Weaning off the MOTN bottle = disaster

lafayettegirl · May 2013

So, we are trying to get DS to STTN and are slowly weaning him off the 3:30 a.m. bottle. We started small, going down 1/2 an ounce at 3:30. Know what happened? Over the last 2 nights he has decided that he now wants to eat at 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???

We give him a full 4 oz at 11:30 - midnight. the 3:30 bottle was usually 3 oz, now it is 2.5, so he decides to eat 2.5 at 2:00 a.m. and another 2.5 at 4:00 a.m., then takes his regular 4 oz at 7:00 a.m.

Should I try giving him bigger bottles during the day? We just got him taking 4 oz over the last 2-3 weeks. I don't want to try to force more too quickly.

this decaf life · May 2013

I'm trying to change DD's MOTN feedings, she's EBF but what I'm doing is extending the time instead of trying to get her to eat less. Last night she woke up about 3.5 hours after the last time she'd eaten [progress, she almost always wakes 3 hours later and her first stretch was 5 hours] and I just bounced her and tried to make her as happy as possible until it'd been 4 hours since she'd last eaten.

ashlena · May 2013

Sounds like your LO may not be ready to drop the MOTN feeding being only 3 months. Babies normally can take a night feeding up to 9 months. My lo is 4 months and a few weeks and she still takes a 3.5 bottle sometimes twice a night. She eats 4-5oz during the day, normally when babies are ready to wean from night feedings they naturally start eating more during the day. I would give him a 5oz bottle to just see if he will eat it all.

I would also look up how many oz 3 months should be eating during a 24 hour period and make sure he is getting enough. Also lots of people have different definitions of STTN... I believe it is 6 or 7 hours (please correct me if I am wrong ladies) so your baby can still "STTN" and take a night feeding- if that makes sense.

spainy17 · May 2013

Sttn is not the same as sleeping twelve hours straight. We are nowhere near weaning of feedings, your baby just got here! Please feed then when they want to be fed.

jobiann · May 2013

My philosophy is to feed DS when he is hungry...I don't care if he just ate 6 oz two hours ago...if they are hungry, feed them! At only 4 or 5 months they don't understand how to deal with that hungry tummy...they just want food. I'm not sure you can get him to drop it before he is ready. Hang in there...

DandT1206 · May 2013

I don't normally post here (haven't done a proper intro yet), but my pediatrician recommended we dilute the bottle each night... for example, if he normally takes a 4oz bottle in the MOTN, then make a bottle with 3.5oz milk and .5 oz water.. each night increase the water and decrease the milk by .5 oz so that the bottle becomes mostly water. Eventually he will look for the milk that he isn't gettind in the MOTN during the day. We did this for my son until it was 1/2 water 1/2 formula and then stopped the MOTN feeding. We increased his daytime bottle to compensate. Now if he wakes during the night, we just give him his binkie and shhh him back to sleep. HTH!

financialdiva · May 2013

Seriously??? Feed your child. He will STTN when he is ready!

You're the poster who posted about wanting your child to sleep 12 hours right and that book?? makes me so sad. You are raising a child, not managing an inconvenience.

lafayettegirl · May 2013

Financialdiva:

I did not post about WANTING my child to sleep 12 hours. A book was recommended to me and I was asking for input. I believe I am pretty realistic about wanting to extend DS's sleep time somewhat. The doctor recommended slowly weaning off the 3:30 bottle, so I though we might try it and again, I am looking for advice and input from other mothers dealing with the same thing. And, by the way, I AM feeding him.

Just like everyone else here, I am trying to figure it all out. What a shame you are so quick to judge when one is looking for a safe place to ask questions and get advice.

Trust me, I have wanted and prayed for this child longer than you will ever know. I don't consider him an inconvenience at all. I consider him a blessing and I want to do the best possible job as his mother.

Shame on you for being so judgmental and jumping to conclusions. Please do not bother to post in response to my questions. I don't need your grief. Go be nasty on someone else's posts.

financialdiva · May 2013

My last sentence was nasty, I apologize.

You keep posting about how to get your LO to STTN, and to me [and others who have responded], i just think that maybe you do have unrealistic expectations. I get how exhausting it is, [as someone who was up three times last night], but I promise your LO will STTN eventually.

You can try increasing his day feedings, but if he's not ready, you can't make him STTN. I'd give it a few more months before you start worrying and expecting him to STTN.

lafayettegirl · May 2013

Thank you.I appreciate your apology.

bennikki · May 2013

DS is EBF when at home and gets a bottle of expressed milk at DC, so I don't have experience with formula.

We were really struggling with getting DS to sleep longer than 2 hours a couple weeks ago. We're assuming it was sleep regression, but with that we also noticed he was super distracted at his bedtime feeding. I couldn't get him to stay latched on, and he would squirm and wiggle all over the place. One night I was getting really frustrated, so DH just said, hey, pump a bottle, and I'll give it to him (DS won't take a bottle from me), and we'll just see what happens. We did that, DS downed 6 oz. really quickly, and slept for 5 hours I believe the first night, and I just nursed him when he woke in the MOTN. We started doing that pretty consistently, and he started sleeping in longer shots.

Last night, DH was gone, so I had to nurse, and he nursed like he used to before bed, and he slept 10 hours straight!!! It's like we had to train him to stock up on the calories before bed. I guess my advice would be to try and fill him up more before bed rather than mess with things in the middle of the night. DS has no problem staying latched and nursing during the MOTN, so if he wakes up, I just nurse him, and he's back asleep in about 10 minutes. Those little bodies know how many calories they need in a day, so if you're taking some out of his MOTN bottle, make sure you're sticking them in somewhere else during the day.

sbevmc09 · May 2013

IMO it sounds like he needs to eat then. I would just feed him. He'll likely drop it on his own when he doesn't need it anymore.

Wild_flower25 · May 2013

Babies should for sure eat at least once during the night until they have either doubled their birth weight or reach 12 lbs. If not, you should not try cutting that feeding. If it's only once a night, consider yourselves lucky.

DD cut out her one night feeding a week or so ago on her own. She was about 4 months.

Tanda711 · May 2013

I'm not sure if someone already suggested this but, I would offer more in the bottles during the day and just see how much LO takes. It looks like you're only trying to get him to drop 1 feeding which is only going 6 and a half hours without eating. At 4 months LO could probably take more than 4 oz per bottle, that's just my opinion though.

Most babies are sleeping a 6 hour stretch by 4 months, I don't think it's unreasonable to try for that and clearly you're not starving your child. GL

dulcemariamar1 · May 2013

If your baby is waking up at three is it because he is hungry. I think he is still way too young to drop the MOTN feeding. In my case if my LO ways up three hours or less, than I try to find other ways to calm her down first before trying to feed her.

If more time has gone by, then I assume she is hungry.

i am not sure about FF but I find that cluster feeding at night helps.

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