Day time feeding

by Jo
(Australia)

Question: I am needing some advice on feeding. I have a 13 week old who seems to not drink much in the day and will have a big bottle before bed and one around 2:00.

I would like him to have bigger bottles in the day so eventually i can wean out the night feed. I struggle to get the whole feed into him in the day. He usually leaves around 40-70ml's.

He is supposed to drink around 150ml for his weight. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

Heidi's Answer: Hi Jo, There are a couple of things you can do during the day, if you haven't already:

- wait a little longer (20-30 minutes) between feedings than you usually do

- or, in stead of trying to make him take bigger bottles: squeeze in an extra feeding. The feedings will still be smaller than 150ml but by spreading his total intake during the day can increase

- at this age, his surroundings may be more and more distracting. So after the first hunger is gone, he may be more interested in what's going on around him than in the feeding. At night there are evidently less distractions. So during the day, make things quiet and boring around him so he can focus on drinking more.

- after he stops drinking, change his diaper and then offer the bottle again for some extra. (After that, do put it away, you don't want to offer it continuously of course).

The one bottle at 2am may be large but could be still necessary to get him through the rest of the night, he's still young.

If you start playing with that feeding (reducing it), his nights may become disturbed and you have a good chance of having him wake up frequently the second half of the night.

So for now I wouldn't touch the evening and night feedings.

If later on, say once he nears 6 months, you want to wean from the night feeding: go for the gradual method of diluting a little more every night.

Good luck,
Take care,
Heidi