[Tilly007]

DS is a picky eater and often will not eat much during the day. We do mostly BLW as he won't eat from the spoon.

My main issue is that on the days he doesn't eat much, he wants to breastfeed overnight. When he was 7 months old we night weaned him because he was waking up every couple of hours to comfort suck. Since then, he slept through until around 6 each night.

In the last few months he has become very fussy and won't eat much. He has now started waking earlier (around 4 or 5) for a feed. I would prefer not to feed him at this time because I think he is old enough to get through without it, and I don't want to encourage him to drink more milk at this stage.

I saw the clinic nurse last week and she recommended settling if he wakes before 6am. This is easier said than done. DS is very difficult to settle in the early hours of the morning. It can literally take hours of us trying to settle with him screaming, and then it gets to the time when I normally feed him anyway, so I just do.

Is this just reinforcing his habits? I am really, really ready for him to sleep through as I'm back at work now and I know he can do it (he's done it enough times). Or am I fighting a losing battle by not feeding him when he wakes at 4 or 5? I would dearly love him to eat more food and the clinic nurse was of the view that he will if I stop letting him make it up with milk.

ETA: He has 3 milk feeds a day and the clinic nurse said that was appropriate for his age.

This post has been edited by Tilly007: 12/02/2012, 02:56 PM

[Tilly007]

Bump

[Guest_BessMarvin_*]

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This post has been edited by BessMarvin: 12/04/2012, 03:03 PM

[Sunboy]

My 10 month old often wakes at 5 am for a feed. I feed him because it's been over 10 hours since he last ate. I think they are too little to be made to wait until a more convenient time for us! We have a lovely time lying in bed together watching dh getting ready for work.

[Baggy]

So he wakes once a night at around 5am for a feed? Just feed him - he's hungry. You might be ready for him to sleep through, but he's obviously not ready to.

[Penguin78]

If you want to not feed him at 4 or 5, then i would persist. It may take awhile. It might take a few hours now, but that will probably keep taking shorter and shorter. I don't think waiting until its 6am before you feed even if he is still awake is not reinforcing the habit, so if it gets to 6am and thats when you want to feed him, then do that. Just a question, when he wakes up, does he cry? If he is just talking/babbling, whining, i would leave him until he starts getting upset, then start whatever settling technique you use from then.

In saying that, does he go back to sleep straight away? If so, maybe you could make your time nearer, say 5am, and just re-settle till then, then feed at 5am. I would then not give him a breakfast milk feed, but just solids when he wakes for the day.

I will say, my DS was a great sleeper from 6 - 10 months, then got unsettled, was good for a month, then from 1 year - 15 months he wakes most nights having a good ole chat to himself. I have learned that consistency is the key. So whatever you decide to do from here on (feed or not) stick to it, even if things change (which they probably will!)

[Guest_**Leprechaun**_*]

My 10 month old wakes twice a night for a feed and she eats heaps during the day. I just figure she's hungry. She's only just gone 8kg, so on the lower end of the scale. She has her bottle and goes straight back to sleep. I work 3 days a week too. I just deal with it.

I think you should stop listening to the clinic nurse and start listening to your son - babies wake for a reason - he is probably teething and wants the extra BF because his mouth is so sore.

[boatiebabe]

It's been a while since I had a 10 month old (my youngest just started school!) but really for a 10 month old to be sleeping through the night is awesome.

To be honest I would just feed him at 4am or 5am. In my experience the more you try to fight them to get back to sleep without one, the worst it is for everyone. You can just get so damn frustrated and angry for nothing really.

I would grab him and breastfeed in bed while having a cuddle, and hopefully you can both drift off to sleep.

I would do this with my eldest (DD) at 4am nearly every day for a about six months from around 12 to 18 months of age. We would both doze off again and wake up for the day around 6am. I miss those days...

My DS was a 4am waker and we fought and fought it. I would feed him but he wouldn't go back to sleep. We tried everything we could for about two months before we admitted defeat and started going to sleep at 8pm at night so that we could function the next day, and to be able to be productive for our jobs etc.

It didn't last forever, though at times it felt like it was going to.

I would ignore the health nurse and counting the feeding times. I never counted the number of feeds, I just gave them a breastfeed when they wanted one and introduced solids as more of an experimental thing, rather than as a nutrition thing.

I also returned to work when my little ones were 10 months (three days a week) and continued breastfeeding both of them well into their toddlerhood.

Children regress a lot in their sleeping patterns depending on what milestones they are hitting etc, so I wouldn't assume just because he has slept through until a later time for a short period that he now must be able to. Seriously they are little for such a short period of time. One day you will look back fondly to those 4am cuddles and feeds. (had to use the x-mas emoticons - x-mas already????)

[Bel Rowley]

So he wakes once a night at around 5am for a feed? Just feed him - he's hungry. You might be ready for him to sleep through, but he's obviously not ready to.

Sorry I agree. My DS is almost 1 and it's a really good night if he only wakes once wanting a BF. If he makes it through until 5am I think it's fantastic. I don't think it makes much difference with my son if he eats a lot of food or not, sometimes he's thirsty, sometimes he wants comfort, either way I'm happy to give it to him, he's a baby. If he was still waking hourly or two hourly then I'd be worried.

[au*lit]

Have you tried not going in to resettle/feed straight away? My 9 mo is just starting to sleep through. Some mornings he'll wake between 4 and 5am. I have started waiting 5 minutes before going in. A lot of the time he will go back to sleep until after 6. If he doesn't go back to sleep then I'll go in and feed him.

We do a mixture of BLW and spoon feeding. He is more likely to take food from a spoon when he's allowed to touch it himself. So I got a bowl with a suction cap (so he can't tip it out) and he can stick his hand in the food while I spoon feed him. It's a bit messy, but no more than BLW.

HTH