I am really hoping someone can give me some advice.
My little baby is just over 9 months old, he was 1 month prem so he really should be 8 months, not sure if this makes much difference.

Right, during the day he sleeps twice, for about and hour, depending on the day. Sometimes he will have 3 sleeps but again, its day dependant.
We put him down at 7, after a bath and feed, he only drinks about 150mls and then falls asleep. He then wakes up in an hour and guzzels down another bottle. This goes on every two hours, some nights he is drinking upto 3 250ml bottles.
He eats 3 meals a day with a snack(yogurt) during the day twice between meals. He however does not drink during the day, we have tried water, formula, baby tea, juice and he just is not interested in drinking during the day. He will have a sip or two but nothing substantual. Then at night he is obviosuly thirsty so I assume this is why he is drinking so many bottles. We have tried water aswell at night but he does not drink the same volume as he does with his formula.

He is also teething and some nights we give him baby nurofen or pando. We also give him tee gel and some teething tabs - but still is up every two hours.

Is this normal, what can I do to change this habit - my wife and I are desperate for a good nights sleep as I am sure he is....


HELP HELP HELP

Thanks
Scott

Previous poster is correct.

get the external factors covered before moving onto the primary (its a bit technical and methodical, but could help tons)

External :
Clothing. Is it washed with baby detergent then given an extra rinse? (do this to check and see, could be irritation to that).
Dress the clothing inside out. Thus the seams etc cannot be an irritant.
Do the same for bedding.
Ensure sleeping area is clean and dust free.
Foods, add the telement *spelling drops to the formula
Keep away from soy or *wind inducing foods
Noise, get a soft repetitive sound going.

Primary :
Wash baby in hypoallergenic solution or just a VERY mild water rinse *babies are not dirty btw.
If crying and lifting legs, check for winds.
Teething, once applied all solutions, keep track if baby sleeps after that. Some mild panado to regulate fever, if teethin causes it.
Check swollen glands on neck n ear area
Get a baby saline solution, if allergies, this would help a wee bit in keeping mucous lining just right.

This is a process of elimination, So keep mental notes, as this will narrow down any possible problems. Right now, its a process of elimination and finding what is making baby the way he is.

The feeding, if not much drink during the day, then the evening bottles would be understandable. Im not sure how much a 9month old should be drinking in a normal day, but just ensure its sufficient fluids as per weight/age.

Wish you all the best and hope it gets better.

Hi there.

I wonder if you have managed to sort out the sleep issues with your baby, but just in case, here is my two cents worth.

Can you give me some indication of when you are feeding your baby solids during the day? It may be that you are giving your baby too many solids so that he isn't hungry enough to drink his milk during the day. Milk should come first and foremost until the age of 12 months, after which you can reduce the amount of milk and increase solids.

Ideally, your baby should be waking up and having his first bottle at about 6am, then following with breakfast at about 7.30am. You need at least an hour to an hour and a half between feeding solids and milk, or he won't be hungry enough.
Breakfast should be light with fruit, yogurt, possibly some porridge.

He should then be hungry enough to have another bottle at about 10.30am and lunch should follow at about 12.
Again, milk before he has an afternoon sleep (also helps to calm him), and then an early dinner between 4 and 5pm.
He should have another bottle before going down to sleep and you need to leave enough of a gap before this bottle to ensure that he is still hungry so that he drinks the whole bottle. Have you thought about changing the teat? If you are still using a 3-6 month teat, he may be getting frustrated with how hard he has to work to get the milk out of it. Put him on a 12m+ teat so that he doesn't have to work as hard to get to his milk.

If he has had this kind of intake during the day, he shouldn't need to wake up again for at least 7 hours. You may find that if he is going through a teething period, or if he going through a growth spurt, he may want more milk at about 2am, but really he should be able to go through the night. Try increasing the amount of protein in his dinner food, which will keep him fuller for longer.

Another thing to consider is the use of a sleeping bag for your baby. It may be that he is waking up at night out of a loss of a sense of security, having kicked his blankets off. Try using a 100% cotton sleeveless sleeping bag (see www.dizzydots.co.za or www.babysense.com), as this increases your baby's sense of securitty and will help him settle better and quicker at night on his own when he does wake up, without him having to need you.

I hope that some of this will help, but please feel free to ask any questions you might need to. My gut feeling is that you need to reduce the amount of solids you are giving him and ensure longer periods between milk and food. If this is something you have already tried, or are doing and isn't working, then I suggest you speak to someone at your local pharmacy where there may be a baby clinic or sister who can help check out other potential problems, such as allergies to milk etc.

Thanks , Sally