Coffee Catchup 25th February with Dorothy Waide

Dorothy, did your feed, play, cuddle, feed, then put to bed routine apply to under 12 weeks old? And did you mean two full feeds?

Hi Dorothy, I have a 5 months old baby who still has a reflux and on medication. I believe he is ready to be weaned as he can hold his head up, still hungry after a feed, shows interest in food and opens his mouth when a spoon appraches. Do you have any resources/guidelines on how to introduce solids? how much and how often should I give the pureed food to my baby? Does solid food help to reduce the reflux? Thanks.

Hi Dorothy, thank you for your advise yesterday. My son has just gone on 8 months, when he is breast feed he is a snacker, I'm not too sure how to get him to feed for longer, I have tried extending the time between feeds and this isn't helping. Our dr suggested I give him bottle top ups. We are now feeding him bottles through the day and breast during the night. He is a terrible sleeper, during the day and night time. He is also very inconsistent. I have been keeping a sleep log over the last week and have found some nights he will wake 5 or 6 times and Sunday night he slept right through. Last night I tried the techniques u suggested and I ended up breast feeding him just to get some sleep myself. He went to bed later then usual, woke three times and then woke up earlier then usual. Now he is really unpleasant to be around. I am exhausted and being to feel like we r both a lost course. What more can I do?

Hi again

Just wondering how I do the whole resettling / controlled crying? When should I first go in when my 11.5week old starts to grizzle/cry? how long should I let her cry for to self settle?
Oh and she doesnt take a dummy no matter how much I try. I have tried alll kinds too

Hi Dorothy, I am trying to introduce a bottle to my 12 week old. What teats would you recommend. At the moment she will take the bottle with classic teat, 2 holes in her mouth but just pushes it around with her tongue and gets no milk out. Thanks

Hi Dorothy
I have a 10 week old boy who is a great night time sleeper - goes down around 9pm and wakes around 9am with 2 feeds in that time (usually 3am and 7am). I have no problem getting him back to sleep - usually have him up, changed, feed & back in bed in 30-45mins (sometimes he's still awake when I put him down and he gets himself to sleep).... my problem is daytime sleeps - if he's been awake for an hour I cuddle/jiggle him to sleep no problem but if I put him down in his bassinet he wakes after 10 mins and wont go back to sleep - if I pick him up he'll go straight back to sleep on me and will happily sleep on me for up to an hour - during this time I repeatedly try to put him in his bassinet but the above repeats over and over - he ends up like a yoyo until I give in and just let him sleep on me... I feel like I might be getting him into a bad habbit and its hard to get stuff done if he's always sleeping on me! - I've tried leaving him crying for 10 mins and tried shooshing him while he's still in the bassinet but nothing seems to work... (I'm exclusively breastfeeding- his feeding routine is 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 9pm snack before bed, 3am)
Thanks so much! Any suggestions much appreciated :-)

Hi,

Thanks for yesterday. I think you mentioned you had a solids sheet you could send out, are you able to make it available?

Thanks

Hi Dorothy, thank you for your time yesterday! I have trouble with getting my 14 month old to nap for longer than 30-45min during the day, and then she has a long 'witching hour' most nights from 4 or 5pm through to 7 or 8pm. She is swaddled (in the Zip-up love to swaddle sleeping bag style swaddle) when she sleeps, but if it is too hot I will leave her arms free, which doesn't seem to bother her. I'm thinking she may not be getting enough sleep during the day? She is fully breastfed (2-3 hourly during day) and in general is a pretty happy baby, and doesn't seem to have reflux.

Her routine is she conks out at about 8-8.30pm into a deep sleep, and will sleep 10hours, which is great! She wakes at 6-6.30am for a feed and then happily naps from about 7-9/9.30am. Then she will usually have a nap around midday (anywhere from 11.30-1pm) and again mid to late afternoon - we usually go for a walk in the stroller mid afternoon, and she happily dozes. She self settles in her basinet for these day naps, BUT usually only last for 30-45min and she will then cry, wanting to get up and play and appears to have had enough sleep? The odd day she has had 1.5-2 hour mid-afternoon naps, and hardly any witching hour because of that - but this is rare! And I can't seem to find a theme or reason why?

By 4-5pm, the grizzling begins! I try to get her down after her late afternoon feed (4ish), and usually she will cluster feed hourly until 8-8.30pm when after her last feed (after which she will fall immediately into her deep sleep in her basinet, as she is so exhausted). During the witching hour she he will cry if put anywhere near her basinet. She will not sleep on me or anywhere else. I have only had success in getting her to go to sleep some nights if I feed her until she falls asleep on me (usually after 7pm this sometimes works), or I have to rock her in her basinet for up to 45min! I try changing her, singing, burping, seeing if she is not too hot or cold, cupping, putting her down then placing my hand on her in the basinet to reassure her and not making eye contact & walking away (this did work twice - until she cottoned on). I have tried leaving her to cry in her basinet but her grizzles turn to more upset, full on, red faced crying and I hate leaving her like that - I can't leave her longer than 10min crying, and that is hard enough!

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions for extending her day naps, and alleviating this witching hour period. I know the witching hour (or 'hours'!) in the early evening scenario seems quite common amongst my friends too?

Edited by LN96862 - 26 February 2013 at 4:30pm

Thank you for all your advice yesterday.
I have a question which involves a slightly older child. I have a 7 week old son and an 18 month daughter, my daughter has always been a light sleeper and fights her nap times and bed times as much as she can. I am having an issue with her being woken especially from her day sleep ( she is down to 1 sleep a day) by any noise but especially crying that my son makes. It is unrealistic for him to make no noise but the sound completely wakes her up even when she has not had anywhere near enough sleep. Any tips to deal with this would be great?

FHolmes wrote: Dorothy, did your feed, play, cuddle, feed, then put to bed routine apply to under 12 weeks old? And did you mean two full feeds?

For under 12 weeks most babies are up for between 45 minutes to an one hour so depending on how long your baby takes to feed, depends on whether you do one or two feeds in their awake cycle.
Babies that feed very quickly I do tend to do feed, play/cuddle, feed and bed
For babies that take a long time to feed then feed, cuddle, bed
Dorothy