Does it feel like your baby is wide awake and eager to feed at night but seems uninterested or distracted during the day? If so, you might be dealing with a phenomenon known as reverse cycling which is when a child is more interested in eating at night and easily distracted on feeds during the day. Let’s explore what reverse cycling is, why it happens, how it affects your baby’s sleep, and what you can do to guide your baby back to full day feeds.
What is Reverse Cycling?
Reverse cycling is when a baby is more interested in feeding at night which leads to less calories consumed during the day. This “reversed” schedule disrupts their feeding and sleep patterns, leading to multiple nighttime feedings and potentially shorter daytime feeds.
Common Reasons for Reverse Cycling
Let’s chat about why babies may be consuming more calories at night than during the day.
Skipping Daytime Feeds
This can happen when our babies are taking longer naps and we let the nap intervene in their feeds. As hard as it is to wake a sleeping baby, we want to stay as close to our day feed schedule to ensure adequate daytime caloric consumption.
Shift and Change In Routine
If there has been a change in their routine like starting daycare or being sick, baby may have temporarily increased calories at night and has gotten stuck in that pattern. During this time, it is common to add in additional feeds but may lead us to the reverse cycling pattern unintentionally.
Distracted Baby/Distracted Eater
As babies grow, they become increasingly aware of their surroundings. Around four to six months, many babies find daytime feeding less interesting because they are curious about the world around them. If they’re easily distracted during day feeds, they may end up compensating by feeding more at night.
Frequent Night Feeding
Around 3 to 5 months of age, a baby moves through the 4-month sleep regression and may have gotten into a pattern of feeding on every wake to go back to sleep. Another instance that this might occur is when our child is sick and there are additional feeds that weren’t there prior (rightfully so!) and have stuck around after they are feeling better.
How Reverse Cycling Affects Your Baby’s Sleep
During reverse cycling a baby wakes frequently at night to eat, which leads to fragmented sleep and longer stretches of sleep which disrupts the quality of their sleep. If a baby is low in daytime calories their bodies will wake up to make up for the calories lost during the day. The positive is this is a pattern that can easily be shifted once we determine it is reverse cycling.
How to Stop Reverse Cycling
Let’s reflect on what may be causing the reverse cycling so we can address it in a way that makes sense:
Skipping Daytime Feeds
Nutrition and sleep are intertwined and be sure to keep as close to their feeding schedule during the day as possible. If the baby is sleeping during the designated feed time, recommend waking them up within 20 to 30 minutes near their feed so that we keep their feeds on track.
Distracted Baby/Eater
We want to increase babies overall daytime feedings to help decrease the overnight wakes. Couple of options: 1) Aim to feed your baby frequently during the day, ideally every two to three hours, depending on their age. Find a quiet, calm Space: Minimize distractions by finding a quiet room for feeds, using soft lighting, and reducing noise if possible or 2) Add in an additional daytime feed or an additional few ounces to each bottle/few more minutes of a nursing session.
Managing Night Time Feedings
When it comes to night wakings, we have a couple of options:
Reduce Night Feed Amounts: If your baby is feeding multiple times at night, start reducing the amount of milk offered in each feed, little by little.
Extend the Time Between Night Feeds: On non feed wakes, use an alternative like patting or rocking to help your baby settle without feeding.
Prioritize day time feeds
Ensure baby is getting adequate calories during the day to sustain more at night. Have a game plan of feeding around every 3 hours during the day. We may need to wake the baby from a nap to ensure they are getting the nutrition they need during the day.
In regards to day and night feeding schedules and amounts for your child, I recommend reaching out to your child’s pediatrician to understand what works best for your child before making any feeding changes.
When to Seek Support
If we have tweaked items to help stop reverse cycling and it persists despite your efforts, it may be helpful to seek guidance from a pediatrician or sleep consultant. Sleep consultants can help support your family as we move through reverse cycling. If we can support you through this transition, lets schedule a Discovery Call so that we can assess the best way to support your family!
Sleep Well!
Comentários