Low supply overnight - constant waking to feed

[Sparrowlegs248]

Ds is 6mo and has been ebf . He had just started baby led weaning. He has always fed a lot at night and went through a period of being distracted and not feeding much during the day - normal i think.

Now however he has usually 3 good long feeds in a day and feeds to sleep at 7pm ish. He wakes around 10, and 1 to feed but the from 3 onwards is almost constantly on the book and is not getting a lot. Pulling off and getting frustrated. If i try to hand express nothing comes out, at all. No real swallowing etc.

He won't take a bottle but has started drinking small amounts of water from a sippy cup. I have tried to express but not been successful.

I am wondering now whether to try some formula at bedtime. I had decided i wasn't going to use formula at all, but habeas spent the last 4 hrs awake with baby trying to feed.

During the day i do sometimes get 'full' breasts and when he starts to feed and then comes off for a second, spray everywhere. This doesn't happen at night. Presumably because during the day i might have 3+hrs between feeds where at night, esp after 3am its literally every 10 minutes.

Anyone?

Last night when he woke at 9.45 he was WIDE awake and fed for much longer than usual, then slept til 12.45. This was a huge improvement. So i might have to resign myself to proper wake ups rather than feeding in bed, as he nods back off quickly but then wakes again soon after.

Hey nottalotta. I'm trying to think of something supportive or helpful to say but I have nothing, sorry. Hope you get some ideas soon!

Sorry notta, me neither! You'll see I have similar issues in the thread I just posted. I was so against giving her formula but now I'm desperate for her to take it, ha!

I wish I knew. I was planning to cut down daytime feeds to get her to eat more solids but it hasn't worked like that. She's just shoring it up for the night! I'm dreading night weaning as I think it will be a huge battle...

Hi, Nottalotta.

I think this is just one of those phases which pass. The least likely reason for your baby's behaviour is that you have somehow stopped making milk at night. The fussy, wakeful, on and off the breast thing at the worst time of night :( is well within normal behaviour, and is likely to settle down.

When babies are well-established at breastfeeding, as yours is, and breastfeeding has been going on for several months, as yours has, the supply is pretty rock solid. You won't get huge amounts being stored and hence the feeling there is not much there at 3 am after your baby has been on and off.

Your report from last night shows that things change - whatever you do :)

At 6mo it's also pretty unlikely he's all that hungry over night anyway... I would guess what you have is a sleep issue rather than a milk supply issue.

Do you feed him to sleep at bed time and nap times? Formula isn't going to help if it's a sleep thing rather than hunger anyway and I'm not sure I believe formula helps much with overnight hunger anyway (I have two dc, one was ebf till 9 mo and the other was bottle fed more or less from birth, their sleep habits and the fixing them were very similar!)

My boobs always seemed full in the mornings, OK at night. But milk still came out on demand.

TBH about that age mine was tetchy from early teething, tummy coping with new foods etc. I recall reading their dreams become more vivid, complex and potentially scary. So we had some rough nights! She found/finds boob soothing (to the extent she'll hold it or pat it when falling asleep not feeding) so it could be that.

Thanks all. I think it is a sleep thing. Its when he stirs he's looking for the boob overtime and wakes when he doesn't find it. By the time he wants a proper feed there is not a great supply because he's been on and off all night. Or at least that's what it seems.

I have given him a small bit of formula to drink each lunchtime for three days and not sure if its coincidence or not but he has been windy, sicky and generally unhappy since. Ugh. He did drink it from.his sippy cup but don't think it will help the night times.