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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

I think that, in order to stop night feeds, i need to get more milk down him in the day

17 replies

MerlinsBeard · 09/12/2008 22:07

DS3 is 9 months and i am still bf although he is mix fed now so am not bf all that much. My problem is that i am SO bloody tired!! He wakes in the night anf will have a 5 oz bottle (never has any more in abottle and obv i dunno what he has off the breast) He will wake 2 or 3 times and he really does want his milk, i would just try and settle him without it if a) i didn't have other children in the next room who wake easily b) i =wanted to be awake all night listening to a screaming child and c) if i could get more milk down him in the day. He is just not interested at all!!

He has a bottle first thing, the breakfast after school run(hit and miss this meal but i don't want to force feed him!), lunch, then late afternoon he will have a breastfeed, tea, bedtime bottle as he is going to bed at 7 ish. Then he will wake at 11/12 for a bottle, and 3/4 for a breastfeed. I am slowly going crazy with sleep deprivation (DS2 has night terrors so i can be up many times in a night)

DP is impossible to wake so him doing the night feeds is out iof the question.

If that made sense i will be amazed, i am SO tired!

OP posts:

merrykittymas · 09/12/2008 22:14

I do sympathise I am so sleep deprived too, DP does get up with the other two but I am BFing DD3 in the night 3-4 times.

Anyway DD2 was a complete nightmare too, at a year she was still waking up to 5 times a night and only boob would do. I knew she was taking enough milk and solids through the day so felt she didn't need the milk it was only for comfort.

What we did was nusring strike, so first night DP got up to her, held her rocked her, soothed her but no boob, 50 mins she cried for then went to sleep for 6 hours (unheard of), second night cried for 10 mins, third night nothing. I think once she realised there was no boob she settled herself.

Now she is 3 though it's another story.

I would do bottle/breakfast/BF/lunch/BF/dinner/bottle with snacks too then you know he is getting enough during the day so the nighttime waking should just be out of habit.

I know exactly where you are at with the sleep deprivation, it's hell

ilovemydog · 09/12/2008 22:15

I have the same situation - 9 month old. Wakes up feeds, sleeps, wakes up (repeat 10 times through night...)

Seem to remember it was around this time with DD that she eventually settled down to twice a night for feeds, then once, then not at all....

Original poster

MerlinsBeard · 09/12/2008 22:19

i can't go on nursing strike. well i can but i would give him a bottle.\ he really isn't getting enough milk in the day, not enough fluids at all AS HE WON'T HAVE WATER (sorry hit caps) Plus if he cried all that time we would ALL be awake (except for DH!) (i just noticed i called him DP in my OP....lol! we have only been married a couple of weeks!) ad i would have to deal with the fall out as well as being tired\myself!

ILMD...oh that's positive

OP posts:

whomovedmychocolate · 09/12/2008 22:23

MoM - I was in this position when DD was nine months old. She was solely breastfed. I used the no cry sleep guide and cottoned onto when she was waking and delaying her feed five minutes each time but rocking her or talking to her. Eventually we got to morning and the night feeds vanished. But whether that was just because she got to ten months and stopped wanting/needing them I don't know.

But your son WILL eat more when he's not getting as much milk and/or up his intake during the day.

I don't agree with CC myself, and DD would have woken the entire street if we'd tried and found that without doing this we achieved unbroken nights - ooh for all of about two months and then I got pregnant with DS

Original poster

MerlinsBeard · 09/12/2008 22:24

right

plan for tomorrow....stuff him full of milk!!

OP posts:

merrykittymas · 09/12/2008 22:27

I don't like CC either, I never left my DD2, well Daddy didn't he was with her at all times, it's just that boob was withdrawn at night.

I tried NCSS didn't work for us

RumMum · 09/12/2008 22:29

do you offer him more milk that he's drinking? you say that he has 5oz but do you offer him more? do you keep the lights low and not talk to him at night? do you bother to change him in the night?

