weaning and sleep problems - should I cut out night time feed?

[entropy]

until we started weaning, dd (6 months), has been a fantastic sleeper but now she is waking up several times a night and has started to rely on her dummy and my hair to get herself back to sleep.
in desperation I have purchased a sleep book by a certain author and it seems to indicate that our food routine is the problem for her sleep problems. the suggested routine there is to drop the night feeds and go to three milk feeds and three solid meals a day. I have problems reconciling myself to this however.
dd is a poor feeder with milk (and is underweight) and hasn't really gotten the hang of eating solids yet. I am trying to get her to blw but I can't leave her alone if she can't get the hang of eating something (after 15 mins or so) and end up spoonfeeding her (when this happens she eats maybe a dozen weaning spoonfuls. (unless its baby yoghurt which she wolfs down!) she certainly less than my friends (younger) dc's (i know I shouldn't compare but I don't know what I'm doing so its hard not to...)
the book suggests that if i drop the night time feed her appetite will increase during the day but the advice is quantified as for babies who are gaining weight. dd gains slowly but consistently but has her own curve IYKWIM she has fallen through the percentiles so we have seen dieticians but now that reflux and food intolerance has been ruled out we have been left to flounder on that front)

sorry this has got long! probably given loads of unnecessary background but I'm sleep deprived and can't prune it! what I basically want to know is should I drop the 11pm feed and hope she compensates with solids and daytime feeds or is it unwise to take feeds away from a very small for age baby?

she will settle back into a sleep pattern.
I would continue as you are. She is your baby and the author of this book does not know her!!!
I also dont see what is wrong with spoon feeding. I dont really understand this blw lark!!! I cant see how a 6 month old can possibly feed themselves enough food to be full!! but thats just mt opinion!!!!

How does she feed first thing in the morning? My cue for dropping late evening dreamfeeds when DS was 4 months ish was when he started not being hungry first thing. The same happened at 6 months after I'd had to reintroduce the dreamfeeds for a while.

Are you waking her to feed at 11pm? If so you could try cutting it down for a few nights and then stop waking her and see what happens. If she wakes herself and takes the milk you offer I'd say she still needs it. As long as she's feeding well in the morning I'd keep going with the 11pm feeds until something changes.

Does that help at all? [I've read those books as well btw...]

When DS started weaning he went thorugh a very unsettled phase which in retrospect I think was possibly due to some of the the foods being introduced (remember one night after avocado all hell broke loose)...looking back I should have perhaps slowed the pace down a bit.

Trouble was I was so befuddled & sleep deprived I also had trouble thinking lucidly about anything.

I kind of don;t think I would be "taking" feeds away from a baby of only 6 months. especially given what you have posted.

Auntymandy - I'm with you on the self-feeding. I'm doing mummy-led-weaning (with due acknowledgement to the person in my postnatal club who coined the phrase), but I only give DS as much as he's enthusiastic for. So that is baby-led to a point I'd say.

DS did this and think i read the same book as you and droppped the dream feed. However in retrospect i think this was a mistake and i was actually giving too much solids and not enough milk so he woke in the night for extra feeds. Particularly if your dd is small then she probrably stilll needs 4/5 milk feeds a day.Milk is still the most important food.

I'd just add as well, I think 6 months is too early to go to only three milk feeds a day. DS is 6.5 months and still on four feeds and will be for the forseeable future I think.

she is currently on 6 or 7 milk feeds a day but takes about 4 oz a time. (takes about 25oz a day) reducing the number of feeds failed to up the amount she takes in one go in the past but I have left things as they were for a coupe of months now.... I have to wake her for the 11 oclock feed most nights although recently she has been waking up every half an hour between 9 and 11 anyway so its difficult to tell if she is waking for the feeds. she has been poor to feed in the mornings for ages now, but she is a nightmare to feed at the best of times and I was just grateful that she was taking a lot (for her) in the evenings and went with the flow... when I read the book I have to admit there was a duh moment.
there is no way she is on too much solid food unless its yoghurt its a few spoonfuls max. if I use a jar it does two meals and there is lots of waste.
another problem is that I have to wake her at 11 pm for meds and she expects the meds to be followed by a bottle.

also I am trying not to spoon feed where possible as dd and I have had feeding battles in the past (HV and paed saying you must make your baby eat more, baby saying eating hurts, not got to bottom of why that is yet) and she developed negative associations with bf and ff that we have never really gotten over. I am a determined person and have a tendency to force feed as she is so small (2nd percentile and dh and I are huge people!)
the appeal of BLW was that she sets the pace, but its sooo slow and sometimes she really looks like she needs a helping spoon

people regularly mistake her for a newborn and look with amazment as she sits unaided and leans sideways to pick things up without losing her balance! (hasn't a clue how to roll yet tho)

I think I'd go with the flow Entropy until she takes to solids better. My DS made it very clear when he wanted more solids and less milk. There's another thread going on at the moment where the OP has a very similar problem.

here

thanks, had seen that earlier but as the dc in question eats solids (rather than smearing them across her eyebrows) I had rather discounted it. it is more similar that I had realised though

i've also been reading you-know-who, and found some bits helpful. I've been upping the eveing meal, and making sure there's carbs and protein. Have also been watering down his night bottles (he's 8mths and drinks enough in the day) but it's gone pear shaped the last couple of days.

Personally, if my boy was underweight and a poor feeder, i would be inclined to trust your own instincts, and maybe carry on as you are.

thatts interesting detentiongrrrl. but what do you mean by pear shaped? feeding wise or sleep wise?

to be honest my insticts are saying dd's routine needs to change as I can't go on feeding her like a newborn for ever! there's no wonder she isn't bothered about most solids (except yoghurt) as she is having frequent bottle feeds!

she has a cold at the moment and had no interest in solids at all yesterday so I didn't offer yoghurt and she slept straight through despite coughing! so its definatly the changes to her diet that are making her wake. have ordered the weaning guide by she who must not be named to see if it answers as many questions as the sleeping guide did.

both! Yesterday he ate very well though, and drank plenty of milk, then woke 3 times last night!

I've come to the conclusion that he's not hungry, just conditioned to know that if he stirs, he gets a cuddle and a bottle.

starting CC tomorrow. absolutely dreading it, but i go back to work in March, and i newly pregnant, so I MUST GET SOME SLEEP!