Questions for Dorothy Waide
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Topic: Questions for Dorothy Waide
Posted By: Renata85
Subject: Questions for Dorothy Waide
Date Posted: 25 September 2012 at 10:24am
Missed out on the OHbaby! Coffee Catchup? You still have the chance to ask OHbaby! Expert Dorothy Waide any questions you may have.
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Replies:
Posted By: Noodlebug
Date Posted: 25 September 2012 at 11:11am
Hi Dorothy,
What would you suggest a typical routine for an 8 month old should be now that we're introducing solids before milk. And within that routine, how many sleeps should they have (and what should the duration of the sleeps be)? I only recently started dream feeding in the hope that I would get my baby to sleep through the night instead of waking around 4 for a bottle. It seemed to have worked. Last night I decided not to dream feed and she woke at 3. I cannot resettle my baby and have tried cuddling and giving her some water instead of a bottle. She can easily have a good day of sleeping and then a bad day of catnapping for 30 mins. Any suggestions? Thanks!
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Posted By: mandiimoo16
Date Posted: 25 September 2012 at 12:08pm
Hi Dorothy, (think i may have posted this in the wrong place before... so have reposted here...)
Thanks for the talk yesterday in Hamilton, I have an almost 1 year old, generally she is fantastic, sleeps well and eats pretty well also (not too fussy). She has three bottles a day (all approx 15min prior to going for her morning, arvo and the night sleep). Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner are usually about an hour or two before her bottles. My question is more about variety and ideas for food as I seem to get stuck in what to give her, particularly finger foods - so really just after ideas on how to i guess structure her mainly lunch and dinner meals - I do try to give her what we eat to a certain degree but we tend to eat dinner after she goes to bed so this isn't always practical. (Breakfast she has cereal, yoghurt and fruit). Let me know if you need more detail!
Thanks
Amanda
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Posted By: CarolineWill91957
Date Posted: 25 September 2012 at 4:01pm
I posted in the wrong link also - let's try this again!
Hi Dorothy, great talk yesterday I really enjoyed it. Not sure if you answered this so sorry if you are repeating things..
I have a 7 1/2 week old boy Jack. He has started to sleep for two lots of 5/6 hours at night - yay! I was just wondering during the day if he is having only short naps of 30-45 minutes do I still follow the feed play cuddle sleep routine? It seems like I am feeding him a lot more during the day because he is waking up often. I am still only keeping him up for an hour at a time but wondering if I should be feeding him every time..
I do try and resettle him initially and sometimes I'll get an extra few minutes out of him but most times he is wide awake/smiling and ready to get up..
Many thanks Caroline
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Posted By: Guest_66070
Date Posted: 25 September 2012 at 4:15pm
Hi
Thanks for the talk yesterday it was very helpful
My 4.5 month old sleeps well at night and is getting better with her day sleeps. Often though she will wake after 45mins and seem really happy and I can't get her back to sleep and will have to spend the next 45mins - hour trying to get her back to sleep. By this time she should be getting up again. What should I do?
I have also emailed you re the solids stuff as I have a reflux baby.
Thanks
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Posted By: LouG
Date Posted: 25 September 2012 at 5:25pm
I am having alot of trouble getting my 10 week old boy to sleep more than 1/2 an hour at a time through the day. Occasionally we will get a 1 1/2 hour sleep, but most of the time its just the 1/2 hours. At night he goes down at 7pm then he wakes between 11pm - 12am, then again between 3am-4am then is up again from about 5am-6am. I am hoping the notes you have on settling 0 - 12 week babies will help. I also have a 22month old so I havnt always had the time to spend on him to get him to sleep better. To add to it he fluffs around with his feeding. quite often he is sucking, but his legs and arms are flailing about, and this moring he wouldnt feed at all just cried every time I put him to the breast. It sounds like he has reflux, but other times he is happy feeding, feeds for about 20 mins has both breasts and is really contented. He does loose has suction alot when he is flailing around and takes down alot of air, but he is very easy to burp so I dont think that is the problem Thank you for any information you can give me
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Posted By: Guest_75697
Date Posted: 25 September 2012 at 8:45pm
Hi Dorothy, your talk yesterday was so interesting. You used my 9 month old girl as an example about dream feeding and i jst wanted to ask some other questions as to how to progress to sleeping through the whole night. as i mentioned we attended mothercraft to sort her sleep issues (she is also a reflux bub so tends to like snack feeding). they instigated a dream feed when she was 6 months old. as mentioned if i dont do a dream feed she always wakes around 11pm when ive just got to sleep! she is also waking around 3.30-4am every morning, and i feed her then too as then she will sleep til around 6-6.30am. At mothercraft they taught me the cry it out technique, which i dont enjoy but it works for her. she is an extremely stubborn and strong willed little girl! i would dearly love to drop out the early morning feed, and even the dream feed, but am worried she will go back to waking 3-4 hourly. ive tried to go in a resettle her, but she gets really angry in her crying if im in her room but not feeding her. she screams louder too if i attempt to pat her, it just makes her angry. she sleeps on her back in a safety sleep as well, and in a sleeping bag and the only sleep prop i use is white noise as she sleeps a lot better with it playing, although im looking to get rid of that as well. do you have any other suggestions as to how i could help her start to sleep through the night? thanks heaps.
