6 month old awakes twice to feed at night - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

paresse · 12-07-2005, 12:02 PM

My exclusively breastfed dd slept through the night from 2 months to 5 months. At 5 months she began to wake up hungry, which I took as a sign to start her on solids. She eats 3 times a day: cereal, vegetables and fruit, as well as breastfeeding throughout the day. 6 weeks have passed and she still wakes up every night, at least twice. I don't think that it's the need to suck because she rejects the pacifier and when I put her to my breast she will eat for at least 5 minutes!
Is she going through a growth spurt? She only eats about 2 TB of solids at a time. Should I feed her 4 times!
I would appreciate any suggestions.
Thank you.

kierrasmommy · 12-07-2005, 12:19 PM

I used to feed my DD cereal right before bedtime...well she'd get her cereal, followed by a relaxing warm bath (to clean her up) then after she was dressed she'd breastfeed until she was full, that helped for a bit, when it stopped working instead of breastfeeding I'd give her a bottle of pumped milk with a couple tablespoons of cereal mixed in it...it was still extremly runny but a bit more filling than just the milk alone, that helped as well. But be sure to discuss with your pediatrician first, I had the go ahead from mine first. Goodluck.

dizzygirl · 12-07-2005, 02:39 PM

I wish I had advice...ds wakes at leat 1x a night, and he's 7 months old. He's kind of a bad nurser during the day, so I don't mind that much, but I'm looking foward to sleeping through one day!

Kiera1595 · 12-08-2005, 05:41 AM

Sounds like a growth spurt to me. Babies tend to have one around 6 months. I'd up the amount of jar food per feeding, not the amount of feedings. At 6 months they should have 3 feedings of food. Does she seem hungry after her 2 tbs of food? Both of my kids were eating 1-2 jars a feeding at 6 months. But they were/are chow hounds. I stopped nursing at 3 months, but my doc said that at 6 months it's normal for breastfed babies to still need to nurse at night. Most bottle fed babies shouldn't need to (but try telling them that

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Kiedy · 12-08-2005, 10:47 PM

Maybe she is used to eating at night, as she has been for the last 6wks, and now you just have to break the habit, like you did the very first time. See if that works. I know it's hard, when they're not sleeping you just want to give them whatever will put them to sleep.