do you still feed in the night -older babies?

[robinator]

Occasionally, no problem. Lane has woken for a night feed once in the last five months. During her eight month regression we did the water method; since then she has taken all her calories during the daytime. I do believe babies will drop when they are ready, but I also believe you can help them do it sooner. I'm not willing to wait until she is three lol

Hi Robinator...

Just out of interest, do you know of any ways you can help babies take in more milk in the day time as opposed over night?

I am really struggling with my LO, I am lucky if she has 3 bottles in the day, today it was just 2, but she just refuses milk if I offer it to her and she doesnt want it.

We did it by offering her water at night instead of boob. What I was aiming for was making sure she got the same amout of nutrition during her waking hours, as opposed to spreading it out over 24 hours.

When she awoke (and we did this based off of information given to us from our doctor), we offered her water to satisfy the tummy grumblings and she would go back to sleep. She would be hungrier when she awoke in the morning and ate more then, instead. Our doctor told it could take up to two weeks for the water method to work, but with us it only took three nights. She also increased her daytime milk intake over the next little while.

Our doctor told us it's about retraining the pancreas. When food is offered at certain times (such as 2am), the baby's pancreas just comes to expect food at that time, and so the baby wakes to eat. If given food, the body will continue to need it around those times. By offering water instead, we were weaning her body off of the expectation of calories at that time, and made up for it during daylight hours.

 

[MumToEva]

Eva started sleeping through from 6 months, but at 10 months she got a bad cold which she hasn't been able to shake off since, so she now wakes 1 or 2 times most nights. Teething also upsets her too. I just see it as something that has to be done, though hubby helps me now which he would never have done when I was off on maternity leave, so doesn't feel like such a chore when we do it time about.

 

[hubblybubbly]

Comes and goes for us, she's just had a 6 week odd stretch of needing a night feed, but the last week it's only been twice. All a variation of normal IMO, although many will try to tell you they should not need it from 6 months, in my experience that's tosh.
X

 

[onetwothreebp]

if it's only once or twice a month, then i wouldn't worry about it. he's obviously just hungry. my lo is almost 16 months old and he will occasionally wakeup in the night wanting to feed

 

[StranjeGirl]

YES!!! And I sure do know that face lol!! I's say she wakes hungry between 0-3 times a month. I get so irritated because people tell me, including the nurse and dr, that I have to be very careful about feeding in the night. The dr just warned that it can become a habit, but the nurse was so pushy, telling me not to feed at night. I totally get it if you have a child who consistently wakes at night, but mine has been sleeping 9-11 hours a night since about 10 weeks old. I know her and she would rather be sleeping than eating if she is not starving! When she wakes due to teething I can hold her and she will calm down, just want to be held. But if she wakes and is hungry nothing will calm her down but a bottle. She will gobble it down and then happily go right back to sleep. I've tried to feed her at other times when she is teething to see if she is hungry, and she only takes a few sips and then isn't interested. I think you know your baby the best. If mine was going through a growth spurt and did this for a few nights, or if her schedule got messed up and she didn't get enough during the day, she would wake at night but then always go back to sleeping through the night without a problem. It sounds to me that your lo is like mine is waking hungry sometimes, not for just comfort!

 

[pompeyvix]

Occasionally, no problem. Lane has woken for a night feed once in the last five months. During her eight month regression we did the water method; since then she has taken all her calories during the daytime. I do believe babies will drop when they are ready, but I also believe you can help them do it sooner. I'm not willing to wait until she is three lol

Hi Robinator...

Just out of interest, do you know of any ways you can help babies take in more milk in the day time as opposed over night?

I am really struggling with my LO, I am lucky if she has 3 bottles in the day, today it was just 2, but she just refuses milk if I offer it to her and she doesnt want it.

We did it by offering her water at night instead of boob. What I was aiming for was making sure she got the same amout of nutrition during her waking hours, as opposed to spreading it out over 24 hours.

When she awoke (and we did this based off of information given to us from our doctor), we offered her water to satisfy the tummy grumblings and she would go back to sleep. She would be hungrier when she awoke in the morning and ate more then, instead. Our doctor told it could take up to two weeks for the water method to work, but with us it only took three nights. She also increased her daytime milk intake over the next little while.

Our doctor told us it's about retraining the pancreas. When food is offered at certain times (such as 2am), the baby's pancreas just comes to expect food at that time, and so the baby wakes to eat. If given food, the body will continue to need it around those times. By offering water instead, we were weaning her body off of the expectation of calories at that time, and made up for it during daylight hours.

Thanks, that's helpful. I am going to see if anything changes when we move onto solids next month, but if not I think offering water at night instead of milk may be something we consider. At the moment she is ravenous at night, but I almost have to force her to drink in the day by offering little and often!

 

[monkers1984]

My baby is 9 months old and has never slept thru the night - he still wakes up every hour or two for some booby!! He obv needs it or just wants the comfort otherwise he wouldn't wake up!! It's hard going but what my baby needs my baby gets and I'm a firm believer in that -- at this age anyway!!!

 

[VikkiD]

My lo as started waking in the night and having a feed he normal as his last 7oz bottle at 7.30pm he woke at 3 this morning and drank 7oz then I tried him with his normal morning bottle at 7am an he only took 3oz do you think I should cut his oz down in the night or just go with it for now he as been waking at various times for a feed during the night for the past 4 weeks.
During the day he as three meals plus 4 7oz bottles

 

[MrsKyliePaton]

My lo has been off night bottles since 10 weeks she's 8 months old now, but on the odd occasion like lastnight she woke at 1am and wouldn't settle until she had a bottle she downed it, I think it was a mixture of having a cold teething and a possible growth spurt

 

[StranjeGirl]

Occasionally, no problem. Lane has woken for a night feed once in the last five months. During her eight month regression we did the water method; since then she has taken all her calories during the daytime. I do believe babies will drop when they are ready, but I also believe you can help them do it sooner. I'm not willing to wait until she is three lol

Hi Robinator...

Just out of interest, do you know of any ways you can help babies take in more milk in the day time as opposed over night?

I am really struggling with my LO, I am lucky if she has 3 bottles in the day, today it was just 2, but she just refuses milk if I offer it to her and she doesnt want it.

We did it by offering her water at night instead of boob. What I was aiming for was making sure she got the same amout of nutrition during her waking hours, as opposed to spreading it out over 24 hours.

When she awoke (and we did this based off of information given to us from our doctor), we offered her water to satisfy the tummy grumblings and she would go back to sleep. She would be hungrier when she awoke in the morning and ate more then, instead. Our doctor told it could take up to two weeks for the water method to work, but with us it only took three nights. She also increased her daytime milk intake over the next little while.

Our doctor told us it's about retraining the pancreas. When food is offered at certain times (such as 2am), the baby's pancreas just comes to expect food at that time, and so the baby wakes to eat. If given food, the body will continue to need it around those times. By offering water instead, we were weaning her body off of the expectation of calories at that time, and made up for it during daylight hours.

Thanks, that's helpful. I am going to see if anything changes when we move onto solids next month, but if not I think offering water at night instead of milk may be something we consider. At the moment she is ravenous at night, but I almost have to force her to drink in the day by offering little and often!

I have to do the same because LO is just too busy during the day to care about eating sometimes. If I don't keep offering and offering she is up at night eating...so I do my best to make sure she gets what she needs during the day!