Original poster

MerlinsBeard · 10/12/2008 10:41

i do 6/7 oz bottles but he only usually has 5. i don't even switch the lights on although the toilet light is on all night for ds1 and 2 but its not bright. i only change him if he has either poo'd or if he feels particularly wet. no jiggling, i don't even talk to the poor mite!!

he has so far had (since waking) 5oz from a 6 oz bottle and is currently bf - his choice i offered a bottle but he snuggled in he has always been a little and often baby but hopefully i can fill him up in the day so he wakes less at night

OP posts:

HolidaysQueen · 10/12/2008 13:15

hello mom - not seen you around for a while

i think there is something in what wmmc says - could you try dropping the night feed to 4oz and see if he will settle back to sleep on that, and then if that works drop it a few days later to 3oz etc. he should then in theory start taking more in the day (although of course babies have never read or understood the theory... )

we're in a similar (but less exhausting) position with DS trying to get him to drop his 11pm bottle. He had dropped from 9oz (!) just before weaning to going without but is back up to draining a 6oz bottle - he was ill and not taking in solids so we offered milk at that time again and he guzzled it. now he is back on solids he is still waking for and taking a lot at 11pm and is consequently not taking so much at his 7am breastfeed. so we're going to have to start weaning him back down so that he has to take in more milk at breakfast and throughout the day.

i like the no cry sleep solution book btw so may be worth getting hold of it. we used it for settling him into daytime naps and it worked great, but he sorted out his nighttime sleeping pretty much himself before i could start to try some of the ideas.

turtledove23 · 10/12/2008 13:23

HQ-you can have my copy. Am currently using it as a cot prop. DS is much like MoM (hi, btw!) and am slowly losing the will to live. I am giving up BF due to biting issues next week so will have to endure the screaming when "only boob will do" doesn't work at night...am sh*tting myself at the prospect. Will let you know how we get on...

Original poster

MerlinsBeard · 10/12/2008 21:13

9oz??!!

Well today i did an extra bf (as i was posting earlier) but he didn't really stay on long) and he had 6 oz while we were at DS1's nativity (so i didn't have to bf at school - i just CANNOT bf in front of children!)

and he drained 6 oz before bed so hopefully he will sleep a little better. Last night he was v disturbed so i wonder if there are teeth on their way again

Will have a peruse of the NCSS next tim ei am in the library or book shop

OP posts:

HolidaysQueen · 10/12/2008 21:27

yes, 9oz! and he still barely put any weight on He would drain a 7oz bottle then wake for a big feed about 3-4 hours later so we upped the bottle until he left some - the bottle was 9oz and he would leave about 1/2oz - and he started not needing a night feed (not that he would sleep through - still woke for comfort ) This was just as we were weaning him and we did BLW so I think he was just starving. It dropped back to 7oz pretty quickly once he was taking in a decent amount of solids.

Fingers crossed the extra breastfeed does the trick. I hope for your sake that it's not the pesky teeth, as they always confuse things and make you have to start all over again. Good luck!

Original poster

MerlinsBeard · 10/12/2008 21:29

i don't mind the extra cleavage though

OP posts:

turtledove23 · 12/12/2008 08:28

I managed to get DS back to sleep without BF for one of his wakings last night! He still woke up three other times and woke up for the day at450, but STILL!

Original poster

MerlinsBeard · 12/12/2008 13:53

he is full of a cold now and very grumpy so think i will have to wait the cold out now

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cjjacarr · 13/12/2008 02:10

hi my son was a nightmare but what really helped was to give him half a mashed up banana before bed they have chemicals that aid sleep and it also fills them up i also gave him boiled water with one spoonfull of sugar if he woke in the night gradually reducing the sugar in the water it took about 2 weeks but he now sleeps the night through as long as he has the banana once you start with the boiled water dont give in for a feed he will cry but if hes truly thirsty will drink the water i found that thw night time feeds were more comfort than actual thirst/hunger hope this helps

Original poster

MerlinsBeard · 14/12/2008 13:54

I don't like the idea of sugar water - sorry! He is waking out of part hunger and part habit i think. Its more bearable when he wakes at the same times each night Will give him an extra "snack" before bed and see how it goes

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