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Infant feeding

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

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Original poster

DD started to wake for night feeds - HELP! (please)

12 replies

TicTacsMum · 07/08/2006 17:59

DD, 8 months and breastfed, used to be a great sleeper and for months slept through from 6 till 6 - bliss!

However, since we started solids at about 6 and a half months I think she's only slept through one or two nights. Thinking back, (it's a bit hazy) I think at this point she was waking once a night at about 3/4 o'clock. I would give her a feed when she woke and she would fall asleep on the breast.

Then a couple of weeks ago we went on holiday and stayed in my parents caravan. It turned out that the travel cot didn't fit in so she ended up sleeping alongside me (which we've never done before) Since we returned she has woken at least 3 times per night and screams if I don't feed her back to sleep. In fact if I don't get to her quickly enough she screams anyway and wont feed.

While we were on holiday she started to feed much less frequently during the day which at the time I put down to the heat. This made me keen to feed her in the night so she was keeping her fluids up.

Since returning she seems to have slipped into a pattern of

7.15 - wakes up, not interested in a milk feed

7.30 - breakfast of porridge, whole milk and fruit which she loves

9.30ish - seems really sleepy - try to put her in the cot for a nap but she screams. Try to persevere but end up lying next to her on my bed till she goes off to sleep (sleeps for half an hour)

10.30ish - takes a milk feed (my prompt). Feeds well if there are no distractions. If there are ANY distractions she isn't interested, often coming off after a couple of minutes and before my let down kicks in.

12.00 - lunch of mashed veg

mid afternoon - same as 9.30 nap

late afternoon - same as 10.30 feed

5.00 dinner of yoghurt and pureed fruit

bath

7.00 takes a good milk feed and falls asleep.

As I said above, she's then up about 3 times per night, when she feeds weel.

Thanks to anyone who's got this far - it's a bit of a ramble.

I'd appreciate any advice on how to get her to feed more during the day, how to get her to go to sleep in her cot how to stop the night waking.

Many thanks

OP posts:

Nemo1977 · 07/08/2006 18:03

no advice..just to say they go through stages of waking etc no matter what you do..also teething at this age can be regular sleep problem..dd is nearly 8mths and teething like a demon so doing the waking up a few times trick...sigh and yawn.

Original poster

TicTacsMum · 07/08/2006 18:08

Thanks nemo - what do you do with dd when she wakes?

OP posts:

Original poster

TicTacsMum · 07/08/2006 18:47

Any advice anyone? Thanks

OP posts:

Original poster

TicTacsMum · 07/08/2006 20:11

Please? Getting a bit desperate!

OP posts:

Tinker · 07/08/2006 20:13

Sounds normal, sorry. Same happened to me and she's til waking 2 or 3 times per night at 14 months.

Original poster

TicTacsMum · 07/08/2006 20:26

Tinker - you are joking - what a nightmare. Did your dd ever sleep through?

OP posts:

Nemo1977 · 07/08/2006 20:28

tictac I just go in sooth dd and offer her water. My ds was like tinkers little one and only slept through at 19mths old which was good as was pg with dd...this time dont have the luxury of being pg and getting an unbroken nights sleep..lol

CanSleepWillSleep · 07/08/2006 21:07

If you're prepared to consider controlled crying then get yourself a copy of Richard Ferber's book 'Solve you child's sleep problems'. He has lots of advice on just this sort of thing.

We've just done CC with 6 month old DD and in the space of 3 days we seem to have a completely different (and much happier!) baby.

MagicGenie · 07/08/2006 21:23

TicTac, she sounds like she got a bit mixed up on holiday.

Have you tried cutting down her solids during the day, so that she's 'hungry' enough to milk feed during the day and isn't wanting to feed at night? Does she drink any water?

Sounds as though she wants bf for comfort as well though. Aw...

If you get her swung back around to eating more in the day, I'm sure she'll catch on to sleepign through again x.

Original poster

TicTacsMum · 07/08/2006 21:45

Thanks for all these suggestions.

MagicGenie i've tried playing around with the amount of solids she takes but it doesn't seem to have made much difference. Maybe i'd need to try it for a few days though... Also, when i try to breastfeed her during the day and she doesn't want it she scratches me and writhes about which isn't very pleasant.

Cansleepwillsleep have considered the cc but really really don't like to hear her scream like that and she just never seems to calm down, however dp + I were discussing this tonight and feel we may have to think about it.

Nemo I've tried her with water once but she really doesn't like taking anything but the breast at the best of times and when I tried her with the cup she just started screaming and writhing around.

Will think about all these things...

OP posts:

Tinker · 08/08/2006 10:37

TTM - she slept through from 7 til 7 (all by herself, no routine etc) from 10 weeks to 20 weeks (ish). And then stopped doing it.

Original poster

TicTacsMum · 08/08/2006 16:15

Oh dear, Tinker. Doesn't look good for me then. However she has has double her normal feeds today and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for tonight. Last night she was just up twice and I think I can see the beginnings of her first teeth so we'll see what happens.

OP posts:

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