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Sleep training vs. night feeding?

mack1737mack1737 member
in Babies: 3 - 6 Months

Help! My five month old DS still isn't sleeping through the night. He goes down around 8/8:30 and wakes up anywhere between 1 and 3 am. He still eats a full bottle of formula during the night.  How do I know if he's eating because he wants me or if he's actually hungry? Do I let him cry it out? Sleep train him? 

He also sleeps much better when he's swaddled, but now that he's bigger and rolling our doctor told me to stop swaddling him.  Of course, now his arms are flailing everywhere.  Do I pick him up or let him settle himself (which takes a good half hour of crying :( 

 any advice? 

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Re: Sleep training vs. night feeding?

  • swgalswgal

    If he eats an entire bottle he is hungry.  If he wasn't hungry he wouldn't eat that much or would fall back to sleep very quickly.  Even sleep training experts don't recommend sleep training until at least 6 months.

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  • NerdyMama2NerdyMama2 member
    I agree with PP, if he's eating a full bottle it means he's truly hungry. I wouldn't start sleep training just yet.
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  • jussagirl02jussagirl02 member
    Sleep training isn't recommended until at least six months. Chances are if he is crying in the motn he needs something. If he's taking a full bottle, he's hungry. Hopefully he will drop that feeding on his own soon.
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  • JayandEmmJayandEmm member
    If he's eating a full bottle, he's hungry. He'll drop it on his own.

    My 5 month old still eats twice a night, so I would say one feeding a night for a baby under 6 months is pretty dang good!
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  • KimnBenKimnBen member

    For the night feeding, if he is eating he is hungry.  Dd was waking up at night to eat until recently she started taking more oz during the day.  She went from drinking 4 oz to 5 or 6oz at a time during the day plus we started oatmeal and fruit.  So she is not waking at night to eat because she gets all she needs during the day.

    For sleep, we did the Ferber method so no picking up, just gentle patting after a few minutes.  She now puts herself to sleep.  

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    If he's eating, he's hungry. Revisit sleep training in another month if that is what you choose to do. He may surprise you and drop the feeding himself by then, but right now it seems he needs it.
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  • tater1918tater1918

    Is he on solid food yet?  If so try to give more during the day to make up for some of the hungar.  also if you can get him to go down a little earlier and then do a "dream feed" before you go to bed, anywhere from 10-11:30 that could push him until the morning and not need to get up in the middle of the night. 

    A dream feed is no more than 3 ounces and you just pick up your baby, and feed them the bottle, dont talk to them, move them too much, but with only 3 oz, you dont need to burp them.  jsut put them back to sleep.  That pushed my son to wake around 6:00 rather than the middle of the night.  He was sleeping through the night at 10 weeks. 

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  • 08conlan08conlan
    At five months we started waking our son for a bottle between 11 12 to begin weeding him off a 4 AM bottle. If he started to nod off during that feeding we would rouse him so he would take a full bottle. It took about 2 weeks, but he finally gave up the 4 AM feeding. The transition from the midnight feeding to no feedings was a breeze at 61/2 months.
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