Feeding on demand v's sleep.

[Sparrowlegs248]

Ds2 is mostly breastfeeding fed. He has one bottle of formula a day at bedtime, takes between 4+7Oz. At around 7-7.30.

He is almost 6 months.

He had a spell of sleeping from.his bottle at 8pm through til 3/4am yes amazing I know.

Now though he will often wake an hour or so after sleep, then again around 11, and so on. I do tend to just feed him back to sleep.

I'm wondering though, whether I should be trying to resettle in other ways to stretch the time between feeds? Ds1 was ebf, always fed to sleep, and night weaned around 15 months. He slept much worse than Ds2 though.

Feeding back to sleep is certainly the quicker option.

Have a look at the 4 month sleep regression, sleep went to pot for us at this stage, my daughter woke every 45 minutes for a week. I was broken! But it got much better and she wakes twice now x

Thanks, I'm not sure it's a regression as such. He's 6 months next week. I don't know really as Ds1 didn't have any regressions, his sleep was terrible (woke every 40 minutes until we started Co sleeping at 7 weeks.) from the start, and gradually got better.

It's not really bad, I just don't want to create bad habits.

It sounds like it could possibly be sleep regression.

Highly recommend the app/ book called the wonder weeks.

Teething possibly?

Has he started to roll about, crawl, move more generally?

X posted with Orange, could well be the start of teething. Dribbling/chewing/red cheeks/shocking nappies at all?

Feeding on demand means always feeding baby when hungry. I don't think I've ever, in my 13 years spent frequenting baby and toddler groups, come across a single baby who was not fed on demand (bottle or breastfed). It's so inherently expected and leaving baby hungry due to a refused feed really hasn't happened for multiple decades.

I go off on this tangent to point out what feeding on demand actually means. It does not mean feeding baby at every cry. Many attachment ish parenting styles would do that, and that's ok. But offering the breast at every cry/wake up is not "on demand feeding".

I mention that to seperate night wake ups from calorific need. Because it's an important distinction.

It is not unusual to see a return or increase in night feeds around 5-7 months. It's because baby is making so many motor skill developments but calorie intake can't keep up when early weaning.

But for me, this would involve 1 night feed instead of none. 2 night feeds would be exceptionally rare at this age. That is not to say I had babies sleeping through at this age. Youngest wasn't sleeping through until 9-12 months, but she wasn't being fed at those wake ups.

I used to operate a 10m/1h rule at night. If baby woke I would offer dummy and a cuddle in the sidecar cot. I would persevere with the dummy for 10 minutes and if baby wasn't back to sleep within 10 minutes then I'd feed.

If baby did go back to sleep within 10 minutes with the dummy but then went on to wake up again within an hour of the last resettle, then I'd feed immediately because clearly there was extra reason for baby waking.

As mentioned, only usually 1 feed was needed with these 10m/1h rules. Often no feeds at all (I started having nights if no feeds here and there from 4 months ish). For me, it's about establishing the art of dummy resettles as the expected thing that happens when waking, not feeding.

I meant to add in relation to the 10m/1h resettles, that I didn't have a clock. So actually these were very flexible and approximate timings.

It basically meant if I thought "Baby definately definitely isn't settling for this dummy" then I'd feed. Or if I thought "its not lobg since the last wake up, I don't think I've gone back to sleep properly" then I'd feed. I apiroximate these as 10m/1h. It could easily have been 3m-15m and 1-2h, depending how bad the night was and how knackered I was.

Thanks. Funnily enough, he started to wake and I popped the blessed dummy in and he went back off. I now have an overflowing boob.......

I'm paranoid about him waking the toddler up.....

I'm.not sure about teething, he's chewing and dribbling a lot, but no nasty poops or redness. So probably not.

He is trying to crawl, he's at the rocking back and forth stage.

I think I worry about not offering feeds as he's so large I think he must need them. I'd be pretty pleased with two night feeds. I'll give your method a go fate and try to get to two proper feeds a night to start. Often the night 'feeds' are just a comfort back to sleep, but he does have a tendency to really tank up after about 4am.

FATE is nearly always right about sleep issues. Just saying.

With both of mine I got worried about starving them during the night from around this time. With ds (first baby)I fed him every time. When I stopped bf this ended up with 6 (count em!)bottles with half an oz taken out lined up one morning. With dd I did dummy, dummy, wait, dummy, dummy, wait, then bf and I don't think she ever had more than one night feed a night from around 3/4 months.

Ha I know dubious I've had a LOT of help from Fate with Ds1. Who now sleeps very well!

I think I worry about not offering feeds as he's so large

My youngest was 91st centile from 6 weeks to 12 months. She was mostly night weaned between 8pm-7pm from 4 months old. I had the odd night of 1 feed and very occassionally two feeds for another few months, but most nights involved no feeds as the norm.

Just sayin'

She was fed 2 hourly through the daytime though, ate tons from day 1 of weaning and I was mix feeding by this age - mostly formula.

Same here with dd, people were giving me loads of sympathy because my 4 month old still fed every 90minutes-2 hours during the day, but she fed really efficiently (5-10 minute feeds) and slept all night (or almost all night)! From six months she ate very well. And slept very well too.

He doesn't and won't feed that often during the day. On reflection, some of the night feeds,are comfort rather than feed. He had a proper feed at 12.15. So not bad from his bottle at 7. It's a bit of a blur past that. I think he woke again around 2, and then 5.45, but back to sleep by 6.15.

Obviously didn't need Feeding at 2, but again, ease....

He does have reflux too and though this is getting better I think it still affects him a bit.