how to encourage bigger feeds?

[JoolsH]

How do i get my LO to feed enough during day to sleep longer at night?

Initially thought it was 4 month sleep regression cos he was waking up every 2 hours. After chatting with HV decided he was hungry but too tired to have a big feed so kept waking up for more.

At last have a reasonable routine in day has about 4 feeds (3 breast and a 6oz formula) then another 6oz formula at bedtime and 2 BF during night.
He rarely goes more than 3 hours without a feed but i can't seem to get him to have more in one go despite lots of tickling / nappy changing etc to keep him awake He goes to sleep around 9;15 which is a bit late for him but if he goes earlier he wakes more.

Should i be trying to feed him all evening to get full up or stick to every 3 hours so he has more in one go?

Any ideas? He's putting on correct amount of weight

 

[OmarsMum]

Hi hun, do you offer him a BF as soon as he wakes up or do you wait? if he takes a soother you can offer him one while patting & shhing to stretch the time between night feeds, or you can try to offer him few sips of water. If he settles after 15-20 mins, then he doesnt need a feed, but if he stays awake for more than that then he's hungry. You can also leave a gap of 4 hrs before his bedtime bottle & offer him a 7 oz bottle & see how it goes. Some LOs are not ready to drop their night feeds before they'r older. xx

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Thing is though I think stretching the time out between feeds is the very thing that makes them too tired to take a proper feed. I would literally just feed on demand. This is a hungry age, it will pass...

 

[KimB1980]

I'm afraid I don't have any advice just wanted to let you know someone else is in the same situation.
Alice is on 50th centile and has always been around that since we started combination feeding. She has 4oz bottles - about 5 a day and breast-feeds sporadically. As her weightgain is fine I'm just letting her feed as she wants but last week when we switched from readymade formula to powder and my fiancé saw that 4oz is the guideline for new babies so he thought we were under feeding her. I said she is just a small eater and weight is fine so not missing out - we are weaning at the moment and she is only having a little at a time but I think that's just her.
In regard to evening feeds we tried increasing to 7oz (taken in a few sections over about half hour) so she was happily taking it but she just kept bringing it all back up so we dropped down to 5oz.
Have you tried slowly increasing by half zn oz at a time or trying the night time milk?

Sorry for the ramble!

 

[Bertsbaby1]

Hi hun, do you offer him a BF as soon as he wakes up or do you wait? if he takes a soother you can offer him one while patting & shhing to stretch the time between night feeds, or you can try to offer him few sips of water. If he settles after 15-20 mins, then he doesnt need a feed, but if he stays awake for more than that then he's hungry. You can also leave a gap of 4 hrs before his bedtime bottle & offer him a 7 oz bottle & see how it goes. Some LOs are not ready to drop their night feeds before they'r older. xx

Sorry to hijack...

If you settle with a paci and patting etc to stretch out the feeds, how long does it usually take before the LO stops waking? My LO can go back to sleep super easily with his pacifier, but then only sleeps for 30 mins to an hour before waking again (from around 3 to 6 a.m. when we wake for the day)...

 

[OmarsMum]

Hi hun, do you offer him a BF as soon as he wakes up or do you wait? if he takes a soother you can offer him one while patting & shhing to stretch the time between night feeds, or you can try to offer him few sips of water. If he settles after 15-20 mins, then he doesnt need a feed, but if he stays awake for more than that then he's hungry. You can also leave a gap of 4 hrs before his bedtime bottle & offer him a 7 oz bottle & see how it goes. Some LOs are not ready to drop their night feeds before they'r older. xx

Sorry to hijack...

If you settle with a paci and patting etc to stretch out the feeds, how long does it usually take before the LO stops waking? My LO can go back to sleep super easily with his pacifier, but then only sleeps for 30 mins to an hour before waking again (from around 3 to 6 a.m. when we wake for the day)...

Omar started to sleep through with no feeds at 12 weeks. I never left him to cry. He used to go for 4 hrs at night when he was newborn, then it stretched to 5-6 hrs at 1 month, 7-8 hrs at 2 months & 12-13 hrs at 12 weeks.

Ofcourse there are the odd feeds during growth spurts, illness, teething, etc. but most of the time he used to sleep 12-13 hrs without feeds.

 

[little_pod]

I am wondering about this too.My baby is 8 weeks old and she has a 6oz bottle of hungry baby formula at 10/10.30pm but wakes about 3-3.30am.I have tried to settle her with water-she hates it and spits it out and it makes her cry more and gets her more angry, and i have put her dummy in and patted her back-and like someone else said-she will go back to sleep for 20mins or half hour, but then she is awake again.
When she wakes she only takes about 2 or 3 oz, but im wondering if i should up the 10/10.30pm feed to 7 oz and also up her 6pm bottle from 5oz to 6oz-this isnt a hungry baby feed, so maybe she will have a really full tummy from 6pm onwards making her sleep through the night?what do you think?x

 

[mystika802]

I dont know if its anything you do really, having 2 kids that are SO different made me realize that some babies are just different than others. My first ate small meals very often and started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks old (12 hours a night) but would feed every 1/2 hour-1hour in the day
My second is every 3-4 hours and he takes bigger meals and will sleep about 5 hours max at the beginning of the night.....just different babies I guess