Dd (ff) is her eating affecting her ability to not sleep through

[ILoveGreggsSausageRolls]

My DD is five mo. She used to sleep through the night from 10 to 6. She then hit 3.5 months and it all went back a step.

The trouble is although she is fed on demand I don't think she takes enough milk in the day. Although her weight gain has stayed on the 25th centile from birth, so she must be taking enough.

The trouble is she can take anything from 4 to 7 oz a bottle. So she doesn't have a big bottle before bed and subsequently wakes twice in the night

Our routine is bath, bottle and bed by 7pm (which she fell into herself). Then she'll wake around midnight and have about 5 ish oz and the same again at 4-5am.

I could cope with one feed a night, but two is starting to really effect me.

Does anyone have any advice to try and coax her to eat her milk in the day more?

Try a dream feed before you go to bed? Then you'd probably only have one night feed.

I don't think it is a good idea to try to coax a baby to take more milk than they want - overfeeding can be a risk of bottles.

I was thinking not giving her more milk, but in the day she can go up to six hours between feeds if I let her. It was more trying to encourage her to eat in the day rather than night

There is no way she will let me feed her more than she wants, once she's finished she's finished (even when she's asleep)

I will try a dream feed tonight, I've done them before and it's not made much difference, but I do think it's worth another go

6 hours is a really long gap - no harm in offering a feed after 3 or 4.

I do, but a lot of the time she'll only take about 5 oz.

Sorry I'm not trying to drip feed

5oz is fine though isn't it? How much does she have in total over the day and how much does she weigh?

My dd was just like this, usually only had 4 or 5 oz at once and never cried for being hungry in the day. No real advice I'm afraid as I just kept offering a bottle at least every 3 hours and tried to make sure we were somewhere quiet at feed times as she is very nosey and easily distracted! The good news is she's now 9 mo and really into her solids and not wanting feeding between 10pm and 6am, so hopefully you might have the same luck once she's a bit older.

She was weighed nearly two weeks ago and was 13lb 14oz (she was 6lbs at birth). Her weight gain has stayed on the 25th centile.

Well today has been:

5am 5oz
9am 4oz
1pm 4oz
3.30pm 3oz
5pm 4.5oz
6.30pm 4oz

So that's 24.5 so far. Then she will have about another 5oz at midnight. So that's 29.5 oz approx. The guidence says 5 7oz bottles, so I suppose her daily intake is only 5.5 off the recommended which isn't bad. If she would take an extra ounce a couple of times in the day she might drop a night feed IYSWIM?

Those amounts sound very like dd at the same age. I used to panic myself reading the recommended amounts as dd was and is small, but my hv reassured me that as she was putting on weight and lively everything was ok and i shouldn't get too hung up on it.

I know what you mean about wanting her to have more in the day so you won't have to feed at night. I did find that feeding her before I went to bed helped as I could at least get a few solid hours before she woke up!

Mine's similar to your's OP in that she has bottle and bed by 7pm. She, again like yours, wouldnt wake til 12, but this was just too late for us, so we've started offering a bottle at 11pm (or a little earlier if we notice her having a lighter sleep). She seems to take a 5oz feed without waking, but if she is struggling to take it, we nappy change her which wakes her enough to take the milk. With any luck, most nights she then wakes once at any time between 2.30 and 4am, and we then give a suitable sized feed for the time (if awake at 2.30/3, she gets 5oz, if any later than 3 gets 4oz) so she then wakes for her AM feed 6.30/7am.

What about adjusting the size of bottles, so if she wakes at 5am, offer he just enough to keep her going til 7am (3oz maybe?) then at 7, she may take a big feed, then hopefully that will start a patter of 7,11,3,7 etc...

Definitely dream feed. We tried to do a dream feed with DD when she was quite little and she just didn't take it. Tried again a few weeks later and it worked a treat. So if it doesn't do the trick now, don't assume she will never dream feed. Also if you do dream feed you will eventually find that she doesn't need it, but it takes courage to drop it as you're never sure that you won't get woken up at a god forsaken time because you didn't do the dream feed. We carried on longer than most of our friends as we just didn't realise that DD was at an age where she might not need it any more.

For her weight (lbsx2.5) 32.5oz a day is about right so she's not far off at all.

I am definately trying the dream feed, I'm going to bed soon so I'll do it now.

I never thought about giving a smaller feed if she wakes around 4 ish, I might try that.

I suppose I had a small appetite as a child, maybe that's why?

Children should come with an instruction booklet

Thank you for the advice