Too stupid to feed my kids properly

So my babies are 5 months and 1 week. They SOMETIMES sleep thru the night but not often. I try sometimes just rocking them back to bed w/o feeding them...but they are so awake. Once I feed them they will go back to bed.
The sheet I have from the doctor says 30-32 oz of formula. They are still getting about 1/3 breastmilk mixed in, but I doubt that should matter.

SO almost everyday in a 24 hr period they have anywhere from 30 to 35 oz.
I go to bed at night calculating how much they've had so far, and it drives me nuts. I'm so scared of overfeeding them. We started rice recently but DD is not a big fan, and usually rejects it. DS takes it just fine. When they take it it makes no difference in their sleeping patterns, if anything they wake up sooner in the night.

Someone at work said she feeds her son on demand so he gets like 45 oz a day or more. It just seems like my babies WOULD eat whatever was in the bottle. DD is 15 lbs and DS is 14 lbs. Someone posted on this thread that a baby shouldn't need to eat in the middle of the night if they are 13 lbs.
I just dont know where I'm going wrong!

Sometimes the babies are fed at daycare at like 2:30, so when we get them at 5:30 they are starving. So we cant wait til 6:30 for their last bottle...so sometimes they end up getting ridiculous amounts like tonight. DD had 5.5 oz at 4:15pm, then at 5:30 she had 3oz, and chugged another 5 oz at 6:30. Thats a lot...normally we dont stuff them so much at night, it will be interesting if she wakes up in the night tonight.

I dont really know what I'm asking here.
Maybe
1) do you let your baby eat as much as they want?
2) do your babies still get up to eat at night or do you just rock them back to bed?
3) argh.

 

QUOTE(EOMommy @ Nov 11 2008, 02:19 AM) [snapback]1065209[/snapback]
I dont really know what I'm asking here.
Maybe
1) do you let your baby eat as much as they want?
2) do your babies still get up to eat at night or do you just rock them back to bed?
3) argh.


1. Yes, I fed pretty much on demand and they always ate at the high end of the formula range.
2. Yes, when they woke at night I gave them a bottle. They always drained it so I knew they were hungry. Most of the time they would go back to sleep after getting a full tank.
3. :hug:

FWIW, mine were well over 20 pounds and not STTN by 6 months. They didnt STTN until they were 9 months old. They just decided they didnt need to be fed at night any longer. Hang in there. If they have STTN already, they will get there. It just may take some time for them to be consistent. I also dont really believe that you can overfeed a baby, there are others that will disagree. If they are not spitting up a bunch after draining bottles, I would say that they can tolerate it and need it. JMO.

 

The boys are 9 months and we still feed on demand. They take 6-8 oz per feed every 4ish hours with solids in an about the day. They still wake 1-2x at night but they only get 4-5 instead of a whole bottle then we put them back down while they are still a little awake and they usually doze off. Both boys are about 20.5 lbs.

:hug: Dont feel bad or afraid. If they are hungry feed em. They are too young to know about overeating and they cry and get upset when their bellies hurt cause they are hungry.

We have 7 kids and each one was different to deal with in their eating and sleeping so Im sure you will get alot of different answers. Just do what feels right for you and your babies and you will make out ok!

 

I always fed on demand. My kids would drink 45 to 50 oz of formula a day and my pedi will attest that I have the skinniest kids he's ever seen. I've found it's extremely hard to overfeed a baby because they stop when they're full.

If you want, you can try an experiment. Try feeding them on demand for a week and see how they react. What do you have to lose?

QUOTE
3) argh.

:hug:

 

SOoooooooo we stuffed her last night before bed...she had eaten 13 oz from 4:15 til 6:45...and she STILL woke up...so im assuming that means she is waking up more out of habit than hunger...knowing we will come whisk her away when she cries.
So now what...do we let her cry it out for a few days and see if she eventually gets the hang of it? Of course that means DS will wake up...which is a sucky side effect of twins CIO!!!!

 

I feed on demand too. My pediatrician says it's not possible to overfeed them. They will stop when they are full.

 

QUOTE(EOMommy @ Nov 10 2008, 08:19 PM) [snapback]1065209[/snapback]
I dont really know what I'm asking here.
Maybe
1) do you let your baby eat as much as they want?
2) do your babies still get up to eat at night or do you just rock them back to bed?
3) argh.


1.) YES!!!
2.) Mine did not consistently STTN until 6 months old. Before 6 months old sometimes they'd do it and sometimes they wouldn't. There was no rhyme or reason.

:hug: You are not stupid, we all struggle with this.

