Forum Feeding

Eat/drink small portions and make up for it in the evenings and at night.

6 replies

IlseGuest ·
Hi everyone, About 7.5 months ago I gave birth to a beautiful daughter. She breastfed until about 5.5 months. She’s always been a small drinker and initially didn’t want the bottle, but with the help of a pre-speech therapist she now drinks from the bottle. However, she drinks between 100 and 150 ml per feed, still having about 5 to 6 bottles a day. She’s had solid food since she was 5 months old. In the morning she has porridge (100 ml bottle with fine grain porridge), as a snack about 100 to 150 grams of fruit, around 12 o’clock 2/3 of a sandwich with water, and a bit later a bottle. Around 5:30 pm she has 100 to 150 grams of evening meal with yogurt after, and before bed (around 7/7:30 pm) a bottle. She’s always clearly shown when she’s had enough, pushes the bottle/spoon away and turns her head away. After 2 hours of sleep at night she wakes up though and wants another bottle which she drinks better than during the day. Sometimes this happens again or we give a last bottle before we go to sleep hoping she won’t wake up during the night which never happens. She gets rice flour in the ‘last’ bottle. At meals she gets water (this doesn’t make her drink less from the bottle by the way). The times we’ve been able to sleep through is countable on one hand and it’s picking up now, especially since it’s the middle of the month and our kids (we have another girl of 5 years) regularly have colds and/or are sick and come with ghosts at night. My question is: do you recognize this drinking/eating behavior (small portions of food/drink)? I mainly read that kids of that age can manage with fewer bottles and eat/drink more per time, with the last bottle at 7:30 or 8 pm and then sleeping through. Our oldest did this too, slept through from 6 weeks. She got almost immediately full bottle feeding because breastfeeding didn’t get going back then. I know it might just be part of it on one hand but sleeping through the night once is also very nice ;-). I’d love to read your responses.

Replies

  1. Anonymous Guest #2

    Every child is different, go along with her needs. I don't think it's that little.

    I wouldn't wake him up for a bottle if you're going to bed.

    About sleeping through the night. Well, sorry but you really shouldn't complain about that. I understand it's tough, but she's still so young. Just go along with her as long as she's not awake for hours. Sleeping through the night isn't necessary at all and is a luxury. My first two were 5 and 4 years old when they started sleeping through the night, the third was over 2, and the youngest was 2 and maybe slept through for 8 nights.

    Give your child what she asks for.
  2. Lily90 #3

    My daughter is 7 months old and has never slept through the night yet. She also caught up on her feeds at night for a while because she wasn't drinking enough during the day (when I went back to work and she no longer had breast milk during the day). She was hungry every 2 hours at night, and unfortunately, it took a while for her to get back to her "normal" 4-hour intervals. But since last week, she's sometimes starting to stretch the time between her night feeds, who knows, maybe she'll sleep through the night soon :-)
  3. Ilse started this #4

    It's so nice to read that it's relatable. From my surroundings and the child psychologist, they keep emphasizing setting boundaries because they think she can't possibly be hungry, but I notice she really is. Giving water at night doesn't work, and letting her fuss just leads to upset crying, so then we're even further off track, and it's just sad. She does show what she needs herself.
  4. Lily90 #5

    If she's hungry, I'd just give it to her. They won't keep doing this until they're adults :-D CB has an easy time saying that; they're not dealing with a hungry, crying baby at night.
  5. Ilse started this #6

    Not exactly! I'm going to trust that things will work out on their own. And indeed: when they're adults, it'll probably be different haha . Thanks for your replies!
  6. Anonymous Guest #7

    The CB is required to follow their guidelines and safety rules. This means it's not feasible for people; we're not robots.

    Just follow your child. When she's older, you can work on it. If it's still like that then.

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