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Posted By: jammy mummy
Date Posted: 26 September 2012 at 9:56am
Hello THank you for the talk. I know you have touched base with some of my questions but i had a bad cold and my little one didnt want to stop crying. I have a baby girl who is 3 1/2 mths old. SHe has a dummy which she is very attached to already and i want to get take it away! how do i do this ? THe other thing is i was told she is grade 4 tounge tie and lip tie. I was told to do nothing and leave it but i breastfeed and feel she does not latch and doesnt get a bigger enough mouth full. ? what are your views on tounge ties ? should i go and get it sniped ? or just leave it? its starting to effect me feeding and questioning do i want to keep breastfeeding but i dont want her on formula as im sure she is lactose intollerant and when putting my son on forumla thats when sleep problems started. thank you. P.S- coud i also have the first foods guidelines you were talking about. my email is jessica.cusiel@hotmail.co.nz
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Posted By: Guest_66070
Date Posted: 26 September 2012 at 12:28pm
Hi Dorothy My nearly 5 monther has found her voice and developed a high pitch squeal/screech that she uses, I think, to get attention. I want to encourage her to be vocal but at 4am down the monitor that squeal can be terrible. Your thoughts??
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 26 September 2012 at 9:32pm
Hi i tend to use lower tones than the baby squeal/screech and hopefully she will learn to lower her tone.
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 26 September 2012 at 9:39pm
Hi if the tongue tie is effecting her feeding then I would definitely get it seen to. There are different schools of thoughts on tongue tie so you need to feel confident in the support you are receiving. Do a little more research and then make the decision.
With regard to her dummy as long as you are not plugging her as soon as she goes to bed or using it in her wake time to stop her communicating then I cannot see it as a problem. The issues start with dummies when you use them constantly and also putting them in the baby's mouth as soon as they go to bed. Used this way it is a prop, however if you allow them to have some settling time before you offer it to them then they are using it as a comfort tool. If you read my settling notes that will be posted tomorrow on the forum then it will give you an idea on when to let her have the dummy to go to sleep.
I have emailed you the notes on introducing solids and vegetables
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 8:41am
Noodlebug wrote:
Hi Dorothy,
What would you suggest a typical routine for an 8 month old should be now that we're introducing solids before milk. And within that routine, how many sleeps should they have (and what should the duration of the sleeps be)? I only recently started dream feeding in the hope that I would get my baby to sleep through the night instead of waking around 4 for a bottle. It seemed to have worked. Last night I decided not to dream feed and she woke at 3. I cannot resettle my baby and have tried cuddling and giving her some water instead of a bottle. She can easily have a good day of sleeping and then a bad day of catnapping for 30 mins. Any suggestions? Thanks! |
Hi this totally depends on how long your baby is up for and how long she sleeps for. This routine is based on being up for 3 hours and having 2 hour naps.
I have also posted the settling notes on the forum so use these as a guideline as well to resettle. It does take time, acceptance, consistency and tranquility (TACT) but eventually the resettling does work.
At eight months when they wake during the night I do not offer water, infact I do not offer water to babies overnight at all. My goal is to encourage them to sleep well so I always opt for resettling and feed milk as a last resort. You also did not mention whether you were fully breast or bottle feeding so just put her milk feeds in as milk feeds.
6.45 Wakes – should be able to play in her cot – if she doesn’t then encourage her by using small stepping stones and stretching her out by 5 to 10 minutes at a time
7.00am Breakfast Cereal and fruit plus toast or finger food Offer milk in a sippy cup Milk after food
9.30 Morning Tea – breast/formula
9.45 Nap
12.15 Lunch Veggies with protein and good carb Offer water with this meal
2.00 Afternoon Tea – breast/formula
2.15 Nap
4.45 Dinner
Veggies with good carb – should be totally different from lunch Milk in sippy cup
Breast/formula
Bath
Breast/formula
6.45 – 7.00 Bed for the night
THESE notes are GUIDELINES ONLY and should be used as such. Remember YOU are the babies’ mum and listen to your heart and instinct. Yes we all don’t do it by the book, or get it right the first time – but you need to make ‘mistakes’ to get it right. It’s a time of learning a little person’s personality and figuring out what works for your home life.
