ALL HE WANTS IS FOOD, FOOD and MORE FOOD.....PLEASE ANY HELP?!?!?!?

[D2Jenx]

I am in need of advice.....
My ds is 21 weeks - he is eating three meals a day and still drinking at LEAST 30 oz's of milk a day.
He used to sleep thru until he was ill at about 12 weeks and i had to wake him to get fluids down him. Now he is driving me mad.....as he wakes at least twice in the night wanting food. I have tried all sorts, from giving him water, a dummy, a cuddle etc etc the only thing that settles him is a bottle, then he goes striaght back down. He surely cannot be that hungry that he needs 14 oz's of milk to get him all thru the night??
When we stayed out for the night, he slept all thru (in his travel cot), he usually sleeps in his crib beside my bed. Will it make any difference if i put him in his cot in his room??
Any advice greatly accepted

He wants what he's used to - a bottle. Official recommendations say keep baby in your room til 6 months. Good luck. Or maybe he needs to eat more during the day? How far apart are his meals?

He has a bottle at about 7, then breakfast at 9, bottle about 12, lunch at 1, bottle at 4, dinner at 5.30, bottle at 7. He may have another bottle in there somewhere if he asks for it.
And then he has 2 in the night.
I appreciate what offical recommendations state but sometimes its not what your baby wants/prefers.....

he's probably going through a growth spurt. If he wants the milk and is drinking it when you give it to him, then give him milk.

no offence jingle.......but was that post really needed?

You've asked for advice, and I've taken the time to give you some. If it's not needed, then why ask for advice?

i'd agree with jingle. give more milk.

More milk, perhaps see if a dream feed at your bedtime helps ?

He is still very little and growth spurts are real

my ds never slept through till he was 8 months old and he was bottle fed - up to that point he was having 5 bottles - 4 day ones and 1 night one (from 6 months I did limit the night one to encourage him to take more in the day). Have you tried waking (or just lifting your lo) and feeding him when you go to bed to try and get rid of at least 1 of the night feeds?

D2Jenx, I'm unsure as to what advice you expect to receive ... the decision to move him into his own room is your decision to make, but as it completely goes against NHS guidelines on SIDS, nobody is going to tell you to do it until he is 6 months old - ditto the food. If he seems to want milk, I agree, give him milk. He's too young to be swinging the lead. He's too young to be made to drop a feed he wants.

D2Jenx - He is old enough to go through the night without milk, and indeed he has been sleeping through the night. As you said, during his illness where you woke him up in the night for feeds, he got the HABIT (not NEED) to drink milk at night. Now you need to break that habit. The only way to do that is stop giving him milk in the night. When he wakes up, cuddle, kiss, pat, shh, etc whatever you need to do to get him back to sleep without any milk. You will have 2-3 hard nights, but then the habit will be gone and he will sleep through again.

[Others will tell you to give your ds whatever he wants, that babies sleep through the night when they are ready, etc but since you posted here for help, I assume you prefer a more proactive approach.]

Good luck

No idea if putting in his own room will make a difference, but wanted to know if you were formula feeding him as there is that 'hungry baby' formula that you could use - its supposed to keep them fuller for longer - I have no idea how it works as bf my DD, but a friends baby sounds similar to yours and she switched to it and it certainly helped.

Thank you very much CoteDAzur, you are the first one to actually say something that isnt "guidelines!"
Last night i tried it and he went thru after a few short periods of moaning. Hopefully we will have started something that may stick!!!
I appreciate everyone else who has posted!

Great! Continue like this and he will be sleeping through in max 2 more nights.

It is important to persevere once you have started this process, though. It is tempting to just give some milk and go back to sleep but that will just teach him that if he cries for long enough, you will do whatever he wants.

I can't see what is wrong with Jingle's post - she gave sound advice.