7 month old DS having more milk at night than during the day.

[Mapal]

Hi there,

I have a 7 month old little boy who is waking every 3 hours in the night for a milk feed (breastfeeding).

Lately he has been getting on really well with his solids - it just suddenly seems to have clicked with him, so he is eating plenty during the day, but he's much less interested in his milk during the day now and instead seems to be getting most of his milk intake at night.

Should I give him milk before a solid meal in the day, or after? How can I get him to take more milk in the day? He seems to be too distracted, and also too full of solid food to want milk! But if I bf before solids he has less solids (or none) and seems to be hungrier overall.

Help! I thought having more solids would mean sleeping better at night but it seems to be going the other way around. He's never slept through the night yet but he did used to mange 5 or 6 hours before instead of just 3.

Any advice greatly appreciated! Thanks.

He is breast feeding at night for comfort. If he is eating well at daytime, he shouldn't need anything at night. At 7 months, I gave milk first for brekkie followed by solid, next solid only lunch at 11:30am then milk again at 3:00pm, dinner at 6:00pm and one milk feed before bedtime. You may just need to get tough on him.

No advice but sympathy. My 8mmo twins are also feeding every 3 hours through the night and don't feed well during the day because they are distracted. I am at a loss of what to do as they are BLW so may not be eating enough yet, but as I'm sure you've found you can't really force milk on them! I'm going to try to cut out night feeding but not for a few months - waiting until they are eating more. Although your LO is eating well he might need a bit more time to understand that food fills his tummy as well as milk?

Also something to try that I've been recommended is feeding things like porridge and banana for tea that keep them satisfied for longer.

Not sure I agree with you Masalamama - although it might be true in some cases, I think not all. Mine do seem genuinely hungry at night and impossible to settle any other way - they just wake up 20 mins later and ask for milk again.

Advice is milk before food and food is fun until they're 1. Food isn't fully digested at 7 months, so milk is still more useful calories than food by volume. Veggies especially are low calorie unless prepared with lots of oil (olive oil is v. good for growing brains).

It's v. common for bf babies to prefer exploring their world to nursing during the day, only to make up for it at night. You can introduce something to hold and fiddle with while nursing to keep their exploration need satisfied. Alternately, you can nurse when they're sleepy (before AND after naps), especially in a quiet, darkened room. My DS completely reverse cycled so you have my deepest sympathies!