5 Month Old Not Sleeping Thru the Night

Your son sounds healthy and normal! Although you may have heard stories from Moms about how their child "sleeps through the night" from early infancy, this is *not* typical. Furthermore, some Moms and Pediatricians define sleeping "through the night" as 6 hours of sleep without waking. All babies are different, and your son may not be one of these miracle sleepers. And it has nothing to do with putting cereal in the bottle.

A healthy sleep/feeding schedule for infants aged 4 months to 8 months is 2 awakenings for food during a 12-hour sleep period (i.e. 7pm--7am). But the good news is that, come 9 months of age, your baby won't physically need a night feeding (barring any medical issues) and you can wean him off night feedings (with your Pediatrician's go-ahead)! Good luck!

I hate to break it to you, but eating solids has nothing to do with whether your kid will sleep through. Another bit of bad news - many kids don't sleep through until they're much older. Keep in mind that "sleeping through the night" is defined as "sleeping 6 hours straight". Your son probably does this. Don't increase his solids at this point - he needs to be drinking breastmilk/formula for nutrition and you don't want him to fill up on cereal. Some moms I know have had good luck with "dream feeding" - basically, wake him to eat before YOU go to sleep at night. Ultimately, though, he's still pretty little and it just may take him a while to figure it out. Also remember that lots of things can disrupt baby's sleep - teething is a big one that comes to mind, but travel or a change in environment does too. So even when you DO get him sleeping how you'd like, you can count on it all being derailed at some later point.

Hi!
It depends if you are breast feeding or formula feeding as to when they will sleep through the night. I formula fed and my kids slept through very early--8 weeks for my son and 12 weeks for my daughter who had been a premie. I used the Babywise method and really kept them on a schedule of eating every 3 hours during the day. I also allowed them to nap 2 2 hour naps during the day and woke them by 4(2nd nap 2-4) so that they would be tired and ready for bed at 8! Also--make sure you are not rocking him to sleep--you want to put them down drowsy but awake to get them used to falling asleep on their own in the crib. I honestly believe in getting them on a good regular sleeping schedule for naps and a good bedtime routine will elp them sleep through the night!

Good luck!
L.

Understanding that all babies are different, our day care lady suggested we cut out our child's 2AM feeding at 3 months of age. She was going down at 6, waking at 2 then sleeping until 6. Once we cut out that feeding, and soothed her back to sleep (instead of feeding), she literally started sleeping thru the night within a few days.

Sorry B.:

It's pretty normal for a 5 month old to still wake at night for feedings. The cereal in the bottle is just an old wives tale. This might help you: http://www.familysleep.com/4-months-to-8-months.html

Don't fret, your son should probably sleep through the night within the next few months.

A.

Hi B.,

I don't have any suggestions as I tried them all, only support. My son was mostly breast fed and woke up once or TWICE until he was almost 9 months old. I am still catching up on my sleep. Hang in there.