Advice please - to feed or not to feed during the night

[faith72]

Just after opinions on what to do...

Basically, DS is 6.5 months old and has bad reflux. He is a poor feeder as a result and doesn't eat much during the day and eats best when asleep or sleepy. He's always woken up during the night for a feed and this is when he eats the most.

We are quite lucky that he is a good sleeper and only wakes for the feed and goes straight back to sleep afterwards.

Anyway, last night he woke up at 2am and instead of feeding him I just went in with the dummy to see what would happen. I fully expected him to wake again 30 mins later but to my surprise he slept until 6am!!! So it kind of feels like I had a full nights sleep, even though I had to get up.

Now I am torn about what to do and whether I continue to offer him the dummy in the night instead of feeding him. His total bottle intake in that case is around 630mls (including the dreamfeed that I will do at 10pm). He's not into his solids yet and I can get only about 5 spoonfuls into him a day if I am lucky. When I get up during the night to feed him he is getting around 750-800mls).

Do you think I should just bite the bullet and accept that he needs the extra feed during the night for his growth or do you think I should "train" him out of waking up during the night by offering the dummy so he sleeps through? I'm wondering if I should just get up to feed him until he's eating more solids perhaps?

Would love your opinions on what you would do.

[europa]

I'd do the night feed :).
I know that some will say I'll teach him bad habit of waking up at night expecting milk but if bub's milk intake during the day is far below his daily quota, I'd rather wake up once/twice at night for another couple of months until he is settled on solid and getting better with his reflux he feeds better during the day.

I personally will think of his growth more than my sleep deprivation.
But that's me. Do what you think is best for you and your bub.

My bub still wakes up at 3/4am and although I know I can just give him water or dummy, I still offer him milk so his milk intake is still very close to his daily quota. He also only drinks well when he is tired/sleepy/sleeping.

[myhusbandswife]

Id still do the feed.

My DD was the exact same with reflux. To the point that most pf her milk intake was 'dreamfeeds'

Good news for you she eventually grew out of it on her own. She now drinks 150-200mls over 2 attemps, 4 or 5 bottles a day.

Id look into baby led weaning too. I tried that traditional solids route with DD and she wasnt all that keen. Now she feeds herself finger food like a littke champ.

Good Luck!

P.s DD is 10 months now and not on reflux meds anymore

[faith72]

Thanks for the advice guys - I just needed to hear it from people who actually understand what it's like having a reflux baby.

I got up at 3am this morning but he only took 50mls - his reflux is playing up again :(

I'm not sure where we can go to from here either as each time it's got bad we have increased the losec and it seems to help and then reverts back. He's now on 20mg a day and I doubt we'll be able to increase again. Perhaps the doctor will want to try him on a different medication as losec seems to simply wear off after a few weeks.

So looks like we'll be doing dreamfeeds during the day as well for the time being. I'm scared it will get bad enough that he'll refuse the dreamfeeds again - he did that about a month ago when he was on 15mg of losec.



P.s DD is 10 months now and not on reflux meds anymore

When did she come off the meds and how much was she on to begin with? Oh and thanks for the tip on baby lead weaning - I shall look into it.

[myhusbandswife]

she came off her meds at around 8 months. We tried at 7 months but she wasnt ready.

She was only on 10mg so not as bad as you bub.

Tripletime would have great advice as her DS has reflux but shes on her honeymoon