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How To Make My Baby To Leave Breastfeeding?
Question: Hi Doctor,
I am working mom with 9 month old baby girl. She is 6.5 kgs with no health issues although she is small. She is currently not having any sickness and is perfectly happy most of the time. I have been giving my baby breast feed since birth. I started giving her solids when she was 7 months old. She now takes all her solids and loves it. I supplement solids with my breast milk as well. During office hours, I ask my child's caretaker to give my expressed milk instead of water after solids. I usually leave around 4-5 ounces of expressed milk for the 8 hours I am away. When am at home I give her breast milk directly pre and post every feed.
My issue is that the baby is crying for breast every 1.5 hours in the night. I am sure breast is empty and she sucks on for over 30 min or so every time she wakes up. This habbit has developed over the past month and am not sure what has triggered it. She is refusing to take water or NAN in bottle in the night. Should I try to stop night feeding? If yes, how? She seems to be very stubborn about getting to the breast. If I am not stop night feeding, how to increase my milk in the night?
Thanks,
XXXXXXX
I am working mom with 9 month old baby girl. She is 6.5 kgs with no health issues although she is small. She is currently not having any sickness and is perfectly happy most of the time. I have been giving my baby breast feed since birth. I started giving her solids when she was 7 months old. She now takes all her solids and loves it. I supplement solids with my breast milk as well. During office hours, I ask my child's caretaker to give my expressed milk instead of water after solids. I usually leave around 4-5 ounces of expressed milk for the 8 hours I am away. When am at home I give her breast milk directly pre and post every feed.
My issue is that the baby is crying for breast every 1.5 hours in the night. I am sure breast is empty and she sucks on for over 30 min or so every time she wakes up. This habbit has developed over the past month and am not sure what has triggered it. She is refusing to take water or NAN in bottle in the night. Should I try to stop night feeding? If yes, how? She seems to be very stubborn about getting to the breast. If I am not stop night feeding, how to increase my milk in the night?
Thanks,
XXXXXXX
Hi XXXXXXX
Welcome to HCM!First I have a few questions for you!
What was the birh weight of your baby?
Was she a term baby?
Was she a small for gestational age baby?
Now how many times you give Nan in the day time?
Now reg your questions,
1- reg weight gain I will tell you whether it is OK once I know the birth weight.
2- I suggest you give 4-5 ozs of Nan in the day time also. Every 3 hours you can schedule the feeds like this,- semisolid food-nan milk -breast milk (expressed) at one go- juices.This can be repeated for the day time.
For night to reduce the frequency, you give her a good semi solid feed at about 8 pm and one time Nan 4-5 ozs by 11 pm. With this she should sleep better and if and when she wakes up, you can breast feed her.
By this time your breasts also will be full and you can gradually wean her from night feeds!
Once she starts to sleep non stop in the nights the situation will improve probably by 1 year.
For this also let her not sleep for a long time in the day,so that he can sleep in the nights peacefully.
The sleep pattern of infants varies from baby to baby .
What you describe causing sleepless nights ,affects both you and the baby!
All the best
God bless
Dr Uma
Welcome to HCM!First I have a few questions for you!
What was the birh weight of your baby?
Was she a term baby?
Was she a small for gestational age baby?
Now how many times you give Nan in the day time?
Now reg your questions,
1- reg weight gain I will tell you whether it is OK once I know the birth weight.
2- I suggest you give 4-5 ozs of Nan in the day time also. Every 3 hours you can schedule the feeds like this,- semisolid food-nan milk -breast milk (expressed) at one go- juices.This can be repeated for the day time.
For night to reduce the frequency, you give her a good semi solid feed at about 8 pm and one time Nan 4-5 ozs by 11 pm. With this she should sleep better and if and when she wakes up, you can breast feed her.
By this time your breasts also will be full and you can gradually wean her from night feeds!
Once she starts to sleep non stop in the nights the situation will improve probably by 1 year.
For this also let her not sleep for a long time in the day,so that he can sleep in the nights peacefully.
The sleep pattern of infants varies from baby to baby .
What you describe causing sleepless nights ,affects both you and the baby!
All the best
God bless
Dr Uma
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Hi Doctor,
My baby was born is exact 37 weeks. She was 2.25kgs only when she was born. She has always been a small baby but her doctor told not to worry because she has steadily followed the growth chart - always around 0.5 kgs less than the bottom line of chart.
About Nan, I have never given her supplementary milk. From 3 to 7 months, I extracted around 8-9 oz of my milk and only gave her that during my office hours. I recently bought NaN so that I can help her gain some weight. However, she is completely rejecting NaN or water in bottle. She loves all the food we eat. How to get her to accept NaN? What kind of solids can I give at night so that she remains full?
Thanks
XXXXXXX
My baby was born is exact 37 weeks. She was 2.25kgs only when she was born. She has always been a small baby but her doctor told not to worry because she has steadily followed the growth chart - always around 0.5 kgs less than the bottom line of chart.
About Nan, I have never given her supplementary milk. From 3 to 7 months, I extracted around 8-9 oz of my milk and only gave her that during my office hours. I recently bought NaN so that I can help her gain some weight. However, she is completely rejecting NaN or water in bottle. She loves all the food we eat. How to get her to accept NaN? What kind of solids can I give at night so that she remains full?
Thanks
XXXXXXX
Hi XXXXXXX
2.25 kg at birth is borderline small for age!
She seems to be following on the same percentile chart!
Continue to plot her on the same graph. - if there is any drop we should worry!
Reg Nan, babies who are purely breast fed take a long time to get adjusted to formula feeds.
Can you manage to feed her by cup and spoon carefully?
Otherwise perseverance with the bottle- when she is very hungry she will drink!
Don't allow the care taker to spoon feed! You try with that method.
Reg day time solids you can try mashed potato,half boiled egg( yolk only 2-3 times per week because of cholesterol),idly,banana,
Dhal chaval,vegetable soup, boiled mashed XXXXXXX etc.
For the night solid,you can give cerelac or nestum, whatever you are using now.
Hope this clears your doubts!
Happy parenting!
God bless
Dr Uma
2.25 kg at birth is borderline small for age!
She seems to be following on the same percentile chart!
Continue to plot her on the same graph. - if there is any drop we should worry!
Reg Nan, babies who are purely breast fed take a long time to get adjusted to formula feeds.
Can you manage to feed her by cup and spoon carefully?
Otherwise perseverance with the bottle- when she is very hungry she will drink!
Don't allow the care taker to spoon feed! You try with that method.
Reg day time solids you can try mashed potato,half boiled egg( yolk only 2-3 times per week because of cholesterol),idly,banana,
Dhal chaval,vegetable soup, boiled mashed XXXXXXX etc.
For the night solid,you can give cerelac or nestum, whatever you are using now.
Hope this clears your doubts!
Happy parenting!
God bless
Dr Uma
Note: For further queries related to your child health, Talk to a Pediatrician. Click here to Book a Consultation.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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