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 8:43am
Sleep Cycles and Patterns
uploads/45521/Sleep_Cycles_and_Patterns_spet_2012.docx" rel="nofollow - Sleep_Cycles_and_Patterns_spet_2012.docx
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 8:44am
mandiimoo16 wrote:
Hi Dorothy, (think i may have posted this in the wrong place before... so have reposted here...)
Thanks for the talk yesterday in Hamilton, I have an almost 1 year old, generally she is fantastic, sleeps well and eats pretty well also (not too fussy). She has three bottles a day (all approx 15min prior to going for her morning, arvo and the night sleep). Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner are usually about an hour or two before her bottles. My question is more about variety and ideas for food as I seem to get stuck in what to give her, particularly finger foods - so really just after ideas on how to i guess structure her mainly lunch and dinner meals - I do try to give her what we eat to a certain degree but we tend to eat dinner after she goes to bed so this isn't always practical. (Breakfast she has cereal, yoghurt and fruit). Let me know if you need more detail!
Thanks
Amanda |
HI Amanda At your toddlers age I tend to stick to quick and easy meals for lunch time and I give the main meal at dinner time. Two ways of doing dinner time - save the meal from your dinner and reheat the following night. This means you are not cooking twice in a night. Finger food should be what is in the meal and I tend to give most of the vegetables in finger food form. If your toddler is still having mash them mash 80% of the food and 20% in finger food.
Lunch ideas - mac and cheese, rice risotto, pasta with corn and peas, sandwiches, soups, homemade pizza, avocado, cottage cheese, tomatoes and ciabatta bread, Dorothy
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Posted By: Noodlebug
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 1:34pm
Thanks for your advice Dorothy. I am bottle feeding (not breast feeding at all). When you say "milk in a sippy cup" do you mean room temperature milk and not warm milk? As for the resettling technique - since I've never actually used a resettling technique before and my little girl is now 8 months, do you think it would actually work on her? I don't think I could engulf her - I could be wrong but I just think she's too big for that and would hate it.
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Posted By: Noodlebug
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 1:36pm
Hi Dorothy
Should I be changing my routine for my 8 month old to slot into daylight savings time?
Thanks!
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 2:45pm
Hi yes you can certainly do the 'engulf' hold on an 8 month. In fact some of my clients have used it on older babies. It does depend on your baby though so I would suggest give it a go and see how she reacts to it.
For the sippy cup I use whatever temperature milk that the baby is used to. It can either be warm or room temperature. Dorothy
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 2:47pm
No. The only issue with daylight saving is that the night it changes when you put your baby to bed then you lose an hour. Wake them up at the normal time the next day and start the day as normal. That night when yo put the baby to bed she will sleep her normal hours for the night.
Night sleep hours do not change - a baby sleeps lets say 12 hours a night. The first night they will sleep 11 hours and then next night they will be back doing 12 hours.
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 3:05pm
Hi Caroline I believe it is important to teach a baby to resettle after their first sleep cycle (or going from their light to heavy sleep). When he wakes you need to resettle (see notes on the forum wall for this).
The reason being is that a baby's digestive system needs to empty before re-feeding and at your son's age he does need to be feed when he wakes. He is too little to be kept waiting for food.
Yes I would be following the feed, play, top up (this does depend on how long he takes to feed) and then sleep routine. His wake time will be approx., 1 hour starting to stretch to 1 1/4 hours and by 12 weeks he will probably be up for 1 1/2 hours.
Resettling is a lot harder to do with a baby and you need to stay in the room either cupping and shushing or patting and shushing until he goes into a deep sleep.
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 3:07pm
Hi yes resettling is more difficult and it does take time, acceptance, consistency and tranquility (TACT). You will eventually teach your daughter to resettle but it will not happen overnight. See my notes on the wall for sleeping, settling and resettling. Dorothy
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 3:26pm
Hi there are a few things that I would look at here. Firstly with regard to sleeping longer than 1/2 hour during the day - I would suggest you check out my sleeping/settling notes that i have posted on the forum. These notes are from 12 weeks onwards but you can start using them from 6 weeks. While resettling I would either have the toddler with me or I would ensure he is otherwise entertained with toys or an educational program on the television.
With regard to feeding, I would look at your diet and would suggest removing dairy from it and seeing it this makes a difference. Some mothers do see a difference overnight, however most people will not see a difference for a few weeks. ALso you could look at taking fenugreek which will help with your supply levels as remember you do have a toddler in the house and you probably do not get to put your feet up much. You could also take some omega 3 (fish oil Capsules) this will help to make your milk richer. Have a look at your water intake and perhaps you may need to up this a little. Again I would suggest every time you feed your baby to drink a glass of say 100ml of water and then drink whatever you normally drink during the day. Sometimes we think we are drinking a lot and when we get busy we tend to push this aside.
