Which milk?!

[MoanaofMotunui]

DS is almost 7mths and is currently BF and has just started having solids with us at dinner time (5- 5.30pm)

He goes to bed at 7pm but has, for the last few weeks, been waking every 1.5hrs for a feed.

Needless to say I'm absolutely exhausted! DP has had to relocate to the sofa at night to get enough sleep for work (but will still help when needed!)

I'm strongly debating trying DS with formula when he wakes in the night. I'm thinking of BF him to sleep at 7, then using formula any subsequent feeds.

So I'm wondering which formula would be best to try. Should I use infant milk, 'hungry baby' milk (do they still call it that? It's been 5yrs since I had my first baby!!) or follow-on milk (would he be getting enough nutrients from follow-on milk if he's just on the one meal of solids each day?)??

Sorry for the waffly post. Any help would be hugely appreciated!!😴😴

Formula will not fix your problems.

Any formula that says 'from birth' is fine.

I'd advise to be giving more solid food as one meal really isn't much.

Follow on Milk is just a marketing thing and not recommended for under 1s anyway.

Have you found the underlying cause of such frequent night waking at 7 months? It seems a bit extreme to be waking so much at so many months old. Is he teething? Is he hungry? Is he ill? Have you recently removed a comforter? (Dummy/blanket ect)

Try more solids - breakfast, lunch and dinner. He may not eat a lot but the new experiences will knacker him out a bit.

He sounds like he might be going through a growth spurt, so formula might not help, but it won’t hurt. Just get normal formula and try him on it for his last feed. Use a sippy cup rather than a bottle (try the munchkin 360, it’s brilliant).

Is he teething? A dose of calpol might help him settle better. I feel for you op, I’ve just gone through this with dd and it was hell! We were co-sleeping and I was waking her up, so had to bite the bullet and get her sleeping in her cot. Was a difficult month!

Hi, thank you for your reply!

He does seem to be starting to teethe, no signs of any teeth cutting yet, only a few symptoms such as chewing and dribbling (no flushed cheeks/ temp/ changes in nappy habits) These are all fixed with a bit of teething gel, but he doesn't seem bothered by it at night.

He's definitely not ill at the mo! No removal of a comforter (he has a dummy for when he falls asleep in the day and I also try him with it when he's restless at night)

He just wakes every 1.5-2 hours for a feed every night. He's not even taking big feeds either. Sometimes he'll feed for 30mins. Other times he'll feed for 5-10mins.

I really am not sure why, other than that he's peckish. Should I be upping his solids in the day as he's only recently started weaning? I thought it was best to stick with one meal for a while before introducing others?

Thank you Teddy. He sleeps in his own cot, but with all the waking I've started to keep him in my bed.... simply because I'm exhausted and falling asleep while he feeds 😭 by the time I realise I've drifted off, he's awake and fidgeting/ trying to latch on again

Waking frequently at that age is completely normal for a breastfed baby. Your DS will be going through a growth spurt & possibly a development leap. Part of why babies feed so frequently in spurts is to increase your milk supply so they have more milk for their growth spurt. Switching to formula overnight will decrease your milk supply overall and you'll need to be careful when you dropping feeds suddenly that you don't develop mastitis (I've recently had a dose of it due to my DD having been feeding every hour due to a cold and then sleeping through the night!)

I'd suggest giving your DS formula in a cup along with dinner before feeding to sleep at 7pm to fill him up more before bedtime rather than making up bottles during the night.

As for giving your baby more solids and more meals a day, at 7 months it's pretty ridiculous to expect a baby that's only been eating solid food for 4 weeks to have three meals a day!! My DD only started to eat 3 meals a day once she was 14 months - before then she picked at bits for breakfast and lunch but would be more interested in having a meal sized portion at dinner time.

Completely agree with the others, I’d also try Bfing more in the day too. Have a read of will giving formula help my baby to sleep and there’s plenty of threads on MN of ff babies waking just the same

31 ways to get your baby to sleep and stay asleep might be useful too

Thank you all for the advice. I would like to continue BF. It's just so difficult when you're stuck in that sleep deprived fog and can't see a light at the end of the tunnel!

Will give your links a read Everyone, thank you.

JJst hope you find them useful