Getting rid of night feedings

My boys eat A LOT during the day. Their feeding schedule is somewhat like this:

5AM Wake up - 5 oz bottle
7AM 2 TBSP Rice cereal mixed with fruit
9AM 5 oz bottle
11AM 5 oz bottle
1PM 2 jars of Stage 2 veggie
3PM 5 oz bottle
5PM 5 oz bottle
7PM 2 jars of Stage 2 meat/veggie

However they still wake around 1130 and 230 and eat 5 oz each time. I think that they are getting enough to eat during the day and I should be able to cut out the night feedings but they wolf those middle of the night bottles down like they haven't eaten in a week.

Does it sound like it would be alright to cut out their night feedings or do you think they still need them and that's why they scarf them down?

 

I would definitely not cut out a bottle yet. They should still be getting most of their nutrients from the formula. My doc said for my girls - they shoudl be gettign at LEAST 24 ouces of formula a day. We are only doing 1 "feeding" per day now. Cereal with some fruit or veggie or whatever. I asked at our last visit if I shoudl add another meal and she said, "if they were getting like 32 oz of formula, i'd say drop a bottle and add a meal, but since they're not, keep all the bottles in. They need their nutrition..." That being said, we don't have a nighttime bottle. The girls eat at 8:30 then go down for the night, eating again at around 6am. Maybe try bigger bottles? We just moved up to 7oz bottles at each feeding. Or, add another bottle in, after their evening "meal" - right before bed..

 

According to "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Weissbluth, babies don't have a physical need to eat during the night starting at 9 months of age.

 

I don't really have any advice for you b/c I'm struggling with the same thing except I breastfeed & don't really know how much they're eating during the day. Ours wake twice to eat between 10pm & 7am, so basically they're eating every 3 hours around the clock still. I really feel like they should be able to at least cut out one of those feedings. I don't feel comfortable stopping all night feedings yet, but would love to know how to encourage them to sleep for longer stretches.

 

QUOTE(3boysforme @ May 21 2007, 04:13 PM) [snapback]263135[/snapback]
I don't really have any advice for you b/c I'm struggling with the same thing except I breastfeed & don't really know how much they're eating during the day. Ours wake twice to eat between 10pm & 7am, so basically they're eating every 3 hours around the clock still. I really feel like they should be able to at least cut out one of those feedings. I don't feel comfortable stopping all night feedings yet, but would love to know how to encourage them to sleep for longer stretches.

Just within the last week or so our ds has been showing signs of sleeping longer stretches and they are 7 months of age. He often would wake up every 2-2.5 hours to nurse at night and now will do one 4-5 hour stretch and then a 3.5-4 hour stretch which is great for him. Both our little ones have always been around the 50th-75th %ile for weight so they were and are "capable" of not eating that much during the night. My feeling is if they are nursing and not playing around then they are likely hungry. Weissbluth (Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child) does state that eating at night up until the age of 9 months is considered normal. Our dd on the other hand was waking every 3 hours to eat and now only wakes 1-2 times a night! She has been showing great signs of sleeping longer (i.e. 6-7 hour stretches). They'll let you know when they are ready to drop a feeding by sleeping longer stretches. I always worried that they would create a very bad habit of waking so frequently, but they are showing some positive signs here!

 

QUOTE(kajulie @ May 21 2007, 03:42 PM) [snapback]263101[/snapback]
I would definitely not cut out a bottle yet. They should still be getting most of their nutrients from the formula. My doc said for my girls - they shoudl be gettign at LEAST 24 ouces of formula a day. We are only doing 1 "feeding" per day now. Cereal with some fruit or veggie or whatever. I asked at our last visit if I shoudl add another meal and she said, "if they were getting like 32 oz of formula, i'd say drop a bottle and add a meal, but since they're not, keep all the bottles in. They need their nutrition..." That being said, we don't have a nighttime bottle. The girls eat at 8:30 then go down for the night, eating again at around 6am. Maybe try bigger bottles? We just moved up to 7oz bottles at each feeding. Or, add another bottle in, after their evening "meal" - right before bed..


I agree, with cutting out the nighttime bottles they will only be getting 25oz's of formula and that is what most ped's consider the minimum. Seem's like they may be filling up on solids during the day and at this age formula is by far more important. Lots of ped's say to wait until closer to 9 months to start 3 meals a day.
If you could get them to drink closer to 30+oz's during the day then I think you could try stopping the nighttime bottles.

HTH

 

We aren't doing any night time feedings anymore, but they are eating quite a bit during the daytime.
Here's a rough schedule of our day:

6 AM--5 oz
8:30 AM--5 oz
11:00 AM--5 oz
1:00 PM--5 oz
3:30 PM--5 oz
6:45 PM--6 oz
7ish PM--2 TBSP cereal
8:30 PM--4-5 oz

We've just now started veggies and I'm still trying to decide where to fit those in.
But if you could up how many ounces they are getting throughout the day then you should be able to gradually faze out the nighttime bottles. My sister's ped told her with her DS to up the ounces during the day and give water at night. Because he had just gotten used to those nighttime feedings and didn't really need them. After a week or two she had him sleeping through the night. You could try that, but I would definitely talk to their ped about it.

 

Maybe I will try to up their bottles to 6 oz and see if that works. Thanks ladies!

 

Definitely increase the amount in the bottle - at least for a few of the feedings. Maybe try the last 2 feedings that way? Mine were on a 3 hour schedule forever. We didn't move to 4 hours until they were like 9 months old. We followed the 7-10-1-4-7 timing. At this age, they should be able to sleep a good 6 hour stretch without being fed. I have seen somewhere that while they may wake and eat, they don't "need" it. Make sure that they are getting between 25-30 ounces overall.