Night feeding

[GingerBeverage]

I keep reading how 4 month old babies can sleep through and go without food for 8 hours at night. But surely that depends on how much they take in on their last feed?
My LO has never ever consumed more than 150ml for evening feed, and most of the time has breast and then sometimes a tiny formula top up around 30-60ml.
He has never woken less than 2 times, and these days wakes 5-6 times a night (but the record is 9).
I always offer him food at these times because he has dropped 2 centiles and only gained about 10g a week for the past 6 weeks (HV don't seem bothered by this as he is alert etc but on waiting list for paed).
I guess what I'm asking is if he never eats a large amount then is it likely he will never sleep long, or are they unrelated?

I keep reading how 4 month old babies can sleep through and go without food for 8 hours where in earth are you reading that OP

Have a read of this on 4 month olds and sleep and this on normal infant sleep.

I would try not to focus on the amount of ml she is having either if you are BFing as the amount she will need is typically much, much less than a ff baby.

BF babies typically take 25 floz a day at this age which is roughly 740 ml. Much less than a FF baby who will need 2.5 floz per pound in weight.

That doesn’t meant that you can’t encourage feeding in the day instead of the night. One thing to try is offering more feeds in the day. The No Cry Sleep Solution is excellent for tips on sleep too.

As for the weight, there are some excellent tips here

My lo is older but sometimes has only had 2oz before bed and still slept through so i dont think its linked

Those links are great, thank you.
Here's one place I read about sleeping through...

www.parents.com/baby/sleep/basics/understanding-baby-sleep-4-6-months/

I only know one person whose 4mo is doing 12 hours a night though, so maybe it is rarer than they make out.

I just get so desperate in the wee hours, when I've had so little sleep.

I don’t think the person writing that article has ever even had a baby! It’s nit evidence based and it certainly doesn’t encourage BFing.either. I’d pretty much ignore it

Did you have a look at the No Cry Sleep Solution?

That one is evidence based and has lots of helpful tips on encouraging sleep.

Almost forgot, whilst your friend’s baby could well be sleeping for 12 hours a night, that’s not the norm at 4 months. At 12 months half of all babies wake at least once and need a parent to help them get back to sleep.

It’s also useful to remember that parents lie about how much their babies sleep.

How are you getting on with the “increasing weight” tips?

I've ordered NCSS thanks.
I read the Kelly tips a while back and it does explain why he's struggled with gaining (jaundice, tongue tie, thrush, reflux) I also had blood loss after the birth. Just a lot of negative factors really.

As a reflux baby he loves his dummy so I'm loath to take it away, but he does fall asleep without it mostly and doesn't use during the day much.

I've been doing more compression. I'll start carrying him more but my back isn't the greatest.

I take fenugreek daily, as well as multivitamins. He breastfeeds 7-10 times a day, with bottles 2 -5 times. I'm basically available for milk giving 24/7!

He's just not gaining much.

He’s eating as much as he wants when he wants. That’s normal infant behaviour. Especially

I think CAN doesn't mean WILL. It might be possible, from a metabolic point of view, without them getting ill (ie you don't need to wake them), but doesn't mean they want to! And that's fine and normal.

I found this useful as a baseline:
www.google.com/amp/s/www.babysleepscience.com/single-post/2014/02/12/Common-Age-by-Stage-Sleep-Schedules%3f_amp_

Just to say, I was also in your shoes with baby not gaining much (and had lots of blood loss after the birth etc).

We started mixed feeding. It's been a big help and we're both happier. Just something to consider, if he continues not to gain weight.

Thanks Singingatmidnight
according to that link:

Age of Baby: 4–6 Months
• Number of Feedings/Wakings:
1-2 feedings after first 5–8 hour stretch of sleep

Total Night Sleep:
10–12 hours
Approximate total sleep in 24 hours: 13.5–15 hours (If your baby is sleeping 4 hours during the day, it is unlikely s/he will do a 12-hour night.)

We have 2 hourly wake ups (including the first "long" stretch), last night was 7 feeds. Total sleep in 24 hours over the last month varies between 10 - 13 hours. This is why I wondered if the two were related because he's always been a very poor sleeper and a very poor eater.
We've mixed fed since the jaundice at the start.

Was the tongue tie snipped Ginger and if so, has it been checked again?

Hi Jilted - yes we did a TT snip at 2 weeks. I haven't checked it since but he's recently been sticking his tongue out all the way, and waggles it around a lot, so can it have reattached?