At the end of my tether with food, milk, sleep and everything.... :(

[EmmaLouise1982]

Hi all,

My LO was weaned a little early under the guidance of HV to try and solve his reflux, which has now pretty much gone away and although he has always been fussy with bottles (every one is a fight!) he was a pretty good eater so I kind of consoled myself with the knowledge that once he was eating more solids, I would only have to deal with 2 or 3 bottle fights a day.

However, he has suddenly gone off his solids too ! He is 6.5ms and for about 3 weeks now, he only seems to want finger food but as he's not very co-ordinated yet, not much is going in. I wouldnt mind so much if this was being backed up with plenty of milk but he doesn't want that either. I struggle to get 10-15oz in him in a day.

His weight is fine, but has dropped off recently - he was following 75th percentile (he's tall rather than fat) but has now dropped to under the 50th.

I have tried him on more textured food, mashed rather than pureed but nothing seems to work. On top of this, he has started night waking for bottles (after previously pretty much sleeping through), the only 2 bottles in the day he wants are at 2am and 5am, typical! He wakes up screaming and a bottle is the only thing that consoles him and gets him back to sleep. So between 2 and 5am he is taking 15-16 oz of milk which I think is just creating a vicous circle with him not eating the next day?

He goes to bed at 8 usually without a problem, but from 1 onwards he is really unsettled and I'm so tired now tht it's starting to really get me down. Should I try just offering water at night as Gina Ford suggests?

He really isn't in much of a routine either which worries me, I kind of let him find his own pattern which was working fine for us, but now I fear that he's a bit up in the air which is contributing to our problems? The thing is, he nearly alays goes to sleep in his buggy or carseat of he's in them, so how would I stop that?

He is a very energetic baby, he's crawling, into everything etc. and I try and keep him busy in the day to tire him out as he gets fidgety and bored at home. To top it off, we are going on holiday in January and there is a 6 hour time difference, so I can only imagine what that will do to his sleeping and eating patterns

Can anyone run through thier typical day routine with me? I look at 'good babies' and think it's something I must be doing wrong

Thanks

You have my sympathies. My DD (7 months) is similar with her milk, though not quite as bad (at the moment)- she had about 16 oz with a struggle and she does at least enjoy her food (BLW so not taking much at the moment).

He sleeping is variable - some nights she's up every hour wanting a cuddle/dummy or occasionally, milk. On rare occasions she'll sleep all night but usually she's up at leas twice and, like yours, she'll take a lot of milk in the night and then less in the day.

There's no real pattern to it- I can't work out what I do differently on the days she sleeps though!

I don't think you can offer water if he's not having much milk in the day - he probably is hungry and needs the milk.

A few things I've found useful to get more milk into DD in the day are:

upping teat size for a faster (easier) flow

offering milk in a cup (open or tommee tippee)

feeding to sleep when she is due a nap

I found that at about 6 months DD stopped automatically falling asleep in buggy or car seat (which brought it's own problems) so you might be coming to the end of that soon anyway.

We seem to have gotten into a loose Gina Ford sleep routine (after ripping up her book was 8 weeks old!) of (on a good day):

up at 7 (struggle with bottle)

breakfast at 8 (loaded spoons of readybrek/yoghurt or toast)

nap at 9.30 - I still rock / walk her to sleep

11.30 - struggle with bottle

12.30 - lunch

1pm - nap

3pm - struggle with bottle

5.30 - dinner

6.30 - bath

7pm - bottle (no struggles - hooray) bed.

x number of wake ups !

My DS was a (silent) reflux baby and at around 6 months the reflux started to improve. However, he went off his milk too at this time and I had to supplement his solid diet with lots of yoghurt (1 pot is 2oz of milk) and cheese. I would keep offering milk during the day at regular, set times and really structure his day. THe milk and the solids need to be far enough apart that he is hungry every time they are offered.

I also found that I had to distract my DS for a few months whilst milk feeding - I would put him in his bouncy chair and give him something to hold (kitchen utensil for example). I would hold the bottle and this would usually get enough into him. Mid afternoon, he would only take his bottle whilst being flattish in his buggy, being marched in the park. For a while, he only took his evening bottle whilst lying in his cot. Basically, he didn't want to be held anymore!

We followed Gina and his routine was roughly:

7am: milk
8am: breakfast (cereal with lots of milk!)
9am: sleep (40 mins)
11.30am: lunch + water
12.15/12.30pm: sleep (1.5/2 hours)
2.15pm: milk
5pm: tea + water
6pm bath
6.30pm: milk
7pm: bed

If he had a really poor tea/last bottle, I would then dreamfeed at 10pm.

I can also highly recommend the HIPP organic night milk - really doesn't work with normal teats, but try the NUK training beaker - it is brilliant!