Sleeping/Eating Question

jlsweets

Looking for some opinions/tips/advice...my son has pretty much been doing the exact same "schedule" for the past 2 months at bedtime..bed at 7, wakes up at 11:30 for a bottle, wakes up at 3:30 for a bottle, then up at 5:15 for the morning...when he wakes up in the night he acts like he is absolutely starving, drinks the bottle down so fast without even opening his eyes and goes right back to sleep. At his appt in Oct the Dr told me that I had to stop feeding him in the night and to let him cio...well we tried that and he cried and cried for the longest time and just would not stop..he does not want the pacifier (infact he throws it out of his crib like hes pissed ha) When we were at the dr a week and a half ago for a cold she asked how he was sleeping and I truthfully told her...she told me that he doesn't need food in the night at this point and he's eating because he is used to getting it at that time and to keep letting him cio...well we go back in a week and I'm sure she will be bringing it up so I'm thinking I'll say yup he's sttn just so I don't have to see her attitude again ha..thoughts? Anyone else still feeding a lot at night? Oh..and he is formula fed

rapaulson

I agree with the doc. I rarely feed LO at night now. I gradually weaned the night feed by following the sleep easy method. I highly recommend the book. You need to end the night feeds for your own sake if nothing else!

ELF4321

If he's emptying the bottle both times, you can't just stop giving them to him cold-turkey, because he isn't eating enough during the day to make up those calories yet. 

We did the SleepEasy weaning plan with DD where you start waking the baby to eat about half an hour before they usually wake for a bottle, decreasing the amount in each bottle by a half ounce each night, while increasing the amount you offer during the day.  Let him CIO (with check-ins, if needed) if he wakes any other times besides the two times you schedule his wean feeds. 

So, you would start doing a dream feed at 11pm, and at 3am for him, rather than waiting for him to wake up on his own.  If he's taking 6oz in each bottle now, you would offer him 5.5oz the first night, 5 the next, 4.5 the following, and so on.  Once you are down to 1 oz in each bottle, then you drop them completely and let him CIO if he wakes up expecting one.

jlsweets

ELF4321:

If he's emptying the bottle both times, you can't just stop giving them to him cold-turkey, because he isn't eating enough during the day to make up those calories yet. 

We did the SleepEasy weaning plan with DD where you start waking the baby to eat about half an hour before they usually wake for a bottle, decreasing the amount in each bottle by a half ounce each night, while increasing the amount you offer during the day.  Let him CIO (with check-ins, if needed) if he wakes any other times besides the two times you schedule his wean feeds. 

So, you would start doing a dream feed at 11pm, and at 3am for him, rather than waiting for him to wake up on his own.  If he's taking 6oz in each bottle now, you would offer him 5.5oz the first night, 5 the next, 4.5 the following, and so on.  Once you are down to 1 oz in each bottle, then you drop them completely and let him CIO if he wakes up expecting one.

Thank you for this, this is extremly helpful! I'm going to give this a shot, I keep seeing everyone talk about SleepEasy, so it must be doing something! 

jlsweets

ELF4321:

If he's emptying the bottle both times, you can't just stop giving them to him cold-turkey, because he isn't eating enough during the day to make up those calories yet. 

We did the SleepEasy weaning plan with DD where you start waking the baby to eat about half an hour before they usually wake for a bottle, decreasing the amount in each bottle by a half ounce each night, while increasing the amount you offer during the day.  Let him CIO (with check-ins, if needed) if he wakes any other times besides the two times you schedule his wean feeds. 

So, you would start doing a dream feed at 11pm, and at 3am for him, rather than waiting for him to wake up on his own.  If he's taking 6oz in each bottle now, you would offer him 5.5oz the first night, 5 the next, 4.5 the following, and so on.  Once you are down to 1 oz in each bottle, then you drop them completely and let him CIO if he wakes up expecting one.

Also- when you say increase the food during the day, are you increasing the formula amount or solids amount? Right now between the hrs of 5am-7pm he takes 4 (6oz) bottles and eats solids morning and night

TabClark

We had the same issue. Our doctor said to slowly start adding less amounts of formula to his bottle. With in a week he was just drinking water during the night (just 1 bottle). This trained his body to realize that he didn't need to eat during the night. It took about 2 weeks, but he has been doing much better.

bellelamb

CIO isn't something I'm willing to do to my children. Plus depending on how much a child eats or moves during the day they may still need to eat at night.

ELF4321

jlsweets:

Also- when you say increase the food during the day, are you increasing the formula amount or solids amount? Right now between the hrs of 5am-7pm he takes 4 (6oz) bottles and eats solids morning and night

We do 5 daytime bottles, every 3 hours or so. I always offer 8 oz in her first and last bottles of the day, and 6.5 oz in the other three.  She doesn't always eat it all, but it's there if she wants it.  She isn't all that into solids yet, so she doesn't usually eat enough of them to offset a bottle.

Jinnifah

bellelamb:

CIO isn't something I'm willing to do to my children. Plus depending on how much a child eats or moves during the day they may still need to eat at night.

This. I'm kind of annoyed at your dr. Easy for her to say "oh just let him cry" :-/

Ditto the others though, I find when I nurse DS constantly during the day he seems to sleep longer periods at night. 

keenie814

I am still breastfeeding my daughter, but she sleeps 11-12 hours at night without waking. I find that I am feeding her pretty frequently throughout the day, about every 3 hours and she gets her baby food for breakfast and dinner and has some mum mums and yogurt as a lunch time snack. Maybe you could try feeding him more during the day? That's a toughie. It's really, really hard to let them cry at night especially if you know he will gulp down a bottle and go back to sleep if you go in there. Good luck!

k4slr6

DD has the same schedule minus the 3:30 feeding now.  The pedi said as long as she is waking up and eating a bottle with her eyes closed and goes right back to sleep when she is done to keep feeding her at night b/c she really is hungry.  If she were playing or looking at us and wouldn't go right back to sleep then she said to cut it out.  Or if when she woke up for the day she wasn't hungry then she wouldn't need the middle of the night one either. 

MsOCT

The real question, is are you ok with the wakeups? Your MD is there for medical advice. There is no medical reason why your LO can't eat at night. If you are not ok with the wake ups, then you need to taper the feeds down until she is sleeping through them. Otherwise, tell your doc to MYOB.