake for a long spell in the night definitely sounds like a developmental thing to me at least.

haha angeldog, I posted that very link to someone else the other day! It could be written about my life right now! I really hope she calms down because I'm shattered. I'm being a very lazy mother and instead of sleep training or whatever I should be doing right now I just lie down in bed with her and she goes right back to sleep. It's the only way I can actually get more than 4 hours sleep. Of course, it would be nice to sleep in my own bed occasionally. If I don't stay in with her though I'm up and down all night. She wakes up every hour roughly, her brain is going a million miles an hour!

I am still unsure as to whether she's getting enough milk, she's taking very little day or night. However I'm going to try giving her solids immediately after her bfeeds and see how that goes. The last few days I've been sneaking in an extra feed at 5am, partly to get her back to sleep quickly (I feed her lying down so I'm usually back to sleep pretty quickly too) and partly to get some more milk in to her.

It's good to give the sleep regression info an airing - so many people (understandably) post on the sleep board with 'why has my 4/9/13/18 month old suddenly stopped sleeping?

I think Moxie puts it nicely - switch from 'get the kid to stay asleep' to 'do whatever it takes to get the maximum sleep for everybody'.

My DS is 8.5 months and not that active - yet. But he's been knocked for six by previous develompental spurts, so I'm awaiting coming weeks with a degree of trepidation.

yeah, it's been a bit of a shock this time, I don't think I noticed it much with ds because I managed to catch up with my sleep during the day when he napped, but of course that's not possible now because he doesn't do naps any more. I'm definitely doing the whole "get through it in one piece" bit, throwing all caution to the wind and co-sleeping and bfing back to sleep. Ya boo sucks to all those routine gurus, you try living with a speed junkie 8 month old :o

It could be worse... I was reading on the Moxie site that a lot of babies stop feeding to sleep around 8-10 months. That would be hideous to add to the mix.

In fact, my DS is being a bit iffy about feeding to sleep at the moment - I'm hoping it's just a blip.

Yeah, the routine gurus seem to be oblivious to developmental (and growth) spurts somehow.