FF night feeds - how to know if baby is actually hungry?

[aoifesmama]

Hi, my DD was eating furiously day and night, her daytime eating has slowed down and she is generally taking about 4oz every 3 - 4 hours. However in the night she is waking (when she actually goes back to sleep after a feed!) about every 2 hours. At the moment when she wakes I'm feeding her and she is taking the bottle (but she always takes her bottle when offered, even when clearly not hungry)

My question is, should I be offering every time at night? Obviously I'm feeding on demand, but is waking up DD demanding to be fed ?!

Hope this makes sense - would be grateful for any answers x

bump - any help out there?! x

Every 2 hours does sound a bit excessive doesn't it? How much does she take at these feeds? How old is she? Have you tried to settle her without feeding? I give my ds who's 13 weeks a dummy if he wakes and sometimes he'll go straight back to sleep which I don't think he'd do if he was hungry.

what age is she?

I did use a dummy up until ds was 5 1/2 months old so if ds woke up and it was less than about 3 hours since he had last fed then I would try the dummy first and only if he didnt settle would I feed him. Up till he was a few months old though I would have just fed him - it was only when he was a bit older that I did the 3 hour thing (and then it went up to 4 hours when he was on solids)

She is only 6 weeks, so not sure whether this is too soon, but she is taking 4oz at almost every feed in the night (sometimes she falls asleep after 3oz). I will try the dummy tonight i think

still breastfeeding at 19months how do I get him off? Wont go to sleep unless in pram, car which ok during day, but nights hell. First night tonight I actually got him to sleep just sitting singing after feeding him 1 hour before. Frightened he wakes up again as can feed as many times as 7.

Any help anyone

fortyandsleepless - start a new thread, as your topic is a zillion miles away from the original poster's question