need help with eliminating 4am bottle

aluminium · January 2012

DS (17 months old) was sleeping 7pm-7am until daylight savings. After a rough warm-up to the time change, we finally have him sleeping from 8pm-4am. When he wakes at 4 we give him a bottle (his only bottle of the day), and if we're lucky he goes back to sleep until 6am (which is still early, but we wake for work then anyway)... However, lately he is only sleeping until 5 or 5:30 after that morning bottle. It sucks. Has anyone had luck fixing a situation like this?

BallSox · January 2012

I have no advice. He stopped waking up in the middle of the night to eat months ago. He will occasionally stir and wake up around that point, but goes back to sleep without a bottle.

MNgirl326 · January 2012

Maybe try reducing the amount you give in the bottle by an oz every other night or so.

Technically he doesn't need it, so I am sure he won't notice the bottle beting decreased by the amount.

When you get down to just a few oz, try cutting it out completely and only go in and rub his back a little bit and see if that helps get him back to sleep. Another option you can do, which i have done, is just leave him in there to figure it out. He may just go back to sleep on his own.

aluminium · January 2012

abartow:
Maybe try reducing the amount you give in the bottle by an oz every other night or so.

Technically he doesn't need it, so I am sure he won't notice the bottle beting decreased by the amount.

When you get down to just a few oz, try cutting it out completely and only go in and rub his back a little bit and see if that helps get him back to sleep. Another option you can do, which i have done, is just leave him in there to figure it out. He may just go back to sleep on his own.

Thanks. We'll try this. I just wonder at 4am if he actually is hungry since by that point he's been 10+hours since his last meal. And then I worry that he's uncomfortable in a wet diaper. I guess I just need to just toughen up and try something new...

[Deleted User] · January 2012

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MrsMommyQ · January 2012

aluminium:

Thanks. We'll try this. I just wonder at 4am if he actually is hungry since by that point he's been 10+hours since his last meal. And then I worry that he's uncomfortable in a wet diaper. I guess I just need to just toughen up and try something new...

I doubt he's hungry. He's just waking up out of habit.

You can try water in the bottle too. That might work.

MrsDe2008 · January 2012

I would wean off the formula. If you are giving him an 8 oz. bottle of formula, start diluting it. The 1st night give him 3/4 formula to 1/4 water and then the next night, 1/2 formula to 1/2 water etc. That worked for DD at 9 months.

aluminium · January 2012

MrsDe2008:
I would wean off the formula. If you are giving him an 8 oz. bottle of formula, start diluting it. The 1st night give him 3/4 formula to 1/4 water and then the next night, 1/2 formula to 1/2 water etc. That worked for DD at 9 months.

He has a medical condition that will require him to take Rx formula his entire life. So we can't cut down on the amount of formula he gets, but we can cut down on how much he gets at 4am. We'll give it a shot.

MNgirl326 · January 2012

aluminium:

MrsDe2008:
I would wean off the formula. If you are giving him an 8 oz. bottle of formula, start diluting it. The 1st night give him 3/4 formula to 1/4 water and then the next night, 1/2 formula to 1/2 water etc. That worked for DD at 9 months.

He has a medical condition that will require him to take Rx formula his entire life. So we can't cut down on the amount of formula he gets, but we can cut down on how much he gets at 4am. We'll give it a shot.

hold on, what? His entire life? What condition is this? I am curious.

aluminium · January 2012

abartow:
aluminium:

MrsDe2008:
I would wean off the formula. If you are giving him an 8 oz. bottle of formula, start diluting it. The 1st night give him 3/4 formula to 1/4 water and then the next night, 1/2 formula to 1/2 water etc. That worked for DD at 9 months.

He has a medical condition that will require him to take Rx formula his entire life. So we can't cut down on the amount of formula he gets, but we can cut down on how much he gets at 4am. We'll give it a shot.

hold on, what? His entire life? What condition is this? I am curious.

Most babies get a heel stick at birth and then their parents never learn the results because nothing is found. With DS, we learned when he was a few days old that his results came back positive for PKU, which is a pretty rare metabolic disorder. Only about 1 in 20,000 people in the US have it.

PKU means he can't metabolize a certain amino acid found in almost every food there is. So he will have a modified vegan/low-protein diet his entire life. This includes supplementing his diet with a prescription formula that will help him get the protein he needs without the amino acid (phenylalanine) that he can't have.

For now, we have to weigh and track all the food he eats so that we can keep a good running estimate of how much phenylalanine he is consuming daily. Eventually he will just be able to keep track of how many grams of protein he is eating each day.

ETA: I know this has been a pretty long-winded answer to your question already, but I think it's important to add that PKU is not an allergy or intolerance. Untreated PKU will result in severe developmental delays and mental retardation (or death in extreme cases) because excess (unmetabolized) phenylalanine will float around in the bloodstream, ultimately poisoning the brain. So we send blood samples to the lab every other week so we can ensure his blood-phe levels are in a safe range, and we see a neurologist regularly to make sure he is meeting his developmental milestones.

MNgirl326 · January 2012

aluminium:
abartow:
aluminium:

MrsDe2008:
I would wean off the formula. If you are giving him an 8 oz. bottle of formula, start diluting it. The 1st night give him 3/4 formula to 1/4 water and then the next night, 1/2 formula to 1/2 water etc. That worked for DD at 9 months.

He has a medical condition that will require him to take Rx formula his entire life. So we can't cut down on the amount of formula he gets, but we can cut down on how much he gets at 4am. We'll give it a shot.

hold on, what? His entire life? What condition is this? I am curious.

Most babies get a heel stick at birth and then their parents never learn the results because nothing is found. With DS, we learned when he was a few days old that his results came back positive for PKU, which is a pretty rare metabolic disorder. Only about 1 in 20,000 people in the US have it.

PKU means he can't metabolize a certain amino acid found in almost every food there is. So he will have a modified vegan/low-protein diet his entire life. This includes supplementing his diet with a prescription formula that will help him get the protein he needs without the amino acid (phenylalanine) that he can't have.

For now, we have to weigh and track all the food he eats so that we can keep a good running estimate of how much phenylalanine he is consuming daily. Eventually he will just be able to keep track of how many grams of protein he is eating each day.

ETA: I know this has been a pretty long-winded answer to your question already, but I think it's important to add that PKU is not an allergy or intolerance. Untreated PKU will result in severe developmental delays and mental retardation (or death in extreme cases) because excess (unmetabolized) phenylalanine will float around in the bloodstream, ultimately poisoning the brain. So we send blood samples to the lab every other week so we can ensure his blood-phe levels are in a safe range, and we see a neurologist regularly to make sure he is meeting his developmental milestones.

Wow. I had no idea the PKU thing was so serious. Thanks for filling me in on the information.

Good luck on everything!

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