Some feeding questions

shellbell3845 · August 2014

I'm asking because I'm curious what other mamas do, but I won't lie here -- LO is consistently sleeping poorly, and I'm trying to take a look at everything we do to see if something we're doing is contributing to that.

1. We give LO rice cereal "before bed" per our pedi and have since 4mo. He has not slept well since right around that time. Prior he was sleeping from 8:30-5 before needing to get up to nurse. So my question: how would you define "before bed?" We've been doing cereal at 7pm; bedtime is 8:30ish. Does that timeline sound about right? If you do solids in the evening, what is your timeline?

2. LO has essentially dropped a daytime feeding. He was eating around 10, 1, 4, 7, bed. Now he's kind of asking to be fed around 10, 1, 5:30, bed (with cereal at 8am and 7pm). Anyone else experiencing this? Should I somehow be trying to feed him more during the day so he's getting enough, or am I right in following his cues? I'm worried he's not eating enough during the day which is contributing to our sleep problems. When he wakes in the MOTN, I would say it's partially sucking for comfort but he does gulp down milk for a minute or two.

Thanks for any thoughts you have. I'm feeling pretty frustrated about all of this, and I'm starting to second guess every single thing I do as LO's mom.

Meghan14 · August 2014

No help on the solids, sorry.

Way back I noticed if LO had 5 bottles he woke up at 3:00am wanting another, if he had 6 he slept all night. As soon as I noticed this I put him on a schedule to try to fit 6 bottles in between 6:00 when he gets up and 7:30 when he goes to bed. Now we are down to 5 bottles and he is still sleeping. I don't know if a feeding schedule is the "right" thing to do, but it has been working for us for quite a while now. IMO if you are feeding them earlier than they cue it's fine.

ETA: DH's aunt is from Russia, she said Russian peasant wisdom is to figure out how many times they eat a day and try to add 1 more. This will help them STTN. I dismissed this when she said it and a few weeks later discovered the same thing on my own.

Codypup · August 2014

I second trying oatmeal cereal instead of rice cereal. For whatever reason, rice cereal didn't seem to agree with W -- no allergic reaction or anything, but we noticed a consistent pattern of high volume shrieking about 15 minutes after eating it. We haven't seen any of that with the oatmeal. (Again this is purely anecdotal and not at all scientific, just our experience.)

As far as bumping up day time feedings...have you tried offering more solids during the day instead of bottles? It's weird, but sometimes W will have zero interest in a bottle, but will easily eat 3oz of purees mixed with milk.

That being said, for us, trying to bump up her day time eating is hit or miss. We can't force her to eat more if she's unwilling (obviously), and it doesn't seem to have a huge effect on her sleep. She's still waking up 2x per night to eat. Some nights she'll eat 5oz, some nights it's only 1oz, but she's still waking consistently. We definitely do NOT have a STTN baby.

The ONLY thing we've found that's seemed to make a difference is this: if she eats a HUGE dinner (3oz oatmeal, 3oz purees, 2 oz formula), she'll sleep longer. But again, her dinners are inconsistent. Sometimes she's too tired and fussy to eat a lot. Other nights, I'm refilling her bowl over and over because she's still hungry.

TL;DR: maybe try oatmeal cereal, more solids during the day (if he's not wanting bottles), and if you can, a big dinner. (I also always mix formula into her oatmeal and purees to ensure she's getting some of that nutrition too.)

shellbell3845 · August 2014

I'm wondering if we should start trying other other solids even though we're still shy of 6mo. LO is a big baby, and he's so, so, so ready for solids. He does great with the cereal, he's obsessed with food, he opens his mouth for a spoon, and swallows the food rather than spitting it out.

Maybe I'll try feeding him some solid "lunch" in between nursing today. I'm also super paranoid I'm going to over feed him.

SuzyQq02 · August 2014

Agreed on the oatmeal vs rice! We were doing it RIGHT before bed (per pedi's advice to help with some weight gain, so she'd go to sleep and not burn it all off being the wiggliest baby ever!), but now that that's less of an issue, we do 7pm dinner (oatmeal and fruit), start bedtime routine at 8pm, usually in bed between 820-830. It's been working out so far.

LO also dropped a bottle when we went to 2 meals of solids a day (though right now she just gets veggie at lunch), but we also upped the oz so it made sense logically that she'd get a similar volume but just in bigger increments. This is a good reminder to talk to DC about her bottle schedule... I need them to adjust the timing of her first bottle in prep for adding in breakfast soon.

shellbell3845 · August 2014

I love you, @KatyBriggs‌. Thank you for saying what I already know but needed to hear anyway.

@sjelwood‌ not really a distracted eater. When he's nursing, he's an intense, focused eater and gulps down his meal in about 6 minutes.

Codypup · August 2014

t/j

@katybriggs - I am in awe of 7oz bottles. It's sometimes a fight to get W to take 4oz! She eats like a bird, all day long but not a lot at one time. I'm forever throwing away unfinished bottles.

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