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How to stop the 4/5am feed?
in Baby
Hi
I was just wondering if anyone could help...
Adam has his last bottle between 7pm and 8pm and is normally asleep by 8pm.
For the past few weeks he has been waking up at around 4am for a feed and taking a full bottle. He then goes back down until 7am, when we start the day.
However, after taking a full bottle at 4am, he is never hungry at 7am and only ever takes a couple of ounces. He'll then take his 10am bottle as normal. This makes me think he could probably last all night without a feed (he has slept through a couple of times, which backs this up I think). I was therefore wondering if anyone had any advice on how we could go about dropping the 4am feed?
I read somewhere about watering down the night feeds. Has anyone done this and has it worked??
I'm not really keen on introducing a dream feed - Adam dropped his 10pm/11pm feed at around 6 weeks and I'd rather not go back to it - unless it would solve the 4am issue??
Any advice much appreciated!
Cath and Adam (13+2)
xx
I was just wondering if anyone could help...
Adam has his last bottle between 7pm and 8pm and is normally asleep by 8pm.
For the past few weeks he has been waking up at around 4am for a feed and taking a full bottle. He then goes back down until 7am, when we start the day.
However, after taking a full bottle at 4am, he is never hungry at 7am and only ever takes a couple of ounces. He'll then take his 10am bottle as normal. This makes me think he could probably last all night without a feed (he has slept through a couple of times, which backs this up I think). I was therefore wondering if anyone had any advice on how we could go about dropping the 4am feed?
I read somewhere about watering down the night feeds. Has anyone done this and has it worked??
I'm not really keen on introducing a dream feed - Adam dropped his 10pm/11pm feed at around 6 weeks and I'd rather not go back to it - unless it would solve the 4am issue??
Any advice much appreciated!
Cath and Adam (13+2)
xx
0
Replies
you shouldnt ajust the feed as this can cause tummy upset and should only be made up with the correct amounts,
for us we dreamfed for a few weeks which changed wake up from 3/4 to 6am, he gradually took less and less from his dreamfeed so we then changed to a strict 3 hour feed routine in the day first bottle 7am last bottle 7pm and he started sleeping through until at least 7am, he was about adams age when this happened x
I dropped it when she was on a bit more solids as she dropped the amount herself and she went down to 2 oz's so I just automatically stopped it.
I do see your point about it then being a step backwards but you could always give it a go for a few nights and see if it makes any difference? If not then drop it again.
Or is there anyway you could get him to take an extra bottle during the day itself - just to make up for it?
xx
What time did you do the dream feed?
I guess I am just nervous that it wont work, but Adam will get used to the extra feed - and then I'll be feeding at (say) 10pm and 4am!
Kelly - we feed every three hours during the day, so I think I'd struggle to fit an extra feed in...
xx
i think if you are already feeding 3 hourly then he may need that feed for now, so it maybe that the dreamfeed would substitute this? we would dreamfeed just before we went to bed usually between 10pm of 11pm, is he draining the bottles? he may need an extra oz if he is?
Sorry it's probably no help but wanted to let you know that you are not alone. Maybe it might be a better idea to try to stretch feeds to 4 hours during the day, then he may be able to go a bit longer during the night. Hope that makes sense and good luck xx
We slowly reduced the amount given in the night by an ounce until we were down to 2oz. I always offered water first as well and he usually took about an oz of that first. Then one night he just went right through! If he is up now he just gets water and then back to slepp, this hardly happens now though. x
P.S we only did this after weaning was established, before this we gave a dreamfeed at 10.30pm and he always slpet through from that until 7ish.
Fingers crossed you find a solution and get him through to the morning without that night feed
Keeley and Rafferty