I have also put my deep latch on notes on the wall for you to look at and see if this helps. It sounds like he is latching onto the nipple and not the breast tissue. Changing position on the breast from cradle to rugby can also help.
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 3:27pm
Deep Latch On Technique
A deep latch on enables the baby to empty the breast more efficiently and helps with milk production and avoids nipple issues. It also helps reduce the intake of air.
You are trying to make available the most breast tissue as possible – this will help the nipple be correctly positioned inside your baby’s mouth.
Madonna To do a deep latch on, hold the same breast with your hand i.e. Left breast, left hand and you position your finger and thumb on the 9 and 3 (basically holding the breast in a “U” shape) making sure that the first finger is well under the breast and not interfering with the lower jaw of the baby latching onto the breast.
Footballing If footballing the breast is held in a “C” shape and the finger and thumb are at the 12 and 6 position. It is the opposite hand to the breast.
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 3:46pm
Hi I think it is important for reflux babies to not snack as their digestive system needs to empty out completely before re feeding.
Before I would change anything I would look at her daylight routine as this makes the nighttime routine. YOu have not mentioned what or how you are feeding her so this would make a difference to how she will settle and resettle.
Props interfere with a baby's ability to self settle so to try and sort out the issues you are having then you need to just remove the props and start from scratch and work through the settling and resettling with her.
WIth regard to dream feeding it is one of the hardest feeds to break and in my opinion if the baby is sleeping there is no benefit to the baby in having this feed.
Obviously, dreams feeds are one aspect of routines you need to work out for yourself. It may seem a good option when you start doing it, however I have found that a lot of sleeping (in particular night waking) and feeding issues from around 4 months onwards are a consequence of the ‘dream feed’.
Just because you may have decided you no longer want to do a dream feed or that you think your baby no longer needs it that doesn’t necessarily mean that your baby will feel the same and it can be a very difficult element to drop from your baby’s routine.
There is no evidence to indicate that Dream Feeds, those given around 10pm, guarantee parents an uninterrupted night’s sleep or benefit a healthy baby at all. On the contrary, Dream Feeds are thought to interfere with a baby’s digestion, growth and development and disrupt normal sleeping patterns.
I also do not believe in the 'cry it out' however I do believe in allowing a baby time to have the ability to find their own sleep and will intervene if they cannot do this. Check out my sleeping/settling notes that I have posted on the wall.
Here is a general routine for a baby around your daughters age
Routine for a baby approx 9 months old (I have written this for a breastfeeding baby - would be the same for formula as well)
Before 6.30am Your baby needs to be resettled or left to play in cot
7.00am Breakfast Cereal and fruit – should have more cereal than fruit I would suggest trying oatmeal and other cereals if You do not like baby rice or if your daughter is a silent refluxer.
Ratio I use for cereal and fruit is 1 tablespoon of cereal to 1 teaspoon of fruit. Fruit is empty calories and is sweet and does not fill a hungry tummy and then give them the quantity they want.
Finger food – toast/rusks
Breast feed as soon as she leaves her highchair
9.45 Morning tea – offer a full breast feed
10.00am Nap – resettle if she wakes before 1 ½ hours.
12.00pm Lunch – Vegetables with a good carb and protein Offer breast milk once he leaves his highchair
2.15pm Afternoon tea – offer a full breast feed
2.30pm Nap – resettle if she wakes before 1 ½ hours
4.30pm Dinner – Vegetables with a good carb and protein Offer breast milk once he leaves his highchair
Evening routine Bath Top up Stories Clean teeth Sleeping bag
6.45pm Bed for the night
Night waking Resettle, resettle resettle – at his age and if she is having a good balanced diet then she does not need calories during the night
It is important that when your baby wakes during the night that you do not feed for comfort.
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 3:47pm
Hi Ladies Thank you for all your questions and hopefully the answers will help you. It was lovely to meet you all at the OHBaby Coffee Catchup.
Remember before you do anything STOP, THINK, and ACT – work out what you are doing, why you are doing, and what you are trying to accomplish and then act.
Remember YOU are the baby’s mum and so listen to your heart and instinct. Yes, we all don’t do it by the book, or get it right the first time, but you need to make ‘mistakes’ to get it right for you. It’s a time of learning a little person’s personality and figuring out what works for your home life.
If you have the time I would love to see you pop over to http://www.facebook.com/BabyWithin and 'like' it. You can then keep up with information that I post from time to time or hear from other mothers who write on the wall.
Please remember as a parent or carer that you should understand and acknowledge that Dorothy is NOT a licensed medical doctor or other licensed medical provider and the information that I share with you has come from experience and working with numerous families and babies and toddlers
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Posted By: DorothyW
Date Posted: 27 September 2012 at 3:47pm
also please let me know if I have missed your question Dorothy
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