help me go on

[jan2011]

baby is 5.5 months, used to have mixed feeds (ff at night). Past 2 weeks has been refusing bottles, and since monday has had a growth spurt which means shes cluster feeding during day, and up at least 3 times at night feeding for an hour each time. im completely overwhelmed - have tried giving baby rice etc shes not interested yet so leaving it for now - i can't cope anymore im so tired. i thought a growth spurt lasted a few days now after reading up it could be a few weeks this time. i want her to take some ff again so i can mix feed but she just screams. i just want to give up!

That sounds exhausting

I think you might be coping with a double whammy if she is going through a growth spurt and suddenly dropped a formula feed in preference of a breastfeed. Either one of these would mean a bigger demand on your body for milk (and hence increased feeding to stimulate the supply of that milk), so the two together must mean a feeding frenzy!

If you'd like to reintroduce the formula feed, you could try the usual tricks of trying different teats, getting DH to do that feed so she can't smell your milk, starting with a breastfeed and then switching to the bottle once she's got into feeding etc.

Or, you could keep going with the breastfeeding. I would think that'd be easier than trying to persuade her to take a bottle, but that's a personal decision. The growth spurt/extra feed stimulating feeding will eventually ease off, and you'll be left with less hassle in the night, mixing formula and getting bottles etc

Keep going! Either way it will settle down eventually, and this too shall pass ....

One other thing to try might be using a doidy cup? At nearly 6 months she might prefer this to the bottle as its completely different than sucking. Just support her upright and see if she will sip or lap it, may be messy at first

thanks... she has tried different teats and also a sippy cup and just won't have it. the only thing that sometimes helps if she is outside of the house and knows im not there...so if we do a couple of days of my dh giving it to her outside of the house, and then i could try feeding her and swopping to the bottle during the feed. i just want her to be able to have a ff in the evening before bed. means i can get a few hours before she wakes in the night. i will look at doidi cups, didn't know what they were till i looked it up! i do want to continue, its times like this its just so so hard and i feel like i can't do anything or go anywhere or even get some sleep. like u say this will pass, i will get through this....i am just so tired. and dh took the baby out there for awhile and i coudn't even sleep because its during the day even though im absolutely shattered....

I really hope it improves soon

I know once I got weaning (to solids) well under way, I felt much happier about going out for a few hours, which although is not sleep, I found to be such a rest as I was away from the babies and not the responsible adult. My logic being that DH or my mum could always make some milky porridge up and the babies wouldn't starve. I also found that introducing solids made the day feeds much less frequent and shorter, which again made me feel less 'tied'. Every baby us different though, so don't shoot me if it doesn't happen that way for you

I really hope things settle down soon

im glad that worked for you i am hoping she will take to the solids soon...you are right about being the responsible adult all the time being difficult - sometimes the weight of the responsibility 24/7 is all a bit too much. she has tried solids without much success and now when i give her it she just doesn't open her mouth! but a couple of weeks might change things.

A couple of weeks will probably make the world of difference.

Don't forget though, there are so many more calories in breastmilk (or formula) than fruit/veg/babyrice. So don't let her drop milk quantity at first, add the first food on top If she fills up on babyrice, she'll get less calories and probably be awake all night for milk!

Good luck