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Not filling up on breastmilk?

=megamind==megamind= member
in Babies: 3 - 6 Months

Does anyone have any experience with their babies not being fulfilled from their breast milk? My son will be 5 months next week and for the past ~3 weeks he's been getting up every hour to 2 hours a night.

 At first I just assumed it was the 4 month wakeful, but lately he's been eating anywhere from 15-20 ounces at night, and 20-25 ounces during the day. We haven't tried solids (we did try a little rice cereal, but decided it wasn't worth it and wanted to wait to jump into solids) but I'm not sure what to do! I have considered giving him 2 formula bottles a day to see if fortifying helps, has anyone done this? Should we just head to solids? Is there not an issue and my desperate need for sleep is clouding my mind?

I have a call into the Pedi's office, but I wanted to see if any of you had this issue.

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Re: Not filling up on breastmilk?

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    mben1119mben1119 member
    When he wakes at night, is he nursing long?  How long does it take him to fall back asleep?  My first assumption would not be an issue with your breastmilk, it would be 4 month wakeful.
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    =megamind==megamind= member
    I EP, so he takes the bottle quick, it's more of a dream feed than anything. I am more concerned with the amount he's eating than the waking up although if both are related it wouldn't hurt!
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    mben1119mben1119 member

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    I EP, so he takes the bottle quick, it's more of a dream feed than anything. I am more concerned with the amount he's eating than the waking up although if both are related it wouldn't hurt!

    Gotcha. DS ate like 40 oz of BM a day when he was around your LO's age. He finally started STTN at 6 months, out of the blue. In the weeks before, he started eating more with each bottle during the day, and was still just doing 1 solid meals a day.

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    danieliza1127danieliza1127 member

    It sounds like it's more of a sleep association problem, like he's needing the bottle to get back to sleep.  My LO was doing the same thing until we started sleep training and now he's back to just waking up to eat once a night.  He has about 25oz of BM during the day and two feedings of rice cereal mixed with squash or sweet potato puree, then he wakes once a night for a bottle and will take anywhere from 3 to 5oz of that bottle.  

    If your LO is waking up every hour or two and eating every time, it's probably not because he's really that hungry.  I read Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems and found it to be really helpful in figuring out what was causing my LO to wake up and how to fix it and once we started that sleep training, his sleep has been awesome.

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    pumpkinhead4pumpkinhead4 member
    imagedanieliza1127:

    It sounds like it's more of a sleep association problem, like he's needing the bottle to get back to sleep.  My LO was doing the same thing until we started sleep training and now he's back to just waking up to eat once a night.  He has about 25oz of BM during the day and two feedings of rice cereal mixed with squash or sweet potato puree, then he wakes once a night for a bottle and will take anywhere from 3 to 5oz of that bottle.  

    If your LO is waking up every hour or two and eating every time, it's probably not because he's really that hungry.  I read Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems and found it to be really helpful in figuring out what was causing my LO to wake up and how to fix it and once we started that sleep training, his sleep has been awesome.

    Agreed. This doesn't sound like a food issue. Babies this age should be able to sleep at least 4-5 hrs without eating over night. My Ped told me to feed my LO 1 maybe 2x a night and that's it. GL!

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    =megamind==megamind= member
    Thank you ladies! Babies need a manual.
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    StephorseStephorse member
    Before I went back to work we started giving my LO bottles to see how much he was eating and he was eating almost 40 ounces during the day and was getting up at least once at night. Once we switched to formula (he gets usually 2 bottles a day and we did this just in case he didn't have enough milk with the nanny because who could really pump that much in the time I have at work?) and he started sleeping through the night. He still eats usually 30-35 ounces a day and gets a little over 2 tablespoons of rice a day so I know how you feel!
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    jnnfrrose6jnnfrrose6 member
    Sounds like he needs to get a little more during the day and start some sleep training.  We follow the Moms On Call method and it's great for our family.  He's slept through the night since 8 weeks.  Good luck.  I don't know how I'd be able to cope if he woke up so much!
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    Aisham28Aisham28 member
    Well my pedi told me once my LO is downing 35 or more ounces a day then its time to move on to solids. You might want to give it at try.
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    Venus04dVenus04d member
    It sounds like it's time to start solids. I would definitely do that before adding formula. I also agree with others that there's a good chance this is more of a sleep issue than a hunger problem.

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