what d you think - is she waking out of hunger or am i giving her too much?

[bodenbetty]

dd is 22 weeks. we have just started weaning with purreed pear & ebm - 1 icecube at lunch & 1 at tea.
she has started waking every other hour at night - last night was9,11,1,3&5 - for a full feed each time.
should I up her intake to a dizzy 2 icecubers per meal or is it more likely that the pear is upsetting her & I should give it a rest? she is justrecovering from a nasty chest infectiuon& the dr did say she might try to make up lost feeds but this is ridiculous!
any thoughts welcome. thanks

Increasing her solids will probably make her wake more often if it is true hunger, as the pear contains less calories than milk, so the more she fills her little tummy up with this, the more hungry she will feel in the night.

If she was sleeping well before this, then I'd knock weaning on the head for a few weeks, and then try again.

I see what you're saying but how canit be hunger if she is taking a full feed each time it's offered so teh pear is in additon to milk?
I think I am just too sleep deprived to think straight!

i'm not convinced by the 'milk has more calories than solids' argument. i think milk is very easily digested and doesn't stay in the tummy giving them that nice full feeling, while solids hang around for longer. if it were really the case that they should have lots and lots of milk and not many solids, adults would live off milk too.

i'd try upping her purees, i'd give her as much as she's happy to eat, and slowly try and string out her night feeds. try and make her wait 5 mins, and give her less each time, slowly so she doesn't notice, to wean her off night feeding.

i think part of the problem is that she's eating all night, so she doesn't need to eat during the day. i think you need to get the message across gently, that night time is for sleeping not eating.

my dd has just been doing the same as yours and i fed her during the night for 1.5 months, also starting after an illness. i thought she might need to catch up, which she probably did, but then got into the habit of waking for food. i've just weaned her off it now, and she eats well during the day.

another thing to consider is that eating at night can disrupt sleep. so i'd try and cut down on night food and increase day food.

hth

WWH, milk doesn't have more calories in it than a huge piece of choc cake or a pizza, or many of the other things adults eat. It does have more calories in it than first weaning foods - like pear, carrot, etc. Nobody ever got fat eating pears!

you've got a point. carbs and protein will keep her fuller for longer, but i guess she's too little for that - or can she eat more baby rice? sorry - i went in for blw at 6 months.

i'd up her day feeds at any rate - feeding in the night isn't the way to go i don't think.

have you tried helping her get back to sleep at night without a feed? does she suck her thumb? could you help her find her thumb if not? i used to feed dd back to sleep every time she woke until she managed to find her thumb.

other than that i would increase milk feeds in the day.

Agree with WWH about the calories vs digestion time. I think it is the time taken to digest something that makes you feel full, not the amount of calories it contains. That's why if you are on a diet you are advised to fill up on lots of fruit and veg, which take more time to digest, than a calorie-laden mars bar which gets digested much more quickly because it is mostly sugar.

Now babies of course need lots of calories so still need lots of milk - but milk is the most easily digested thing for them so goes very quickly into making them grow, giving energy etc. Solids will make them feel full but won't provide as much of the protein etc for energy and growth.

But back to OP Bodenbetty: your dd could be waking more just because you have started weaning. More waking and a new developmental stage can go together. Can you give her more milk in the day and not offer much at night so that she knows that night is for sleep and day is for eating?