10-week-old suddenly eating less during the day and more at night! [Archive]

emmasmama

08-05-2003, 10:23 AM

So, I'm hoping someone has some advice for me because my DD was only getting up once during the night for the past month and always finished her bottles during the day and at night (she is exclusively bottle-fed because I couldn't BF - another story). For the past week she pretty much refuses to finish any of her bottles during the day, even if it's been awhile since she last fed, but when she gets up for her first night-time feeding sometime between 12 and 2, she will completely polish off a 6-ounce bottle, even if it's only been a few hours since she went to sleep and last ate. During the day she was consistently eating around 4/5 ounces every 3/4 hours, but now sometimes she will only eat as little as 2 ounces. For instance, yesterday she ate 3 ounces at 6:45am and then at 11am, when she should have been starving (she took a 3-hr nap), she only had 2 ounces, and then another 2 ounces again at 1pm. The extra night-waking and night-eating has also coincided with her taking more and longer naps during the day. Before this past week she would barely sleep during the day and now she is taking at least 3 naps, two of them as long as 3 or 4 hours. I'm not sure what to do... at first I was just so happy that she was finally napping instead of being hyperalert and grumbling all day, but at least she was sleeping mostly at night and eating consistent amounts throughout the day. I should probably also note that her overall intake is up, because she makes up for the "snacking" by just eating off-and-on (but never finishing anything) throughout the afternoon and bingeing in the middle of the night. I've tried feeding her in a darkened room so she would be less distracted, but that doesn't seem to help either. She just sort of twists around and spits milk out of the side of her mouth and wants nothing to do with it. So then I thought maybe it's some sort of GI distress, but she seems totally normal otherwise and does just fine with those middle of the night bottles. Could it also be that she suddenly has day/night confusion? Because she will also refuse to go back to sleep after her first night-time feeding - sometimes for as long as 2 hours, even though I keep her in her room - lights out - no extra stimulation. Help! I'm totally befuddled!

Laurie
mom to Emma born 5/25/03