5.5mo old not STTN

mbon · February 2015

DS still wakes several times a night to eat & we are exhausted. Despite our best efforts to feed him more or add cereal to his diet, and add more playtime to tire him out, it doesn't seem to make a difference. His pattern his been the same for a long time. He goes to sleep around 7:30, wakes at 11,1,4 to eat. Because he's eating & not just waking then falling to sleep after a little soothing, I tend to think he truly is hungry & there's no way around it. Our other 2 children were not waking this often when they were that age though, so of course I wonder. Is this still pretty common among babies this age? Maybe we were just luckier w/ the 1st two.

natalie559 · February 2015

I've been reading Ferber's book Solve your Childs Sleep problems and he has a whole chapter on night weaning, perhaps pick up a copy and look into it. While I think it is certainly reasonable to still feed once a night, *maybe* twice, 3 times to me personally would be too much and I would be looking to consolidate some of those feedings. One thing I've been trying is pumping a bottle in the am when I have more milk and then feeding it to her before bed after I nurse her to get her really full before sleeping.

ktbug3000 · February 2015

My girl is the same age. She used to wake at 12, 2, and 5 and drank milk each time. I tried just soothing her back to sleep for the twelve oclock wake up and that worked for us and she quit waking at that time. She doesnt always have good nights and it seems like the times when she can't be soothed back to sleep, just keeps wiggling and fussing are the times when she really is too hungry to fall back asleep.

Bigboobsmcgee · February 2015

Yes, this is common. If your LO is hungry then you are right, there is no getting around this. It sucks, but what can you do besides feed your baby right?

MrsSarahRenee · February 2015

Normal. My baby isn't close to STTN.

bygonebride · February 2015

Is it possible your LO has the habit of needing to eat to sleep? Our pedi told us to feed then do bath at bedtime so she doesn't associate needing to eat herself to sleep. Just a thought.

elftb · February 2015

Normal. Feed your hungry baby.

dal2aus · February 2015

Just because the baby is willing to take the feeding doesn't necessarily mean that the baby is hungry. At this age, babies will eat for comfort, so it's possible that at least one of those 3 feedings is just out of habit or lack of ability to self-soothe. My babies wake up multiple times. The other night, one of them woke up only 3 hours after his big bedtime feeding, as usual, except this time rather than feeding him, I just cuddled him and he went right back to sleep for another 3 hours, at which time we fed him.

PrimRoseMama · February 2015

Bigboobsmcgee said:
Yes, this is common. If your LO is hungry then you are right, there is no getting around this. It sucks, but what can you do besides feed your baby right?

Yes this. Night weaning should be avoided until at least a year old.

Bigboobsmcgee · February 2015

dal2aus said:
Just because the baby is willing to take the feeding doesn't necessarily mean that the baby is hungry. At this age, babies will eat for comfort, so it's possible that at least one of those 3 feedings is just out of habit or lack of ability to self-soothe. My babies wake up multiple times. The other night, one of them woke up only 3 hours after his big bedtime feeding, as usual, except this time rather than feeding him, I just cuddled him and he went right back to sleep for another 3 hours, at which time we fed him.

I do partially agree with this. There are times that DD wakes and refuses the bottle so I rock her a bit and she falls back asleep. A parent should be able to tell pretty quickly if it's hunger or just comfort that the baby needs. But I wouldn't ignore the cries in case it's hunger.

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5.5mo old not STTN

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