Is My 5-Mo-old Getting Enough to Eat?

As long as you are giving him the nutrition he needs throughout the day, it doesn't really matter whether you give him cereal for breakfast or for dinner. You can even offer veggies for breakfast if that works better for you (who says green beans aren't a breakfast food?)! It may keep him fuller longer if you offer cereal at dinnertime (also give him a bottle if he wants it afterward). If he's full, he should reject offers of food or formula, so try offering a little more at mealtimes, but don't push him to eat it all. If he turns away or shows other signs of being full, then you know he's getting enough. If he scarfs it all down and still wants more, then you'll know to prepare more next time.
But also keep in mind that his waking earlier may or may not have anything to do with the introduction of solid foods--kids go through occasional growth spurts and this sometimes affects their sleep and hunger patterns, too.
Also, even if he is waking from hunger, that doesn't mean he can necessarily eat more at mealtimes to stave off the early waking--he's still got a small stomach, and it will only hold so much food at once! ;-)
You could try feeding him dinner a little later than usual and putting him to bed a bit later, too. You'll want to make these changes slowly, though, or you'll probably have a grumpy baby on your hands!
HTH!
--A. in MO

P.S. You might also try going up to 8-oz. bottles if he's draining the 6-oz. ones! :-)

1 mom found this helpful

Their sleeping pattern changes from time to time. With adding new foods it changes the digestive situation and the times of messing the diaper may change and wake him. No alarm... Just tiring.

If he's gaining weight - he's fine.

Hang in there and enjoy.

My guess is that he's waking up hungry, which my daughter did. Our problem was that she wasn't getting enough calories in during the day and would start waking up early and want to eat. My doctor suggested that even though you are adding solids, formula is still the baby's primary food source and you don't want to decrease the amount. He did a calculation based on her weight, but I believe he recommended 35oz of formula a day in addition to any solids. Once she was eating more, she started waking up at her normal time again. Good luck!

Hi, in regards to the veggies/cereal - I would give him veggies and cereal at dinner/bedtime. My Dr. also recommended to do that as well. In regards to the sleeping - I don't have a lot of good advice. Every baby is so different and with my first child who is now 5 when he started waking up earlier we would check on him and if all was okay then we would shut his door and go back and get him at the normal wake up time. Eventually (after a couple of days) he went back on his schedule. Worth a try... good luck.

We also have a five month old who just started eating veggies and cereal. We give him cereal around lunch time. At dinner time we give him cereal and veggies. He hasn't had any change in sleep routine. Maybe some cereal in the evening might help your little guy's stomach stay full.

My first question is: Is he getting a bottle before bed still? If you're not giving him his night time bottle then he may be waking up because he's hungry. I have 4 kids and all mine had cereal for breakfast, and the veggie with a 1/2 of a bottle for dinner (unless you think he can handle a sippy cup of formula with dinner) and they still got their bedtime bottle of formula. One other question is: could he be waking up because he's gassy from the carrots? Once you find the reason you will find the solution.

Best of luck with your little guy!

You could give him cereal for dinner along with his veggies. The carbs in cereal are filling and may keep his tummy from waking him up too soon.

***Don't forget his formula. Cereal doesn't replace formula.***

Check for sensitive gums. Are teeth comming in?

Good luck!
Dr. Mom

Great advice! Thanks from another mom with an almost 2-month old who is soaking up the info.

Also, I noticed several people suggesting giving cereal in a bottle with formula/milk and I wanted to post a word of caution on that. My sister is a family doctor and has warned me that if you put a baby on cereal, it should be fed like regular food, not sucked through a bottle. Cereal can pose a choking hazard if given in liquid instead of a spoon. Evidently, it's meant to be fed like a solid just like baby food.

Im a Nanny for a family with a 10 month old. We had the same problem at around the same age. I have been a nanny for 20 years but every child can present new challenges. We took into consideration that teething was starting and the babies go into a growth spirt at the same time. Teething will make babies wake up at night. Babies also relate everything to eating such as when they have tummy aches they think they are hungry. When they have something new such as teething pain starting they seem to want to go to a bottle to soothe them. That is one theory. The other is, yes he is hungry because he is now eating solid food and needs more. We started giving our infant cereal before bedtime. This worked only for a short time because we discover he wanted the bottle at bedtime. We then mixed a cereal/formula bottle at bed time and he started sleeping through the night. Like I said every child is different. Also make sure his bowl movements are regular since he is starting solids, he could be having gas he hasn't had before because of new foods. If this continues see his Dr. and be sure to document what you have tried. Good luck!

Each child is different.You might try cereal for brkfst then veggies for lunch and dinner.Make sure you are offering a bottle with meals and in between as well.Like if he has dinner at 6:00 Ex: half a jar of veggies and a 4 oz bottle.Still offer him a bottle at 9 PM (bedtime)You could also try cereal at brkfst,veggies at lunch, and cereal at dinner.When babies start on food they don't have to have 3 meals a day at first but if he's a big eater it won't hurt to go ahead and feed him solids for three meals.Just experiment you and him will figure out what works best for him.Most kids will take a bottle with their solid food,however none of mine would.They would wait 1-2 hours after they ate the solids.

