Questions for Dorothy Waide

Hi Dorothy

Thanks heaps for all your info yesturday.

My 4.5 month old boy is doing 3 sleeps during the day, sometimes he manages to do a 1.5hour sleep but majority of the time is a 45min sleep. I try and resettle him but he wakes so happy and seems ready to get up. At night he goes down by 7pm and sleeps till about 4-5ish(am) when he will wake and all I need to do is stick his dummy in and he'll sleep till 6-6.30ish... My question is how do I teach him to resettle himself at that 4am wake up so I don't need to help him get back to sleep.

Hi Dorothy
Thanks for your talk the other day.
I have a 5-month old daughter and have recently moved her into her cot and put her in a sleeping bag (she was previously swaddled).
While swaddled she was sleeping 7pm - 7am. She is now waking usually once in the night around 3 or 4am, seemingly ravenous - wide awake and frantically sucking on anything nearby. The only way I have been able to resettle is by feeding her.
She is exclusively breastfed and I have just started giving her some tastes of solids.
Just wondering if you have any advice?
Also would you please email me your guide to starting solids?
many thanks

Hi Dorothy

Thanks for an excellent session on Monday - I learnt a lot ! (I was the other girl (lawyer)up the back of the theatre at the end of the session with the 10 week old boy with eczema and reflux). I have a question re swaddling and what to do when your baby really fights it. I had been using a Merino Kids Cocooi merino wrap until a few nights ago but have stopped as my little boy has become absolutely determined to worm his way out of it and when I awoke to him a few nights ago he had very worryingly pulled it up over his face. He seems really determined to get his hands out and into his mouth. (Does this mean he is really hungry ???) I have now started using a "Miracle Wrap" which is a bit like a straitjacket with special fabric flaps to keep arms securely in place. I want to keep wrapping him if possible as he still seems to have a very strong startle reflex that wakes him up if he is not wrapped. (I have tried using a Merino Kids sleeping bag but his arms and legs flail about in that). He is particularly resistent to being re-wrapped after his middle of the night feed (which occurs anywhere between 2 and 4 am). He pulls his knees up to his chest and kicks and kicks, cries until he turns red in the face etc. It is a real battle and sometimes means that feeding session can last for 2hrs + which is not great for my sleep. Anyway, should I persist in wrapping him or is it time to move to the sleeping bag ?

Thanks very much for your advice.

teece wrote: Hi Dorothy, I have a 14 week old who has been a great sleeper since week 2. She always has one feed any time between 1 - 4am (varies) and then usually sleeps until 7 - 8am. Lately however, she has been waking earlier - 1am for a feed and then about 5am - wide awake. She gets plenty to eat before bed at 7pm and we also do what you suggest for feeding before bed. She goes to bed really happily and easily so just wondering what may have changed for her. She sleeps well during the day - 1.5 - 2 hours in morn and usually two 45 sleeps in pm and settles well when wakes early during her longer sleep.

I would suggest resettling during the day naps that are less than 1 1/2 hours. At the moment she resettles in the morning nap and you need to encourage her to do the same in her other two naps. This will help for her to resettle on her own with her waking in the night.

You have not mentioned whether she is breast or bottle fed. If she is breast fed then I would ensure that she gets a full feed when she wakes, then play and then approx. 15 minutes before going back to bed you offer her a top up. LEt her take as much as she wants.

Always try and resettle during the night before feeding - this will ensure that you are feeding for hunger and not comfort. She could also be teething as well which may wake her, however if she knows how to resettle then most times she will be able to do this.
Dorothy.

sherylw wrote: Hi Dorothy. Awesome talk on Monday - so much fantastic information! Please can you talk about winding techniques. Also what are the signs to look for that tell you bub has wind as opposed to hunger or is tired or over-tired. (I'm one of the girls you talked to at the very end and walked out with...) Thanks!

Hi with regard to signs to whether your baby has wind opposed to hunger or is tired or over tired is not an easy one to answer.

I can not remember how old your baby is but I would relate wind to the feed and over tiredness to how long they have been up.

With regard to hunger if your baby has been sleeping for 1 1/2 and wakes then your baby will be hungry. If you have just fed your baby then they should be happy and content and not be hungry. YOur baby certainly looks well fed so I do not think there is an issue there regarding hunger.

I would ensure that your baby has nap times of approx. 1 1/2 hours and is up for her age time factor. I can always email yo a general guideline for you to work with. Just send me your email address and I will do this.


Burping

I will always try natural remedies before going for the over counter products such as gripe water and infacol.    The reason why there are so many different types of both natural and over the counter products is that all babies are different and some products work better than others. You need to try different remedies to see if it works Ð but do so for at least ten days to see if you see a difference.   Quintessence in Titirangi has both herbal and homeopathic drops - you can find them on the Internet. My favourite is DorothyÕs Drops.

Cranial osteopaths and acupuncturists also have good success in helping reduce the babiesÕ discomfort.   

Top tip
Firstly, check the position of your babyÕs tongue Ð it needs to be at the base of the mouth to effectively bring up wind.

