6.5 month old snacking all evening

[StanleyR38]

Any tips to help stop by ebf baby stop snacking on the lead up to bed time? I’m talking 5-10 minutes every 25-45 minutes when a full feed for her would be at least 25 minutes in total.

She’s obviously not hungry enough as keeps latching off - very painfully - so not sure if it’s a comfort thing. Taking her out in the pram seems to distract her but at home she’ll play for a bit and then look for boob.

Daytimes aren’t perfect either but generally does take longer feeds. It’s consuming my evenings at the minute and means I can’t even leave her with DP - has never taken a bottle - to just nip to the shop for half hour of sanity.

Distraction seems to be the key to extend the time between, but by half 4 I’m knackered and ready to wind down as my energy for entertaining her is dwindling by that point.

(We,re on breakfast and lunch for solids - just tasting and playing rather than anything substantial and she’s always seems to ask for milk straight after even if fed an hour ish before solids.)

Give her some food, she is six months so can be weaned. A nice bowl of porridge will fill her up

Going out might help as your presence is cuing her to think of feeding. She can have food if she’s hungry while you are gone.

Probably having a growth spurt.

@Zeitumschaltung DP suggested this a couple of hours ago. A few times I’ve nipped to the takeaway - about 45 minutes - she’s wined but survived! Think we’ll have to test this more but will be a bit hit and miss with DPs working hours. Might have to resort to pram for those days.

@LoafofSellotape had crossed my mind but was sure it’s been like this for a while until I looked back on huckleberry. Definitely got worse in the last 4/5 days. DD has been getting over a few back to back colds and teething rumblings so not sure if this has got us off track a bit.

Will try and extend things out with a few distractions where I can. Just managed half hour now and is feeding better as we speak. Think I need to nail down her tea time feed so the rest of the evening isn’t so bitty.

I personally wouldn’t bother introducing a bottle at this age. A BF baby only takes roughly 25 Floz on 24 hours. So a full feed is usually only around 2 to 3 ounces which you can often get then to drink from a cup.

Some things that might help are:

Switching things around so that you offer solids around an hour after BM. The BM is far more calorific than most solids and this is what she needs right now.

Try some calorie dense solids like Banana-Cado or Omelette Fingers to help her get the calories she needs to grow and develop.

Feed often during the day, I’d aim for at the very least every 3 hours but if she were mine, and you don’t want your evenings taken up with BFing, I’d be aiming for every 2 to 2 and a half hours, just for now.

Try some Breast Compressions so that she takes a good feed.

And when you’ve had enough, go out or send DH out with her for a walk. My DD loved to have small regular feeds in the evening. We’d change her happy just before 8 then DH would take her around the block in her pushchair and she’d sleep in the hall until it was time for me to go to bed]].

Honestly though, if you want to go out she’ll be fine with a cup of milk and your DH

How are you getting on this evening @StanleyR38?

DD had not enough sleep Saturday evening/Sunday morning so Sunday afternoon was quite a sleepy one with a couple of long naps for her to catch up. As a result she missed lunch and the afternoon dog walk, so it was pushed back to dinner time instead.

Being more occupied in the evening seemed to cause her to feed better and longer so the snacking disappeared. We did the same yesterday with the same result so makes me wonder if she was getting bored and feeding instead?!

Will try with that for a bit and see how we get on. Although today we have missed breakfast- not quite sure how as she’s refusing morning naps currently so that’s no to blame. We’re supposed to be practicing our morning routine for me goi g back to work at the end of the month, but every morning is different so far ! 😫