Noah is 18 weeks on wednesday and he is really good as gold but I'm so confused! He was showing all the signs that he wanted to be weaned - waking in the night more than usual, crying lots in the evening, looking at our food all the time. So I tried him on hungry milk and he stopped crying in the evening, went to bed at 7:30-8pm but would still wake at 11pm,1am,3am,5am,7am!

So I dream fed him (I bf apart from a few bottles) at 10pm but he still woke two hours later. Then he got a rash all over his body and in the night his tummy would jump like he had hiccups but he didn't and every time his tummy did the jump he would cry so I took him off the hungry milk.

Now he has bf 7am, bottle (normal aptimal) 9:30am, baby rice 10:30am, bf 12:30pm, bottle 3pm, baby rice 4pm, bottle 5pm and another bottle at 7:30pm when he goes to bed, then he is bf when he wakes in the night.

He seems happier but he is still waking more in the night. He has a feed and then he goes straight to sleep so he's obviously hungry! Thing is yesterday I gave him more baby rice at about 6pm and he had that jumpy tummy at 10:30pm so I gave him a bfeed and he was fine.

I just need some advice on what to do really...I'm alittle lost with it all. I was going to start giving him some pureed apple today but I don't want to upset his tummy. He used to go to bed at about 9:30pm and sleep till 4:30am and then till 7:30am but no chance of that anymore!

It's getting me down because I'm worrying Im not doing the right thing and I want to put him in his own room soon but not if I have to get up 5 times a night.

PLEASE any advice would be so helpful...he never has this jumpy tummy in the day....I just don't know what to do.

Gemma and Noah 17+5 weeks

Hi

Sounds like he might have wind from the bottles and that might be causing the waking two hours later and the bf is just resttling him.

I think your probably in a catch 22 with the feeding as feeding so frequently in the night means he is not taking what he needs in the day and therefore need feeding again at night.

What i would suggest is cluster feed during the evening and then try and drop a feed every couple of nights. i would dop the 3am one first and to do this allow him as long as he needs at 1am but restrict the 3am. Then get rid of it the following night. Then do the same with the 1am feed.

I personally didnt like the idea of hunger baby milk so didnt use it. As for knowing if he is ready, how does he take the rice, if he takes it well then he probably is.

HTH XX

Gemstone, didnt want to R+R. not really sure i can advise as am at similar stage. just wanted to say i know how frustrating it can be and it is just trial and error with different feeds at different times. if he is in pain though i would give HV a quick ring and see what they advise. not heard of the jumpy tummy thing so unless anyone else can tell what that is i would give HV a call.
sorry cant be of more help x

He takes lots of the rice but he is a bit unsure about it. Sometimes (mainly during the morning) he also has a bf afterwards! I'm not sure it's wind from the bottles as he's been having bottles since 8 weeks and he has never been like this before. Do you think his body is finding it hard to digest the rice when I give it to him too near his bedtime? I'm going to try a day without the rice and see if he's still really unsettled at night - do you think this is a good idea or is it going backwards?

Argghhh so much to think about!

Thanks for your reply :\)

I agree about leaving the rice and i would go back to stage 1 milk. Try the cluster feeding on the evening and hopefully that will help. Also are you on the 6 months teats, if not, that might help.

XX

He has number 2 teats and this seems a tiny bit fast for him as it comes out the sides of his mouth sometimes...I don't think he needs any more.

I'm going to stop the baby rice today and see what he's like tonight after some serious cluster feeding!!

Thanks ladies...it's just so hard to know what to do all the time. I need a manual!!!

He's such a good boy - right now he's in his bouncer just staring at me cooing - lovely! I just need to get his feeding right!

It's like the inbetween stage and it's annoying. Everyone in my family is saying 'he's such a big boy..he needs more!' 'in my day we would wean at 3 months!! He needs baby rice!'....grrr it's so hard!!

Oh and also he's definitely teething and biting everything, also sucking his fingers more and chewing on his dummy a bit so he could be taking in more air this way...who knows?

Personally I wouldn't give solids in the late afternoon/evening at this age - Maybe give something at about 10 and then again at 2, but stick to milk after that?

Pureed Fruit can upset their tummies in the begining, and baby rice is just bland and yuck, so I used to give Abby pureed carrot or butternut squash (sweet potato works well too) which worked really well, or try some baby porridge if you prefer?

It really is all just trial and error at this stage, soon you'll work out what works best, and things will get easier.

Nx

Teething can upset their wee tummies too - maybe it's just connected to that?