How to encourage baby to feed more during the day (instead of at night)

[valentina01]

I have a 5-month old terrible sleeper. DD is EBF and fed to sleep for naps (we're moving away from this habit for bedtime). She currently wakes up 4-5x a night and fed back to sleep. Each time she does seem to swallow lots of milk (5 mins).

I had a brief intro chat with a sleep consultant, who suggested that maybe DD isn't getting enough milk during the day. Any suggestions for how to get her to take more? I feed her 4-6x during the day but often she's not particularly interested unless she's trying to nap!

Any advice gratefully received!

Bump!

I would just offer the breast regularly and see how that goes. Do you do one or both breasts at each feed?

We normally do one. She normally nurses until she's had enough and then rolls away. If I try to feed her again, she purses her lips.

I've read that if you offer too regularly, babies start to snack rather than do full feeds, which leads to more nighttime wakings. Is that right?

How long does she feed for? How long between feeds in the day? She might be doing just fine in the day and increasing feeds might not make any difference. 5 months is still young and lots of babies still wake at might for feeds. Do you co sleep? Use a dummy to comfort? Or have your partner (if you have one) comfort her back to sleep if you don't think she is hungry.

I'd say 2 hours between feeds during the day, and each time it's 5 mins.

I don't mind her waking up for a feed at all, but the sleep consultant said 4-5x in one night is not normal for this age...

Start her on solids x

@confusedmummy76 thank you - did that help you?

We've made small attempts over the past weeks with baby rice and sticks of sweet potato, but she's not seemed particularly bothered. Will keep trying!

I actually found that mine slept worse when I started them on solids. If she's nit interested now, I'd wait until she's at the 6 month recommended age.

All you can do is keep offering her breast milk during the day, and ride it out at night. It is just a phase - is there any chance it could be the 4 month sleep regression, just a bit late? Once she gets to 6 months, you could try the Pick Up Put Down technique. We did this with our eldest as she was constantly waking up in the night, and it helped get her to 1-2 feeds a night rather than 3-4.

I have a 5 month old DS and I find that he does the same thing. I've found that so long as the breast is there is will drink up regardless of whether he is actually hungry or not. What have worked for me, is stopping co-sleeping and having set times for when he has his night feeds. When he starts to cry during the night, I watch him whimper (very hard to do) and after 5 minutes or so he eventually just goes back to sleep. I think the frequent feeding is sort of just to check you are still there and to be close to you, not necessarily hunger.

@alwayswingingit did your baby generally stop crying for the boob after 5 mins in the night? It's really hard to hear DD cry, but I really can't keep going with so many night awakenings...

That sort of night waking is perfectly normal for a breastfed baby of that age. Nothing wrong with it at all. My daughter also slept worse after weaning began. Breast milk is much more calorie and nutrient dense than the solids you give when you begin weaning so it's not like solid food will fill them up. The night wakings will reduce on their own but it'll take time. In the mean time maybe co-sleep if you're comfortable to do so. It's hard having a baby that wakes a lot but I honestly don't think there's too much you can do about it at this age, although others may have a different opinion on that.

Is your DD at the stage where she's much more interested in the world so easily getting distracted during feeds. At around that age, I had to have a few days at home and go & sit in a quiet room when it was time to feed DD and get her back into a proper feeding cycle.

Ugh no advice but here to wave and say I'm having the same issue! Dd is 5 months and wakes every hour/2 hours to eat during the night. At three months she slept 10 hours and only woke once, then the 4 month regression hit and she stopped eating during the day. She refuses breakfast until midmorning. Then she snacks for a couple minutes at best, barely eats all afternoon then has a mammoth feed at bedtime before she goes down and we start our hourly feeds. The only saving grace is she's a great napper I get half an hour in the morning and 2-3 hours in the afternoon. Can't have it all I suppose!

Still I'm reaching my breaking point 😴

@valentina01

Yep I'm fact he has just done it now. Put him down at 6:30pm, he woke up a minute ago to have moan and he has fallen asleep again.

Every baby is different, if the baby is full on crying then of course attend to their need. I think it's important to sort of listen to the cry first to see if they'll fall asleep again on their own, as sometimes it's not hunger, it's just a quick moan

Thank you everyone, and congratulations to parents of sleepy babies and my fullest sympathies to parents of night owls like my little one!