12 week old BFs more at night than in the day.

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

DS goes to bed brilliantly at 6:45pm ish (as of this week ) and at night feeds and goes straight back down to sleep no problem (apart from last night!). In the day he has big chunk of awake time so I'm sure he knows the difference between day and night BUT he only really feeds twice in the day but then every 2-3 hours at night. I feed on demand both day and night.

Should I being doing something differently?? I am only concerned because DD carried on with her frequent night feedings until I actively did something to sort it out when she was 10 months old (withdrew all night feeds and coped with the fallout). I don't think this is the right thing to do with DS at this stage though as he seems to genuinely need the nilk whereas DDs wakings seemed to be more habit driven.

what if you offer the breast at other times in the day? I know my ds would NEVER turn down some boob lol( - no - can't remember him ever "saying" no - he's 12 weeks too)

I offer it all the time as I constantly mistake tiredness with hunger and also think that he can't possibly not be hungry bearing in mind the frequency of the night feeds but he just won't go for it if he isn't hungry.

It could be that your DS (like mine was) is too busy having fun and watching what's going on to pay attention to milk during the day. I'd try offering every 2-3 hours during the day - as often as he's interested really. I'm sure he'll still need some milk at night, but it does sound a bit like he's got it backwards!

Hmm -bearing in mind what chairmummiaow said about how he's perhaps too interested in life in the day, would you think offering it in a quieter/darker room might help? (argh - hope I never havw to forgo my sky plussed b-feeding sessions)?

bitschy - what helped me was waiting till DS was tired and then retreating to a darkened room. Before that there were a good 6 weeks when he had most of his milk at night. TV was much too distracting I read instead now (can't even mumsnet because he's obsessed with laptops!)

That doesn't seem to make a difference either!

Also - how long do you try and wind them for before you give up??

I've just fed him now - 2.5 hours after I put him down and he was definitely full then

That is a good question re the winding? Mostly my ds i s good at giving a good burp but sometimes you wonder.....

My DS suffered from dreadful wind until about that age, when he seemed to become magically self winding (until recently when at 9 months he's eating enough that solids sometimes give him wind despite all the moving around!)

I used to keep going for 10-15 minutes until we got a burp but would try a variety of techniques including leg-cycling and tummy rubbing.

To be honest, things didn't really improve for us feed-wise until he got to 6 months and I moved him into his own room and started sleep training him (that was not fun). I suspect other people have had the same problems and more success than me though.

And remember. Its just a phase. Everything's just a phase.

Thankyou.. I'm not really in any position to give advice on this as my ds is 7 months, and although feeds through the day he STILL feeds plenty during the night .

Your ds sounds like mine in that he would never want any boob unless he was hungry and would actually get pretty annoyed if I kept offering (in fact he still does get annoyed).

One thing that might be worth trying to get him to feed more during the day is to try latching him on while he's napping? Often while they're sleeping they will just start feeding if presented with a boob Might be worth a try.