6 month old feeds more at night than during the day -help!

[RaspberryBlower]

My six month old feeds every 3 hours on average throughout the day and night. Recently it seems her day feeds are very short and she is easily distracted, whereas she takes good feeds at night. I was hoping to cut down the night feeds, but I can't get my head round how to do this. I've tried shortening the feeds at night but she won't settle, or she wakes up sooner. I've also tried taking her upstairs away from distractions to feed during the day but this doesn't seem to work. We've also started weaning in the last couple of weeks. Any ideas what I can do?

Increase her weaning foods during the day (rice cereal etc.) and feed her just before bed time. If she wakes in the night trying giving her just water. But I'd say main problem is she's not getting enough caloriesa during the day.

It could actually be the other way around, that you are going a little too fast on the solids. Solids at this stage have more bulk but far less calories than milk. So she may be filling her tummy with solids, and therefore not taking enough milk during the day so she has to catch up during the night.

How interested is she ins olids? There's no rush, she doesn't have to have solids by a certain deadline. Milk is still far more important that solids for the next few months.

We're doing BLW so she's only really had vegetables that she's eaten herself (and she has been doing quite well with this) and a little bit of yoghurt in the last couple of days. She's only had a bit of butternut squash today, but hasn't wanted to feed much at all. However, last night she fed before bed time then woke up and I fed her at 8pm, 9pm, 11pm, 1am, and 5am so it's maybe no wonder she's not hungry during the day. If I cut out night feeds will I have enough milk supply to feed her during the day? I wondered if it might be a good idea to pump to keep my daytime supply up?

Well actuallu rice cereal has more calories per 100gr feed than formula milk has per 100ml feed.

You need someone like Tiktok to answer that question - she's a breastfeeding counsellor, and she's the bee's knees.

From my own experience, if you cut down on night feeds but encourage day feeds, you should be fine. But if you cut down on night feeds and the baby is satisfied by something else during the day, then your supply will reduce.

Do you offer her her fill of breastfeed before solids? I certainly found that my boys, particularly the elder one, would feed less if I gave them solids first. OTOH it never made any difference to dd.

Yes, have been giving solids about an hour after the milk feed. Actually, she has been feeding not too badly this morning - I took her upstairs. I wonder if it's worse at the weekends because DH is around and he's so incredibly exciting to her

I would feed before offering solids, even if its closer than an hour. Also try feeding after the solids as well. At this age your breastmilk is still the most important & nutritious food for her. Its pretty common for babies to have a growth spurt around the 6 month mark as well so it could be that. During your normal daily breastfeeds have you tried feeding her away from anything that is too stimulating, I used to almost have to throw a shawl over my ds head as he would be far too interested in what was going on around & not on feeding.

same here with DD born early may

growth spurt? early teething? digestion?
God knows.

I suspect mine to want the breast for comfort at night and am trying to get her into the routine of hugging cuddly toy to go back to sleep and keeping feeds to a maximum of 2/night
Really tough.

Disagree with low calories intake BS. Increasing solids quickly just gives them constipation/poor digestion.

I put up pictures, books, a lava lamp anything colourful & interesting to look at, just behind me on either side to distract DS while feeding. You could also try feeding in a different postion now & then if you don't already, such as lying down feeding at night. It is typical for them to feed better at night once they get to a certain developmental stage due to the distractability.
DS is 7.5mths & we are at a similar stage to you with BLW & no. of feeds, except he does sleep through, just started to do it naturally somehow. It shouldn't be anything to do with food as the long night-time sleep period is independent of hunger & thirst by this stage (unless really really hungry/thirsty or illness etc). You could try gradually cutting down night feeds to one side only then limiting the time at the breast if babe will take this. As well as getting dad to settle, particularly the first time, or even getting dad to feed expressed milk in smaller quantities than a full feed.
Your supply should adjust naturally I would think but there is no harm in expressing to build up frozen stock.