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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

What night feeds did you give at 6 months?

49 replies

laughingeyes2013 · 03/12/2013 22:21

For either breast or formula fed babies?

I'm really interested to hear what babies demanded and what they were given!

For example, my 6 month old has the following:
7pm breast feed to settle for the night
11:30-12 midnight dream feed, usually breast but formula lasts longer so am thinking about switching or at least teats followed by formula too up straight after
2-3am boiled and cooled water (because baby was vomiting this feed when I gave breast feed, and then was looking to start the day, refusing to settle for 3 whole hours!)
5:30-6am first morning breast feed and day starts
8:30am second morning feed and breakfast (as am weaning now).

I just can't seem to get baby to sleep overnight and last night (a reasonably typical night) I only had 2 hours unbroken sleep, the rest of the night was half hour here and one hour there in broken sleep. After 6 months this is killing me! I am desperate for it to change and so looking to see what is happening to everyone else out there.

OP posts:

Original poster

laughingeyes2013 · 04/12/2013 00:39

How many feeds are plenty to tank up of an afternoon?

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Artandco · 04/12/2013 07:18

I Fed on demand but roughly worked out about every 2 hours at 6 months.

I'm a sleep consultant and have realised that many / most babies wake from habit, and the main thing is self soothing. I never advice feeding to sleep. The idea of dreamfeed is that you wake and feed rather than them waking and learning that crying gets food.
With smaller babies I would 'dream feed' them before then usually woke. So if they usually woke at 12, 3 and 7 am, I would gently wake and feed at 11, 2 and 6am. After a week they usually stop waking at night for feeds on own accord as have it installed that there is no need as they will be fed regardless. Then I would try increasing the gaps so dream feed at 11, then instead of 2am, 3 am. Etc etc. until from about 12-16 weeks they only have dreamfeed at 11/12 pm then nothing until morning. I don't offer water unless very hot/ ill either as this still encourages the wakings.
If you feed on demand in the day they will take sufficent milk throughout the day. I know many people do only feed every 4 hours in the day but my thought is that as an adult I wouldn't want to go that long without a drink so why should baby.

Try breaking the habit of feeding before bed and naps. So most do bath, story, milk at this age. Where as I would do milk casually downstairs, then bath, story for example. So everything is still within half an hour but baby learns that bedtime is signalled by a story in bed/ you singing lullaby etc. I always give a feed before food so milk was still most important at 6 months and this fits in with not feeding to sleep. So say milk around 11am, 12pm lunch, 12.30/1pm nap

Does any of that make sense? I'm on phone and its prob just waffle!

Original poster

laughingeyes2013 · 04/12/2013 08:27

Artandco - no it's not waffle, it makes perfect sense and I appreciate you telling me about it!

I sensed the benefit of waking him for a dream feed at 11pm but didn't realise just how important it is to catch him before he wakes.

I will definitely see if I can be the first one each feed. So you reckon it would take about a week to twig he will get fed and so no need to wake? That's REALLY worth a go!

Also I hadn't realised the feed being last thing in the bedtime routine would be an issue because he always stretches and opens his eyes (albeit little slits!) when I lie him down, and is never fully floppy-asleep. But perhaps that doesn't count so I will do the feed and bath the opposite way round and see how that one goes.

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Original poster

laughingeyes2013 · 04/12/2013 08:33

Can I just ask your opinion on the feed that always got vomited back (usually 2am) - would you agree with the health visitor that this feed was being vomited back because it was unnecessary and just habit?

If so, would you try to not give this feed overnight? Or would you give it just for one week while you teach them that they don't need to wake to cry because you've always got there first!

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Fairylea · 04/12/2013 09:03

I would always offer the feed and not give water at night because in my mind you want to teach them that there is always food available so there is no need to panic! If you really think its not needed and bringing it back straight away (and just this feed so not a reflux thing?) Id offer a dummy and see if that helps. Mine have always slept better with a dummy and I keep them just for bedtime.

Mine just gradually wanted less and less milk at night until they stopped waking altogether.

Artandco · 04/12/2013 09:35

Personally to break the habit I would offer a feed. However def try to increase each day feed by an ounce/ longer bf and decrease night.

Self Settling for naps is also a key feature in night sleep as they need the whole 24 hours of the same. So feeding/ bouncing around / rocking pram in day will reduce how they settle at night.

Helping them settle goes in order of how much help. Just being next to them is stage one, if that doesn't work next would be voice ie gentle reasurance/ lullaby ' it's sleepy time' as que. if that doesn't work then gentle touch or stoking hair/ back/ hand. Only after all of that would I then pick up. As once picked up you then have to get them back down so you end up doing the first things again anyway. This is in no way leaving them to cry as at every moment you are with them

A lunch time nap in cot really helps IMO as the get twice the time to learn ' bedtime'. Then I let any morning/ later afternoon naps in pram/ sling so you aren't stuck in. My eldest at 4 still has a lunch nap if fancies

Another thing is letting them learn than bed is a safe place. When she is awake and happy in the day try and put her in whilst you are near and let her play a few mins. Talk to her saying your just doing xyz and give some toys. The idea is that she will learn to love her cot/ bed rather than always wanting to get out. Do you have an older child? If so maybe let them get in cot too and play peekaboo or something :)

tinkertaylor1 · 04/12/2013 09:44

My dropped the 2am and 4am ff as I realised it was just habit. I totally tanked her up.

6.30pm feed
9.30pm feed
12.00 am feed.

I knew she wasn't hungery if she woke up before 4am so I just put dummy in and tucked her in. Surprisingly the next night she woke at 3am - gave her dummy, tucked in and she went off till 7am.

