4mo baby not interested in morning feed

[Proudmummy2014]

Hi there,

My DD is 4 months and has become really fussy when feeding. She used to have 7oz and now I'm forcing her to even finish 3oz. This has been going on for 2 weeks now.

In particular she is really not interested in her morning feed. Her night feed could be at 2am or 5am- it makes no difference on the time gap as she still does not want her milk at 7.30am.

Has anyone else experienced this?! I'm really worried she will not be gaining much weight at this rate.

My DS did this around 4mo...he would demolish about 7oz of milk at 4am and then not feed again until 10.30am...I remember finding it really annoying! It got better ok it's own after a couple f weeks I recall as he pushed his night feed back later and later until it just "became" the morning feed at around 6am...

But I read afterwards that if you reduce the amount of milk you give in the night by an ounce every couple of nights you could cut out the night feed althogether and the baby will go back to having a breakfast feed instead. Might be worth a try?

@botboticelli- thanks for your reply on my post. Do you know if it was teething related or more the fact he had drank too much at night time? Do you think it's best if I reduce the amount or should I be delaying the feed time by waiting before I feed her? Not sure what the feeding issue is related to. If she has milk at 2am then she's still not hungry at 7.30am!! :-S Does your LO sleep through the night now? Mine used to sleep from 7pm-4am, feed then up again at 7am. Now she's also waking up earlier at around 1.30am-2am. Not sure if it's hunger, as she didn't need milk at this time before. Or whether it's some other reason.

Yes! See my post "19 week gone off milk" I am experiencing the EXACT same thing.

Gulps her 5/6 am feed down but not interested in the morning feed and has now gone off other feeds now too.

I'm trying a different tactic at the mo by not feeding her until she cries for it.

So far she's had 2 full 7oz feeds. I figured that its best to give her full 7ozs less times a day then her take 3 or 4oz at every feed and its also less stressful.

It was really getting me down but I'm hoping its just a phase.

P.S. Have you heard of the wonder weeks?

@lovelise- I saw your post :-) How's that going now only feeding her when she wants it? Are the gaps consistent or erratic? I've got the wonder weeks app and apparently our LO's are going through a stormy patch at the moment as they are About to make their next leap. I would of thought they would be more hungry though lol. I've literally just spoken to my HV who said it could be teething related (that's only because I suggested it). My DD used to sleep until 4/5am and she would def not be hungry at 7.30am so I used to only feed her a little bit at that time. Over the last two weeks she has started waking at 1.30/2am instead which feels like we are not going backwards.

Frustrating isn't it!

It's day 1 so I haven't got much evidence yet but I fed her 7oz at 6.30 then another 7oz at 11.30 so 5 hours in between.

She's napping at the mo so hopefully I can get a full one in at 16.30 then at again at 20.30 then bed and see how it goes.

I tried the bonjella on gums but made no difference.

We previously had a nice little routine going as well! I really really really hope its a phase!

We just need to ride it out and see how it goes I reckon. Let me know how you get on won't you?

Funnily enough her last feed of the day is fine and she's having 8oz but the rest of the day she's not interested at all.

She's now woken up at 11pm and I tried to settle her for an hour as she doesn't usually feed at this time. Gave up after an hour and tried to feed her. She finished 5oz. Genuine hunger??!

Then up again at 5.45am and se drank 3oz. At 8am then had 1oz. It's these night feeding a I think that are messing up her morning feeds. But if she's hungry I can't deny her the milk. Ideally she would be taking what she needs in the day rather than at night

That sounds tiring Proudmummy!

It might not be real hunger if she's only taking 1oz? Have you tried giving her a little calpol before a feed as another posted suggested, it might help if her gums are hurting?

Or have a look at the possibility of reflux, a lot of babies seem to suffer.

My strategy of demand feeding seems to have done the trick.

Keep going Proudmummy! It can only get better!

That's great- is she back to drinking her normal amount now? Do you think she wants to naturally stretch out her feeds now maybe?

@lovelise- She def wasn't hungry at 8am but I just was wondering whether the 11pm and 5.45am was genuine hunger. It's all so confusing. I don't want to get in to a pattern of her thinking she gets milk at night so doesn't need to feed in the day. I'm using Anbesol and teething powder. I've tried Calpol before and made no improvement in the feeding. Will look in to reflux as a possibility. If her weight gain is fine then the HV doesn't seem to care and investigate further her feeding problems

Well, she had 4x 7oz yesterday then slept till 5.30am then drank 8oz. Which is more than she had been drinking previously, as she would only be drinking about 3 or 4 oz at a time.

No sign of hunger yet though..will be 5 hours at 10.30.

I know some people get a bit funny about using dummy's but if my DD wakes in the night I pop it in and she goes straight off to sleep again. It helps her relax and I don't have to feed her or disturb her by picking her up.

@lovelise- that's amazing!!! Wen you were feeding on demand was it a consistent gap between them? How do you manage naps between the demand feeding? How old is your LO?

The gap seems to be about 5 hours at the mo. She started to whinge at 10.30 so I gave her 7oz which she took all down.

My DD is 19 weeks tomorrow.

Babies at around this age tend to stay awake for about 1.5 to 2 hours at a time so i look for signs after about 1.5 hours.

I like to give her a shortish nap in the morning (she tends to wake up naturally after about half an hour to 40 minutes anyway) then another short nap before milk. Then a long nap in the afternoon. If she's awake half hour/hour before milk thats ok.

I just have to play it by ear and muddle through at the mo. Eat when hungry nap when tired, that sort of thing. Its a right pain!

BTW I know other mummy's going through the same thing with 4 month old babies. Seems to be the age to kick up a fuss!

It seems to me the less anxious I feel about it, the better my LO feeds. That's why I changed to demand feeding.

Hows your LO feeding now?

That's brilliant your LO is feeding better now!! And you're right it seems to be the common theme, as mine is 17 weeks today.

At her 11am feed she had 6.5oz which is an improvement - I guess she last had 1oz at 8am so must be hungry. Although she wasn't even crying for it but she was due a nap at 12pm as she had been awake since 10am. Just out of interest how long does your LO take to finish a feed? I've heard it should take 20 mins but my DD takes atleast 40 minutes!

It sounds like you have quite a strict routine. I used to before all this started but i soon learnt that if she was due a feed at 11 and wasn't hungry then she just WOULD NOT take it lol! So I'm more flexible and it certainly has improved the situation.

We take about 15-20 minutes to finish a feed.

Have you considered moving up a teat size? (If your FF).

Wow mine certainly is taking a LONG time then haha! He's already on the size 2 (age 3-6 mths). I should perhaps try a size up, as her "awake time" mainly consists of drinking milk at this rate

I wonder if there's a thread on MN where I can get advice on her current routine?!