 

My babies are the same age as yours, and I do still feed on demand. They eat between 38-48 ounces a day, and we started rice once a day, and that hasn't done anything to their formula appetites. They are also sleeping through the night and have been for over a month now (except of course when DS got three teeth in the span of one week, he was up every four hours). DS weighs 17 pounds and DD weighs 16 pounds (i'm not sure if that makes any difference at all). I give them 8 ounce bottles each time they eat and they do generally drain them. If the babies wake up and are not screaming or crying we just leave them alone and they go right back to sleep. Good Luck, I hope they start STTN consistantly!

 

QUOTE(EOMommy @ Nov 11 2008, 07:37 PM) [snapback]1066445[/snapback]
SOoooooooo we stuffed her last night before bed...she had eaten 13 oz from 4:15 til 6:45...and she STILL woke up...so im assuming that means she is waking up more out of habit than hunger...knowing we will come whisk her away when she cries.
So now what...do we let her cry it out for a few days and see if she eventually gets the hang of it? Of course that means DS will wake up...which is a sucky side effect of twins CIO!!!!

Dont be hung up on thinking that they should be sttn. If your baby needs comfort or a feed then why not give it? Why go through cio? They are very young./

 

I hate to tell you this, but if they are waking up and draining a bottle they may just really need the extra food (just MHO). They may be going through a growth spurt right now which could explain why they are eating more in the evening and then still waking up for night feeds. In my experience often babies tank up in the evening regardless of how long they sleep, mine always cluster fed in the evening (I was bfing and then 1 bottle feeding at night).
Starting solid food did nothing to help my babies sttn.
Also, mine did not STTN until 8 months (at that time we did CIO to get rid of the one remaining night feeding), and now they are great, sttn all the time.
Hang in there - they will sttn eventually, I know how hard it is to wait though

 

youre doing a good job! mine eat whenever they want. ds is usually in the 20-25oz range, dd is 25-30oz range. neither sttn either. on occasion dd will sttn, but not often, and will cry til i give her a bottle. who knows!

 

First of all, :hug:!

Try not to get too hung up on the amount they eat per day. That is an average, so some days will be more and some less. As for STTN, mine didn't until 8 months so I feel for you.

As for over feeding, if you do feed them too much, it will come back up. I have one who would eat until she puked. I know most kids will stop when they are full (my other DD), but I have one that didn't (doesn't) and it didn't really matter because if she was full it came up (ick). But like I (and pp's) said, MOST kids will stop when they are full so just feed them on demand and see what happens. Trust your instincts, you know your babies best. :hug:

 

QUOTE(DATJMom @ Nov 10 2008, 06:23 PM) [snapback]1065218[/snapback]
1. Yes, I fed pretty much on demand and they always ate at the high end of the formula range.
2. Yes, when they woke at night I gave them a bottle. They always drained it so I knew they were hungry. Most of the time they would go back to sleep after getting a full tank.
3. :hug:

FWIW, mine were well over 20 pounds and not STTN by 6 months. They didnt STTN until they were 9 months old. They just decided they didnt need to be fed at night any longer. Hang in there. If they have STTN already, they will get there. It just may take some time for them to be consistent. I also dont really believe that you can overfeed a baby, there are others that will disagree. If they are not spitting up a bunch after draining bottles, I would say that they can tolerate it and need it. JMO.




What she said!!! And all of the other good advice you have gotten thus far... You ARE doing a great job, just try to relax a little (said the mother of 4...).

I exclusively feed on demand and keep track of no schedule... if my babies are hungry - they eat! If they are not, they will not eat no matter what!!! That being said, my twins are no lightweights. My son is 22 lbs and my daughter 18 lbs and they are 7.5 months old. They do NOT sleep through the night (not even close :rotflmbo: ), but they eat and fall right back to sleep.

Good Luck!

 

If you do try the CIO method, you may be surprised. I made Lucas CIO and Shawn slept through the entire thing. :Clap:

 

First off...don't be so hard on yourself.

If they are waking and eating a whole bottle, then I would suggest that they are still hungry and it's not quite time for CIO. If they start slacking off their consumption in the middle of the night, then I might consider the wakings more of a habit. (just to note...I also generally fed on a demand "schedule" at that age...meaning I paid attention to when they were hungry and it looked like a pretty consistent schedule, and mine always ate on the very low end of formula intake...if they eat too much or too little, we, as mommies, always worry!)

Secondly, I have no idea why a baby over 13lbs should be sleeping through the night or why 13lbs is somehow a magical number. Mine didn't officially start STTN until they were 8 months old and were around 16lbs. I think a combination of age, weight, and personality all factor in to when a child STTN...don't get too stuck in your head that yours should be just yet, particularly if they are showing signs that they are not ready!