Quick exercise that I get parents to do is to stick their tongue to the top of their mouth, close it and without opening the mouth see if they can burp. Very few people can do it and the ones that can struggle to do so.

Over and out
When burping, hold your baby so they are facing towards you and have a straight back. Then place your baby over your shoulder - I tend to let their headrest on my shoulder.

If your baby is curled up straighten their body by putting them over your shoulder. Now, placing your thumbs under the front pelvic area and palms and fingers on the back of their bottoms, lift them slightly out from your body. Then hold them firmly over the bottom area with the same arm of the shoulder they are on. DO NOT pull their legs downwards from their socket as you could dislocate their hips.

Up and down
When rubbing your babyÕs back, make sure your thumb and fingers are rubbing up and down the sides of the body to access both the ascending and descending bowel. Gently using your palm, massage the middle of their back in circular clockwise motions. As well, rub up the spine coming back down the sides.

The act of changing a babyÕs nappy often alleviates wind. The leg movement during changing, followed by going back over your shoulder is effective in bringing the bubbles to the top.

Over the knee on their tummies
Another option is placing your baby over your knees, tummy down, with their left side furthest away from you. This is the descending bowel. If you pat their tummy from underneath you will sometimes hear a sloshing noise. Once they have burped, the sloshing noise disappears.

Over the knee on their backs
Then try tummy massage clockwise, or massaging using a gentle in and out motion followed by gently moving their legs in towards their tummy, finish with moving both legs together, while bent, to the left and right and then straightening again.

Massaging your babyÕs tummy with your fingers on either side going in and out can help. If they have bowel gas then using the fleshy part of your hand and massaging downwards with very light pressure will help.

Some babies need more burping than others. In general, spend no longer than 5 minutes doing these above techniques.

The analogy I like to use is a bottle with curves in it; trying to move bubbles from the bottom, up and around the curve to the top would be extremely hard. Likewise, keeping your babyÕs body straight makes it easier to release the wind.

SAK wrote: Hi Dorothy Thanks for an excellent session on Monday - I learnt a lot ! (I was the other girl (lawyer)up the back of the theatre at the end of the session with the 10 week old boy with eczema and reflux). I have a question re swaddling and what to do when your baby really fights it. I had been using a Merino Kids Cocooi merino wrap until a few nights ago but have stopped as my little boy has become absolutely determined to worm his way out of it and when I awoke to him a few nights ago he had very worryingly pulled it up over his face. He seems really determined to get his hands out and into his mouth. (Does this mean he is really hungry ???) I have now started using a "Miracle Wrap" which is a bit like a straitjacket with special fabric flaps to keep arms securely in place. I want to keep wrapping him if possible as he still seems to have a very strong startle reflex that wakes him up if he is not wrapped. (I have tried using a Merino Kids sleeping bag but his arms and legs flail about in that). He is particularly resistent to being re-wrapped after his middle of the night feed (which occurs anywhere between 2 and 4 am). He pulls his knees up to his chest and kicks and kicks, cries until he turns red in the face etc. It is a real battle and sometimes means that feeding session can last for 2hrs + which is not great for my sleep. Anyway, should I persist in wrapping him or is it time to move to the sleeping bag ? Thanks very much for your advice.

Hi if you go onto my website you will see a swaddle that your son may like. Just remember to use a muslin large wrap rather than a merino.
Around 11 weeks approx. is the ideal time to take them out of their swaddle and put them into a sleeping bag so your little man is probably just letting you know he does not want to be swaddled any longer.

You could also do the swaddle from my website and also put him in a sleeping bag - so you would put him in the bag and then swaddle.

With regard to his eczema ensure he is not over heating - eczema babies are best cared for in a cool environment. Putting olive oil into their bath can help and also not to let him soak in the bath tub. Bathing every night is good for their skin, it is the length of time that they soak in the bath that dries and damages the skin.

ALso xma ease and paw paw is really good and I tend to use vaseline to moisturise their skin - can give you more suggestions if you want.

Hi Dorothy,
Apologies for the late post -the one I put on earlier in the week does not appear to have shown.
Thanks for the talk on Monday it was really helpful. We are already instituting part of this (solids and resettling).
Part of my question was about solids but I have since seen your post on facebook which made it very clear.
The next part of my question was suggestions for an evening routine for us.
Charlotte is 6 months, Hamish is 2. I am a doctor and my husband is a firefighter which means that on a few nights of the week there is only one of us to do everything so we need something that suits a single handed approach.
Our current routine is to have dinner about 5.30 then play,then bath then stories and bed. At the moment Charlotte has her dinner about 4-4.30 and then ends up very grizzly throughout our dinner. I feed her with/just after our dinner then bath her then feed and bed. She is often too tired for her top up feed.
I would like to continue eating all together and gradually incorporate her into this as she gets older - I definitely do not want to do the 2 separate meal times.
I would be really grateful for any suggestions.
Many thanks
Kind Regards
Clare