What is going on????

[MichelleM]

Help! My DS (just coming 15wks) had until this week been a great night-time sleeper, just waking once in the night for a feed (3.30am). He has a good night-time routine,and goes to bed after 7.30pm breastfeed.

At the start of the week he had a 2 day growth spurt, where he fed every hour to hour&
half during the day. On the third day he slept loads all day (very unlike him!) and slept great that night (7.30pm - 5am).

It all went downhill rapidly after that......4th night woke up 3 times......5th night woke up every 1 1/2hr or so........ 6th night woke up nearly every hour. At each waking he is crying his head off until fed, and he does seem hungry as is feeding for 12-15 minutes each time.

What is going on?????? Surely its not still a growth spurt, as his daytime feeds are every 2hrs as normal. Or is my milk supply drying up? Or is this the sign that he needs solids....I was really hoping to leave weaning until much later?

Thanks

MichelleM, I understand totally about feeling pulled in two directions. I could not have waited until 6 months without a very patient and understanding dh, who was prepared to take on his mother, and get up a lot in the night. I think he was reasonably easy to convince because he suffered terribly with eczema as a child and still remembers missing out on stuff. If you don't have allergies in your family it might be harder.
Most of my friends babies are now on 3 meals a day and I do find it hard that they can feed their babies everything they want, use formula, bathe them in bubbles. Sometimes I get a bit fed up that every time I take out ds someone asks me what's wrong with his face. I am crying as I type this - hadn't realised I was so very upset. I suppose I worry people will still ask me this when he is old enough to understand.
One thing I have found invaluable is La Leche League meetings. I was initially very sceptical and thought I may have to knit my own yoghurt. But it wasn't like that at all. Maybe you could call your local leader for a confidence boost.

motherinferior, call me. I urgently want to reassure you re expressing. if ever I saw a perfect candidate it's you! Bobthebaby. I am so sad you are upset.Ignore your so called friends. You are a total heroine and it breaks my heart that people feel sad and guilty for trying to to the best for their baby.

Thanks for that Aloha, its not my friends who ask about his face - its usually little old ladies (who probably fed solids at 3 weeks )He is a lovely little chap and I feel blessed to have him.

And I bet he's totally gorgeous too!

I dont know where I'd be without the support of all you Mumsnetters
Thanks for your links Elliot & Pupuce - got DH to read some of this, which has certainly helped a good deal. Also got him to sleep in spare room last night so that he wasnt woken up all the time by DS. Agreed that we will have another talk about it next week....every day is another day just on breastmilk for DS. Am also hoping that by next week DS will be sleeping better, so that will further help my case.

Good for you. And big hugs to dh for supporting you. If you just keep saying - one more day, one more day before you know it you'll have a six month old! If any allergies crop up later you will know you did all you could. Good for you again.

bobthebaby - my heart goes out to you - I had terrible eczema (and asthma, rhinitis etc) as a child and suffered all the pain of kids at school making comments plus people who should know better like the school dinner lady. And I missed out on fun stuff like swimming in the sea, because it hurt too much. I was even hospitalised at one point with infected eczema. Even now, when I have eczema flare ups it astonishes me how some idiot, perhaps in the canteen at work, will say "Ooh you've got a terrible red patch on your face" ... like I hadn't noticed and wasn't already feeling self conscious about it. Pah ... some people ...

The good news for you is ... many many many babies and kiddies do grow out of eczema ... although I go through bad phases my skin is much clearer and I know what to do to get it under control. I really recommend the Eczema Society for support.

Sorry this has veered off topic ... on the subject of breastfeeding. I did the same as you, given my history. You do the best you can for your own baby and you should be proud of yourself. It can be really hard work, but like you say, you know you've done your bit.

I think my HV is giving out the wrong information but want to check if I'm wrong! My baby is 6 months old and I was given a pile of leaflets by HV including one on weaning which says no younger than FOUR months to start. I can only think that she's giving out old leaflets and doesn't know that the advice has changed to six months. I want to mention it next time I visit the Baby Clnic which will be next week or the week after. Is there some sort of overlap when advice changes so they can use up their leaflets?!
Luckily I had no intention of weaning at 4 months or earlier and just got started about a week before baby was 6 months. I did the same with my son who is now 8.

bobthebaby. i had exactly the same thing with my dd1. people would peer into the pram and instead of the usual 'oh what a cute baby' etc, i got 'whats wrong with her face' i replied on more than one occasion 'there is nothing worng with her face, she has ezcema' thro very gritted teeth, when all i wanted to do is hit them round the head with a bottle of oilatum!! i have yet to find bubbles suitable for my dd, i also feel she misses out on a lot (she is now 3.5), someone once gave her bob the builder bubble bath as a present. i had to hide it sharpish otherwise would've had tantrums over bubble bath.
some people find infaderm ok to use, not very bubbly, but it didnt suit my dd.

misdee - thanks. Oh no, birthdays and Christmasses - hadn't thought of that. Still a boy is unlikely to get "smellies." I have now seen a paediatric allergy specialist, and have some new things to try. He showed me his success stories with before and after photos, and it looks quite impressive. Of course they will be the best ones, but I keep telling myself there is no reason why my ds couldn't be one of the best too. Cheered up a bit now.

we finally have recieved out appointments for allergy testing with paediatrics. i have been battling for 3 years for them.
i do sometimes wonder if i had breastfed for longer (only managed 6 weeks, was advised to give formula by HV as she was slow to gain and all the rest, wish i had carried on bf) whether or not her eczema would be milder, ot even apparrent. but then i remember the fact she peeled head to toe after being born, turned into a scaley little baby after that, then the eczema patches came apparent shortly after switching to formula. my 2nd dd, was breastfed for 8 weeks, she has slight ezcema, rarely bothers her, tho she does seem a bit dry at times, easily solved by pinching her sisters creams.
getting back to the original question...........
it could be a growth spurt, i'd stick with the breastfeeding for now.

