Baby not hungry when he wakes? Do I need to change things?!

[Ceetee23]

Hi I'm new to mumsnet so hope I'm posting in the right place!

My nearly 5 month old has never been a great feeder. As in never long feeds whether on breast or bottle, but he puts on weight well so i have never worried about it.

He's exclusively bottle fed now and has 7 feeds a day. An average of 3 or 4 oz per feed during the day ( he refuses any more!) then a 6 oz bottle at 7pm when he goes to bed.

We did a dream feed during the first 2 months and it worked well but I'm worried we made this a habit as now he wakes for a feed himself at 10pm every night! He takes a 6 oz bottle. Then always one wake up to feed between 2 and 4 then back till 7. The middle of the night wake up he only takes a very small feed. On advise from health visitor we water this down so 3oz of water with 2 scoops. He really doesn't need it! But won't sleep without it.

Then he wakes 7-7.30 but will not eat till 9ish?

Any suggestions for feeding changes or how to drop the middle of the night feed??! Thanks :-)

Hi, he will start to drop the night feed's himself before long so don't worry too much but from having a ds that fed like yours but did not sleep I know it can feel like you spend more time up than in bed. We started giving a dummy instead of bottle so he went straight back to sleep and then weaned him off dummy.
My Ds likes to be up for a while befor wanting breakfast and I was worried he wasn't eating much in the morning till we were running late and he wolfed down food a couple of hours after being up. When I thought about it I never eat breakfast till I have been up and about for a bit so maybe he is just like me. Try to drop the 4 bottle and give him one at 3 so he is hungrier in the morning. Good luck.

Thanks. Yes I must admit I'm the same in the morning so maybe runs in the family! I'm sure if he didn't have the feed at 10 or the tiny middle of the night one he'd be hungry at 7, but I don't think I can drop these without him bring very unhappy!! So will just have to see if nature takes its course and he does it himself. Just so frustrating if he ate more in the daytime it's probably see him through! Thanks or your reply :-)

I'd suggest that you drop the middle of the night one completely. Offer only cooled boiled water or nothing. For the first night or maybe two you might find you have to sit up with him and cuddle or rock him for a bit longer than usual in the night (so make sure you have no early plans the next day), but in my experience it will only be one or two nights before he accepts it and you lose that feed / wake altogether. With my 3rd DC I had a similar experience. I was bf so no idea how much he was actually taking but it didn't seem like much and I was sure he didn't need it. The first night I decided to be strong and not feed he cried for really quite a long time (awful, but I was desperate to stop the middle of the night feed so persevered) and eventually he fell asleep in my arms. I took him into bed with me and he slept for the usual amount of time. Second night he cried for about 10 mins and fell asleep in my arms and I popped him back into his cot. 3rd night he cried and fussed but I didn't even pick him up just gave him a quick pat and he went back off to sleep and so by 4th night that was it, he just slept on through. As you say though, he'll probably drop it himself soon enough if you don't want to push it.

Thankyou its good to hear you successfully dropped the feed and in only a few nights too, seems they quickly get the message! It is very much a habit rather than he is hungry. If he was hungry I'd happily persevere (ok well maybe not happily ;-) but ill give it a go offering only a small amount of water for a couple of nights and see how he gets on with a view to stopping altogether v soon!!