Snacking and napping?

[Yoghurtget]

My dd is a terrible snacker. She is mainly bf and will feed for a minute or two at most before getting distracted. I have tried to take her to a dark room but then she was distracted by my nose, my hair, anything really. I am finding this hard as she obviously snacks more often. I had hoped to be out if the feeding every hour stage by now.

I think it is the reason behind her poor nighttime sleep and naps. She only naps for 30mins at a time, and at night she wakes about 3 times. I have started giving her a formula dream feed and this often results in the longest sleep I have had since birth - 5hrs. She is capable of full breast feeds, as in the night she feeds well.

She will be 6 months soon and I am considering switching to formula for the above reasons, I have discussed it with my health visitor who agrees (but mainly as I think it'll help my postnatal anxiety) But I feel so guilty about this, it was not easy to establish bfing- repeated thrush and mastitis, so it seems a shame to stop now.

Does anyone have any experience of the above and can suggest ways to stop the snacking? Am I putting too much in the hope of formula solving my problems? Does anyone have experience of perhaps mixed feeding? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Has she been checked for tongue tie? The repeated mastitis/thrush made me winder if there was something more going on.

I have known bottle fed snackers. I think some babies just prefer milk in small doses.

As you introduce meals, you will drop some of the bf, I suppose at the moment you are at the peak of breastfeeding! Soon food will replace some feeds and demands on you will go down.

Mixed feeding totally possible, I am back at work with dd2 7.5 months old. I bf first thing, then she has formula while I'm at work, then bf evening/night.

Also don't ignore tongue tie, still worth getting it snipped if its there (dd1 had problems with solids due to tie which was eventually snipped age 2)

My dd was a great snacker, and I was lucky to have a great HV, who reassured me that this was quite normal, and suggested that she was just quite a thirsty baby, who liked the liquid aspect of the milk. Now, at 2.6, no longer bf (we stopped around 2), she still drinks lots of fluids and wees quite a lot, so I think this was right.
I have a friend whose first ds was a long, hardcore feeder (1-2 hours at a time, she was locked to the sofa) yet her ds2 was an efficient feeder, 15 mins tops. She felt liberated! Both of their sleep was equally bad. I would say, by all means stop bf if it is not working for you, and especially if you feel it is not helping your anxiety, but it is not necessarily the answer to your ds' sleep. Also, remember you will lose the magic boob-to-sleep (if you do that).

Sorry, your dd, not ds.

These responses are great, thanks. I will get her checked for tongue tie- I had considered thus when she was really little. Milkjet, I am glad that mixed feeding has worked as that's what I'd like to do, connect and bf morning and night but bottles in the day. I was concerned my supply would dry up but it's sounds like it would not. I feel much more positive- thank you all.

My DS was an ardent 30 minute catnapper until he hit 6 months and then just suddenly started sleeping an hour to an hour and a half at a time twice a day. He also just magically slept through the night recently too.

I did nothing different. He barely eats any solid food yet and loves to breastfeed little and often.

People told me he would nap longer in his own sweet time and I didn't believe them.

Next time around I will not fixate so much on nap lengths - they all get there in the end!