Lazy eater help

cookiemonsterr

Hi everyone my 10 week old EFF DD loves to just eat an ounce or two of her bottle per feeding then fall asleep. I have tried everything to keep her going including changing her diaper halfway through, Tickling her toes, Etc. Then she loves to wake up an hour or hour and a half later and eat again. No matter how hard I try to get her to eat every three hours she would love to eat just an ounce every hour. This is causing us to waste a lot of formula, is interfering with her naps, but worse is she goes to daycare in two weeks and I am nervous that they will not be able to Feed her so frequently which will result in her not eating enough.

Anyone in a similar situation that might have some advice?

klmurner

Yes. My dude is 5 weeks and has been trying to snack for about 2 now during the day. A coworker suggested holding him off with a pacifier, etc. to ensure that he's actually hungry when he's eating. I try to stretch him at least 15 mins to a half hour whenever he does it to get him closer to the 2.5-3 hour mark between feedings. I don't want the snacking habit to carry over to night (right now he eats and sleeps well between 8 pm and 5 am), and moreso don't want the daycare provider to have to put up with it all day (knowing that he will learn the hard way at daycare).

OhBaby+2013

Have you tried stripping her to just her diaper and putting a cold cloth on her to really "wake" her up. That would work a bit for DS when he was lazy. Otherwise the pacifier trick as pp suggested might help. Good luck! That would be very frustrating and tiring!

OhBaby+2013

Ya it's not the most pleasant but it gets the baby to wake right up!

Cass005

Our LO will be 4 weeks on Sunday and she's going through a similar situation. She eats like 2 oz (sometimes less). Then we put her down but she doesnt' stay for long, then she cries to be held or a diaper change. During the day its every hour. Last night she went I think 3 hours sleeping straight.

Mrw218

And as far as daycare goes I don't know why you are worried about them having "time". For one every daycare I've talked to says infants don't have a schedule and they feed them when they want it. Two it's their damn job. Three you are paying them a lot to take care of your child the way you do if not better. In my area daycare is running me about 1300 bucks so....I don't feel bad if they have to hold him all day. Now I do feel bad if you have to deal with that at night and I know it's hard for you to do anything else during the day but sit in front of the tv. But the other stuff is just a non issue.

jjaxbie

I don't know if this is helpful to you but when baby girl is having an off day or is doing something that isn't textbook I find it helpful to remember that babies only live in the moment. They lack the capacity to live for both the present and future.

If they are hungry they let us know because it doesn't occur to them that they would probably be fed at the two hour mark I'd they would just wait another 15 min. Same with being awake in the middle of the night - if they want to be cuddled why not voice the need -3am be damned.

Baby girl didn't poop yesterday, is snacking all day today, and was up from 3-5 this morning - super annoying, doesn't match with any typical advice, but as long as nothing is medically wrong all there is to do is just power through it and try to enjoy the idea that your little one is growing and has such a blissful existence of never worrying about the future because she has a wonderful mommy that loves her and takes good care of her.

Tldr: It's totally temporary and you'll get through it. Baby is normal. :-) Keep it up!

OhBaby+2013

@cookiemonsterr how's it going? Any luck getting LO to feed a bit longer?

OhBaby+2013

That's great @cookiemonsterr, be sure to share your concern/thought with daycare so that they are prepared! I hope you have continued success.