Feeding FAQ: 4-6 months – Formula Feeding

My 5 month old daughter who weighs around 14lbs has never been an eager feeder. I held back on beginning to wean to try to improve on her milk intake, but she started to wake in the night as well as showing the other signs so I commenced at 19 weeks.  I am having a problem with the 10pm feed which she still needs to help her get through the night but is reluctant to take when woken.

My 5 month old daughter who weighs around 14lbs has never been an eager feeder. I held back on beginning to wean to try to improve on her milk intake, but she started to wake in the night as well as showing the other signs so I commenced at 19 weeks. I am having a problem with the 10pm feed which she still needs to help her get through the night but is reluctant to take when woken.

I am taking the weaning process slowly. She is now waking between 5 and 6ish and I leave her to talk to herself or drop off back to sleep until 7-7:30ish.

I begin to wake her at 10pm and try to feed her at 10.30pm. She will take 1-2ozs before losing interest. It is only when I put her down and the lights are off that she will then fuss and then takes a feed of 4oz close to 11pm. I know at this stage I can’t cut back on this feed as she isn’t going through the night properly yet and must be hungry if she takes 4oz. How can I move this feed closer to 10pm and not let it go on for an hour?

7.30am: 6-7ozs
11am: 4ozs formula followed by 1 cube sweet potato then 3-4ozs formula.
2.30pm: 4-6ozs formula
5pm: 1oz formula mixed with 2 teaspoons rice, 1 cube apple or pear.  1oz water
6.30pm: 6-7ozs formula
10.30/50pm: 4- 5ozs formula

Daily milk intake 26-30ozs.

She naps at 9-9.45am, 12-1.30pm and 3.45-4.30pm. She settles at 6.30pm.

To get your daughter to take a good feed at 10pm try splitting her bedtime milk feed. Offer her 4-5oz of milk at 5pm/5.15pm followed by the solids. After her bath offer her another 4oz of milk. By taking some of the milk earlier she should be more inclined to feed well when woken at 10pm.

Begin to wake your daughter at 9.45pm and, to ensure she is really awake, take her into a well lit room with plenty of background noise. Offer her as much of her feed as she will take then keep her awake for at least 40 minutes. Then return to her room where you should change her nappy, dim the lights and offer her a top up feed.

Make sure that your daughter is well tucked in. If she is in a sleeping bag use a cotton sheet lengthways across the cot and well tucked in under the mattress, then secured down the sides of the cot using two rolled towels.

Try the routine outlined above for 4-5 nights. If you find that there is no improvement then try dropping the 10pm feed completely and giving her a bath slightly earlier followed by most of her milk, then the solids, finishing off with the last couple of ounces of milk.  If this plans works you should continue with it until she has slept through the night consistently to nearer 7am, when you can then go back to giving her solids at 5pm, followed by her milk feed after the bath.

Hopefully, this might help your daughter sleep to nearer 5am. When she wakes at this time offer her as much feed as she wants and count this as the breakfast feed. Then offer her a top up feed between 7-8am. This may mean you will have to bring the 11am milk feed forward to a slightly earlier time, then offer her solids and the rest of the milk afterwards.

As your daughter increases the amount of solids she takes at bedtime you should find she begins to sleep longer in the night until she is sleeping through to 7am.