Davros... I think the advice is babies do not need anything else than breastmilk until they are 6 months old which is slightly different than sayingno solids before 6 months. Also I am not 100% sure that the same applies for formula fed. Breastmilk is the BEST food babies until they are 6 months old as they get everything they need.... this may not be the case if you wean too early.

Please anyone correct me if I am wrong.

Davros here is the DOH news release

Still dont know what is going on with DS. He is still waking up three or four times during the night (thats 3 wks now ), and will only settle back if I breastfeed him.

I am convinced that he is "stockpiling" during the night, as he feeds less frequently in the day now and feeds have shortened to about 10 minutes, whilst at night takes twice as long, and sometimes both sides. Is this possible and should I be trying to break this habit, or should I just dry up and quit moaning ?

Also still getting constant unsubtle hints from in-laws about feeding him solids. Even Health Visitor pressuring me as well. She gave me a weaning leaflet which recommends starting gradual weaning at 4 months, and build to full 3 meals a day by 6 months. When I challenged her about the new 6 mth recommendation, she said it was still recommended to introduce tastes and textures and spoon-feeding earlier, so that baby was ready to eat more substantial meals by 6 mths. Oh its all beginning to make my head hurt

The baby gets new tastes every day from your breastmilk. As for new textures, well puree is puree!
Try to offer more during the day. I know as I got more used to having a baby and doing other things I "forgot" to feed. Result was night waking.
I think your health visitor is wrong. They have done research on picky eaters and found 6 months on breastmilk does not make picky eaters. All babies will learn to eat solid food - how many adults do you see eating their meals through a straw?
Ignore your family and enjoy not having to provide 3 meals a day for a baby who really doesn't need it. You are very portable with a bf baby - make the most of your last few weeks of not having to cart food and spoons about.

Thanks Bobthebaby - I really appreciate your support through this......its great to have someone restore my confidence that I'm doing the right thing.

My ds was bf exclusively until 6 mo. and eats everything and I mean everything. For example we were out at dinner tonight (greek) and ds (almost 3) ate his way through all the bitter olives, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, minty garlic greek sausage, lamb etc. without even noticing the large plate of chips they had brought for him. Until I did controlled crying at 6 months (the same week I started solids) he never slept for longer than 2 hours at a go day and night. He now sleeps solidly through the night and through any and every loud noise you could imagine. I would ignore most of what hv's tell you.

Does the WHO recommendation apply to babies that get formula as well as breastmilk. DS will be 5 months when I go back to work and I will need to replace daytime feeds with formula but will continue BF when with him. (I feel really guilty about giving formula instead of BF, as I want to give him the best start, but find expressing very exhausting and won't have enough time once back at work full time.)

Will he need other foods before 6 months then or will he still get everything he needs through milk.

Sorry Michellem - your HV is not up to date. She has told you the same old p*sh I got told 10 years ago when exclusively feeding my dd till 6 months. She is a really good eater and had absolutely no problems with eating from a spoon.
Agree with bobthebaby to offer more feeds during the day. I would continue feeding her during the night though but hopefully she will look for less if she is offered more in the day.
Danishpastry - breastmilk is best for 6 months but if you can't achieve that, you could give formula if you prefered to delay solids.
Personally it was only my 4th child i managed the exclusive 6 months of B/F before introducing solids. I personally did not want to use formula at all so I expressed a stochpile of milk before I went back to work. You don't have to spens a lot of time doing it - you can gather small amounts at a time. It's amazing how quickly it mounts up. I then expressed at work to replace what was used. You will need to do whatever suits you best whether that is introducing formula or solids when you go back to work. I would do the latter but that is just me

just to say, I continued exclus. bf for about 6 months with both no 1 and 2. Despite pressure I preferred not to start to early because of a family history of allergies. Even if there is only a small chance it is better to wait a bit I think it is worth it. When solids were introduced it did NOT stop the nightfeeds;I think they just woke up and had a sip for comfort rather than being really hungry.

MichelleM, I think you need to space out those feeds at night to cut them down and increase the feeds by day.

Hi Michelle, I have a 22 week old who still has phases like this. She's just come out of one and for the last couple of nights has just had one short feed between 7 and 7. If I had put her on solids I'd have assumed it was that but I'm also keen to wait. I found the problem was that she was too nosey to feed in the day and so have had to make an effort to offer her feeds qhite frequently and accept that sometimes she just has a snack. I've also stopped feeding her in bed before she goes to sleep at night (sounds od but she has a couple of teeth so have started brusing etc) and miraculously she seems to have been going to sleep and then sleeping better! Odd things babies - they're different everyday. Stick in there you'll get through the rough patch and it'll be worth it