How to stop habit of feeding more at night than day in 6 month old

[Missingcaffeine]

My baby prefers to feed at night than in the day and I really don't know how to break this cycle. He is 5 months, 3 weeks, EBF, sleeps in his own cot in our bedroom.
He struggled with terrible reflux for the first 5 months of his life and I would feed him small amounts for comfort as sometimes it was the only thing that would stop his screaming. I know this is why he is waking now, it is habit, I just don't know how to break it! His reflux is now under control with medication thank goodness BUT he is still wanting to be fed every 2 hours at night. I've tried feeding him more in the day but he often refuses. I know in theory he would manage to go without feeding for 6-8 hours as he has regularly managed this long during the day!
He will sometimes accept expressed milk from a bottle, but sometimes refuses the bottle from me when hungry, but will then feed from me. We have tried feeding him formula (6 times, 2 different types - Aptimil and Hipp) and he refused it every time despite being hungry.
I've tried not feeding him at night, and he cries. I've tried shush patting with some effect. Last night he cried intermittently for an hour 2-3am despite having had a good feed at midnight! I gave in and fed him in the end for the sake of my partner who had to go to work today. So last night he fed at 7pm, 9pm, midnight, 3am (would have been 2am if I'd let him), 5am. In the day, he will often not want to feed when he first wakes.
I'm starting to introduce solids once a day which he is very interested in and having a small amount.
Any ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated! I've pretty much had 6 months of not sleeping for longer than 2 hours together.
I feel I haven't been able to 'enjoy' my baby and have no energy to play with him in the day. I'm feel like I'm waiting for the enjoyment to start, and everyone keeps telling me to 'treasure these moments while he is so small' and I can't wait for him to grow out of this night waking because it is killing me. I'm broken!

This was me less than a couple of weeks ago, my LO is 6 months 3 weeks.

It was apparent that I was going to have to more or less force her to eat more during the day. She was far too interested in what was going on around her to be bothered about eating.

I decided I wasn't going to leave the house for a few days and make sure I fed my DD at least every 2 hours (EBF) then I would know she wouldn't be waking in the night due to hunger.

Once this was established, we decided that DP would do the bedtime routine and any wakings for the first few nights (we had to choose a period of time he was working from home). After about 3 nights of her waking intermittently and not being fed, she has now started to sleep until 5am then settles again until 7-730 from about 730PM.

She does get some solids now but she still wakes at 5am.

You just have to be strong. The only way to stop your LO waking yo be fed is to stop giving him what he wants. I have read on here that water has sometimes been offered instead of milk, so eventually they decide it's not waking up for. Maybe try that.

It does get better if you're willing to put up with a few difficult nights at first.

Thank you offside!
I will try that. I have a busy week this week, but maybe I'll stay in next week and tackle this then. I'm going to ask my partner to take some time off work so he can help.

My five month DS2 is like this. I vary between thinking I should do something and then hoping he'll just grow out of it when solids started etc. My plan (not yet implemented!) is to decide on a couple of feeding times overnight e.g. 10pm, 1am, 4am to start with as he currently sleeps with a nipple in his mouth so going cold turkey seems a bit harsh and then if he wakes up before those times to find alternative ways of settling him - probably DH rocking to start with. Then do a gradual stretching out of the feeds and gradual retreat from the rocking until it all sorts itself out!

I had this with my DS1 who is now 6 mths 2 wks. He wasn't feeding as much as yours but would drain an 8oz bottle before bed, at 10.30pm and at 4am and barely take 4oz per feed during the day.
I managed to get rid of the 4am bottle by gradually reducing the amount of milk I gave him although I knoe that's not easy for bf. But what really seems to have made the difference is weaning. I started him in fruit/veg purées at 5 mths and now at 6 mths he's on 3 meals a day and eating quite a variety of things. His appetite seems to have gone up very quickly too since turning 6 mths plus he's settling himself at night now. You might find when you start weaning that things kind of start to fall into place.

my DS woke to be fed every two hours from 4-5 and a half months! despite also feeding loads in the day so it may not be just hunger!

he got better when we moved him into his own room and then better again as he started weaning and went to nursery at 7 months (tired him out!)

He is now 9 months and usually wakes up twice a night (despite 3 meals a day of solids and milk!) im happy with this! he has done one night where he woke up once!

last night he woke up 4 times but im hoping its a blip, or possibly a growth spurt!

ride it out. it does get better!