Eating before bed and beyond - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

Jonanner · 04-21-2007, 11:39 AM

I was wondering if it is okay for my 6 mo to sleep through the night without eating. Right now she eats right before bed (at 8:00) and that's it until 5:00am. Is that okay? My doctor said if I wanted to I could top her off at 10:00 before going to bed, but she didn't say I SHOULD. If I top her off I will have to wake her up. What do you guys do?

I am worried because she barely drank any of her bottle just now before I put her in her crib, but she did eat veggies an hour and a half ago. My MIL seemed bothered by the fact that I don't feed her at all at night.

bap104 · 04-21-2007, 02:32 PM

You are lucky she sleeps through the night...why wake her? If she is hungry she will let you know. If she was waking up closer to 2 or 3 a.m. then topping her off at 10 p.m. might help her sleep longer but if she is sleeping til 5 a.m. I wouldn't worry.

Jonanner · 04-21-2007, 11:04 PM

She has woken up a couple of times around two or three but she goes back to sleep if I rub her back for a minute. My dad said last night that if she was hungry she wouldn't go back to sleep so easily.

Yes I am so lucky and so happy. She just started sleeping this week due to a little Ferberizing, which I had insisted I wouldn't do. I felt bad about it, but she fell asleep after less than 30 minute (with me checking on her every minute or two) and slept through the first night and every night since. I really think she needed it. Before this week she was up every 30 minutes to an hour (since she was born) and always needed a bottle to get back to sleep. She is almost 7mo, so you can imagine what 6 1/2 months of waking up every hour is like. It's torture.

KeltoKel · 04-22-2007, 05:00 AM

Jo - good for you! I am so jealous since I am having sleep issues myself. I keep thinking that I have to do something different or I am going to have many more months of horrible sleeping with DS.

I don't think you should wake her to feed her. If she is getting plenty to eat during the day, then she is fine.

xinerevelle · 04-22-2007, 05:55 PM

My 5 month old just went to no-feeding-nights this past week (fingers still crossed!) after a few weeks of a 3 am bottle. She now sleeps from about 6 pm until 5 am with only a midnight pacifier call (where she tosses and turns and cries a little until her paci gets stuck back in her mouth and she promptly turns her head and falls back to sleep).

If she's not hungry she won't wake up. Simple as that. No danger to it or anything. She's just getting all of her nutrition during waking hours now instead of round the clock. YAY!