Most nights she will wake up once briefly but only to be tucked in/ dummy she is 7 m

Original poster

laughingeyes2013 · 04/12/2013 13:43

Thanks so much for that. I really feel hopeful that I've got a bag of tools to try that I haven't fully tried with confidence - or some haven't even thought of myself. It seems obvious now just you mention it! Really common sense

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StuckOnARollercoaster · 04/12/2013 19:09

Sorry I haven't been back sooner - for us 'tanking up' was feeding every 3 hours even if DD wasn't actually grumbling and demanding a feed (she would probably naturally feed every 3 1/2)
We've found that once this seemed to work and she was sleeping longer stretches regularly at night I could then go back to demand feeding which is now about every 3 1/2 to 4 hours.
I guess it's individual though - you just need to feel confident that your baby has had plenty of milk - more than she currently gets if you think it is hunger that is waking her up.
One thing from the book was that if night time wakings are random times it probably is hunger. If they are predictable then it could be habit and like artandco says try to break the habit by waking your baby before their usual time to help them unlearn the habit.

Original poster

laughingeyes2013 · 04/12/2013 20:26

I've been tanking him up all day today and he's been quite sick!

Hmmm. Didn't have myself down as a 'feeder' but definitely feel like I've turned into one today

Still. He's had MORE than he can take, he's had a feed followed by a bath and is currently in bed, sending himself off to sleep, completely unaware that he is soon be accosted by "the feeder" again in roughly 3 hours time...

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CPtart · 04/12/2013 20:52

None at all for either DS. Both were formula fed by this age with baby porridge at bedtime.

Artandco · 04/12/2013 21:39

Maybe half the feeds when you wake later if he's being sick

Original poster

laughingeyes2013 · 05/12/2013 08:36

Well THAT worked like a dream.

Thank you thank you thank you!

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Artandco · 05/12/2013 09:42

Excellent

StuckOnARollercoaster · 05/12/2013 10:20

That's fab news!

Superking · 05/12/2013 11:16

At 6 months my dd was in a very similar pattern to the one you describe, except that she actually woke for a 11pm feed (I.e. not a dream feed). She is now 6 1/2 months and is sleeping so much better (well she has been for 4 nights now and I am desperate for it to last). Last night she was asleep by 6.15, woke for a feed at 2am, and then slept till 6am.
I have made two changes to her routine in the last fortnight which may have led to this improvement - firstly I have moved her into her own room (her cot was previously in our bedroom), and secondly I have started giving her formula for her first night feed. I think the improvement is a combination of the two things - being in her own room means that she doesn't get woken by us when we come to bed, and the formula seems to keep her in a deeper sleep throughout the early hours of morning, when she would often wake fairly frequently.

Original poster

laughingeyes2013 · 05/12/2013 11:18

I know! I can hardly believe it. 4 hours straight followed by 2 hours. MILES better than 2 hours followed by half hours

So I will keep it status quo for about a week and then tease the times ever so slightly apart. "Slowly slowly catchy monkey" type thing.

It does feel like all I do is feed him all day long now, mind you. Some time slots are 2 hourly, others 3. Never more than 3, apart from one golden time slot in the night.

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Superking · 05/12/2013 12:19

Missed the last post, glad things went well last night.

Chunderella · 05/12/2013 14:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

stopgap · 06/12/2013 03:59

DS had awful silent reflux, but still slept through from five months 7-7 (once we decided to prop him up for sleep). He naturally fell into this pattern, but needed a good thirty minutes of rocking before he dozed off.

EBF until he was twenty months, the last four months being one feed first thing in the morning.

Jo1984uk · 06/12/2013 06:43

Dd is 8 months old, she has between 4-6 feeds a night. At aged 6 months it was more like 4 a night, something like this..
7.00pm last feed before bed
10pm first feed of the night, followed by feeds at:
12.30
2.30
4.00
Day started around 5-6am

She is now feeding more but she has got a cold/cough and is teething. The night feeds also seemed to have increased since she has been having more solids. She has been off solids the past week due to her cough and the night feeds have decreased. Strange!

EmmaLL25 · 06/12/2013 09:38

Our 6.5 month boy still feeds in night. Bed about 6.30/7pm. Usually needs/wants another feed by midnight. We can get to 4am on a good night, earlier if not. Then awake half 6/7 for feed.

We are co-sleeping with side off cot and pushed up against bed so everyone has own space. Saved my sanity.

Although I think to have any chance of sleeping through we will need to night wean and stop co-sleeping. Just can't face pain of it all quite yet!

Original poster

laughingeyes2013 · 06/12/2013 12:28

Another reasonably good night. This time he started to stir at 3am and my alarm was set to wake at 3:30 so I only just managed to get to him before he woke enough to yell! Close shave!

It's still not quite enough sleep as it was 3 hours then 2.5 hours, but it's certainly MUCH better than I was getting before, and of course has the hopeful expectation that it will get even better as he gets accustomed to the new regime

Am just hoping he won't wake himself up half an hour earlier than my alarm is set for every single night! Especially since my alarm is already set for half an hour before he'd usually wake up for a feed.

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Original poster

laughingeyes2013 · 07/12/2013 02:46

Artandco - I set my alarm for 3:30am (he's normally awake at 4 asking for a feed), and the first night I got to him before he stirred.

The second night he began to stir around 3:30 but luckily I got to him before he could 'ask' for a feed.

I felt a bit nervous that he might stir earlier and earlier each night and scupper my lovely plans!

Sure enough, tonight he woke at 2:30, an hour before my 3:30am alarm was due to go off

Now I don't know what I'm doing. Do I set my alarm for 2am tomorrow instead of 3:30?

He's not taking a lot each feed.

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