more formula or start solids?

[maestramommy]

Laurel has been such a poor sleeper during the day. With a couple of exceptions (I can count them on one hand) she has taken extremely short naps since birth. But most of the time she sleeps all night, waking anywhere from 2-4 times to nurse. It's when it's 4 times that it gets brutal because it happens in a time span of 6 hours or less. Usually less. We thought it was teething, then we thought it was hunger, then we thought it was the cold, or too much noise with the other kids. Nothing has worked all the time, the upshot is my milk supply either keeps dipping or Laurel is just hungrier than my body can keep up with. I am finishing up the last of my More Milk Plus, and am switching to Fenugreek. The logistics of drinking water around More Milk Plus are a little too much for me, given everything else I have going on.

Anyway, for the last 3-4 weeks I have been topping off Laurel's 4 oz bedtime bottle with formula. Usually it was only 1-1.25 oz. But in the last week it feels like 4 oz is no longer enough. She would wake crying around 10ish every night like clockwork. Most of the time she'd go back to sleep within a few minutes, but 2 nights ago she just wouldn't, so I had to nurse her, after I'd just pumped. Luckily she went back down and didn't wake up for 2 more hours. I just started using Similac Organic and she seems to like it much better. In fact, today she took 4 oz of it straight. She was much happier afterwards, but I guess she's not napping any longer, because I just put her down 45 minutes ago, and now she's up again! And she sounds pissed. She does this sometimes, for a minute or two, then falls asleep again. Or NOT.

At this point I'm not sure what to do. Use more formula to make sure she's not hungry, or just start solids? She turns 6 months on the 27th, and I was going to start around then. I'm just getting plain worn out with the nursing marathons during the day and night, nightly pumping session, and keeping the other two from jumping each other. Dh actually suggested hiring a nanny or something to keep the older two occupied so I could just concentrate on nursing Laurel, but for some reason that option sounds even more stressful.

[Indianamom2]

I can relate a bit. I just went to the pedi this morning begging for help with feeding/sleeping issues. Ds #2 will be 5 months tomorrow and he has been sleeping very poorly for the last month or so, even to the point of waking every two hours to eat. Sometimes, he'll make it all night or only wake once, but that's getting more and more rare as he gets older.

Now his weight is starting to be an issue, or rather his failure to gain appropriately. He started off in the 50th percentile and now is in the 5th to 10th percentile. I don't think I'm producing enough. I'd be perfectly fine with supplementing, and my pedi said at this point that I need to, but he won't take a bottle and is milk-sensitive (hopefully just intolerant).

While I know it's somewhat controversial, we've started solids, very slowly, since a little after 4 months. The pedi recommended really upping that, from once a day, to 2-3 times a day.

So, while I'm virtually no help, I will let you know that you're not alone and that I think I would definitely add solids to the mix. It sounds like she's ready and there's really no reason not to at this point.

I truly wish you good luck because I completely "get" how hard it is.

:hug:

[slworld]

If its a choice between formula & soilds - I would pick formula. From all that I have read here, solids are supposed to be more for practice & formula/BM should be the major source of nutrition. My nephew's case is pretty similar to PP's DS where my nephew won't take a bottle & has a protein intolerance. So my sister pretty much had to start solids earlier and since about 8months it has been his major source of nutrition. But if your DD is doing ok on formula, then I would just continue (or increase) that.

[Sweetum]

MIL takes care of DS (10+ months now), and while I'm glad she does it, she belongs to the old school - solids can start replacing milk, and it's almost a fight between us. Anyways, the way I/we do it now is give him solids with formula for liquid - mix the cereal with formula, and not water. That way he gets his nutrients from the milk/formula, and gets solid food that's quite filling. Anyways, my suggestion is even if you do give solids, since you're not opposed to formula, try giving it with formula mixed in.
HTH
-SunshineAndMe

[bigpassport]

If its a choice between formula & soilds - I would pick formula. From all that I have read here, solids are supposed to be more for practice & formula/BM should be the major source of nutrition.

I vote formula. While you can start introducing solids soon (I waited until DS was 6 mos), the solids won't really do much to fill her up in the beginning because there is a learning curve involved in getting the food from DC's mouth to DC's tummy. Formula is more nutritionally balanced than solids (you're supposed to do one food for three days before moving onto the next food), so if you need substance to keep her going it seems to me formula makes more sense.

[okinawama]

I would up the formula intake.

From what I can remember, formula contains 20 calories per oz and a small jar of pureed fruits/veggies only contains about 40 calories (some even less) and the rice cereal contains 50 calories per serving and my LO hardly ever ate an entire serving. Anywho.....you'll be able to get more calories into your LO through upping the formula. Having said that, I would start introducing solids soon too :)

[maestramommy]

Thanks ladies. It does seem to make sense to give more formula than food for now. It's easier for me anyway! Even if I wanted to give cereal I don't have any in the house:p

[gobadgers]

I'm in a similar situation, and we did both :-) I agree with PPs that formula is the way to fill DD's tummy NOW, and start solids just to practice. DS is one month older than your LO, and we started supplementing with formula when he just wasn't sleeping for long and wanted to nurse all.the.time. It's exhausting! Now we've just finally come to some kind of steady state - he's eating food twice and nursing 4-5 times a day, still supplementing 1-2 bottles of formula per day. I'm still a little worried about my supply, but so far its working.

[ncat]

DD was insatiable starting around 4 months and we started solids primarily so I could get a short break from nursing to eat dinner. She wouldn't take a bottle, so formula was out of the question even if I would have been ok with it. She met all of the milestones for solids early and I truly believe it was the best decision for us.

DS was completely different and we had no need to start him prior to 6 months.

I don't think 6 months is a magic one size fits all age to start solids.