When I started doing veggies and cereal with my daughter, I was recommended to give her cereal at night. I was told that it would help her sleep through the night. Plus, before bedtime I give her an 8 oz bottle of formula.
Just a little advice on some of the veggies. When you start on the green veggies, you might want to give that to him during the day. Otherwise, he could wake up in the middle of the night with a messy diaper.
Hope this helps you out!

you can feed him cereal more than once a day. Feed his am cereal and try feeding him cereal before he goes to bed and see if that gets him to sleep later again. If he doesn't eat the cereal before bed try an 8 oz bottle before he goes to bed but just feed him until he's full and don't push extra food on him if he doesn't want it all, they know when they are full. You could also try just giving him a bottle of water at 4 am. He may just be thirsty.

He's possibly going through a growth spurt. we used to do what the baby whisperer called a "Dream feed" at about 10pm, where we'd pick up the baby, feed her while she was sleeping and then put her back in her bed. that worked to keep her from waking up in the morning. Another thing we did when we thought she was just waking up out of habit was to give her her paci, rub her belly, and leave and she'd put herself back to sleep. hope that helps!

What kind of a nap schedule does he have? Does he take 2 or 3 naps a day? If he takes 3, it's probably time to knock it down to 2 and if he only takes 2 each day, perhaps it's time to knock him down to just one long nap. He's a little young to eliminate his second nap, but that might help him sleep better at night. My oldest only took one nap a day for most of his infancy, it was just a really long (about 4 hours) nap for a while.

Or, it could be that he's growing and truly does need more to eat! Do you give him both cereal and carrots at dinner time? The cereal is nice and filling in their tummies, so it would be a good thing to give him for dinner. Since you know he can tolerate the cereal, he won't have any kind of reaction overnight to it. You could even start giving him a little cereal 3X a day, adding it in as a little "lunch", and maybe start him on a fruit in the mornings too. Also, how soon before bedtime does he get his last bottle? You may want to adjust that as well.

You could also try putting him to bed just a half hour later than normal. That might help him sleep a little longer as well. Good luck!

It's not regression, your lucky he slept so well as six weeks! He's too young to be forced on a schedule, he's probabaly just growing. Remember your growing pains? Ouch, they probably woke you up a time or two. Give him his bottle, put him right back to bed for a couple more hours. Eventually, he will go back to what is normal for him (not you!).

I'm the mother of four children ages 18 months to six years. I had this same problem with two of mine. One day my husband and I went out without the kids. We saw a movie and then went to a late dinner. The next morning I woke up snd I felt like I was starving. Then it dawned on me that if I eat too close to bed time I wake up hungery. Maybe that was the baby's problem? I began feeding the baby his solid food arround 5:00 pm and then a bottle before bed. In my case this solved the problem. Maybe if you try feeding your little one solid food earlier he will begin to sleep better at night. Just a thought. (my two who had this problem were boys too.)

I have a 6 month old and he did the same thing. He has always been a very good eater. However in the last month he started waking up earlier, going to bed earlier, and not napping as well in the afternoon. He would wake up through out the night wanting to eat. I chalked it up to yet another growth spirt. However in the last couple of days his first tooth popped through, so I now believe that had something to do with it also.
He usually wakes up about 7:30 every morning and then doesn't eat until about 8:30, then he takes another bottle at 10. Three hours later he eats his veggies which is followed by a bottle about an hour later. For dinner he eats veggies and then 2 more bottles before bed. He won't eat the cereal anymore all he does is play with it. We tried upping the amount of solid food he ate but it made him constipapted.
Personally I think your little one is fine it could be teeth or just a growth spirt. If yours is anything like mine he will likely get himself back on track. Mine is now sleeping again all night (knock on wood) and he's napping just fine through out the day.
Good luck

In addition to hunger spurts, he may be feeling the initial pangs of teething. Personally, I feel that we have such a small amount of time to be with our children while they are babies. I enjoyed getting up early and having private time with them. Losing sleep didn't matter that much to me. My girls are mostly grown and I really MISS those stages. Even though I do have daycare babies in the house, it's just not the same as being up with our own.

S.

At 5 months, its probably a growth spurt. My son did the same thing. After a few days of feeding him at night, he fixed his schedule himself. I wouldn't withhold feedings unless you are 100% certain he is not hungry. Sometimes you just can't give them enough during the day to hold them all night since their tummies aren't as big as ours. Bear with it and it will get better.

I always gave my son cereal in the morning with nursing him as well. I gave him veggies in the afternoon and evening, feed him until he pushes away and you will know he is full. You can give a bottle with each feeding as well. Mix the cereal with formula to make it a thicker consistency than if you were to mix it with water.

Hi Shara,
give him his cereal before bed. it sticks to his stomach longer and that might be why he is waking up earlier. I'm sure he is getting enough, it's just not lasting as long as it used to. He is getting bigger and his body is getting used to different, whole foods instead of just liquid. For example, give him cereal in the morning and at night, or one or the other, whatever works for you. If I were you, I would do both. He sounds like a good eater and you want to keep it that way.
*ALSO* if he gets a bottle before bed, try putting a couple scoops of cereal in his bottle. Just make sure the nipple hole is big enough to let the thicker liquid through.
Try giving him his cereal tonight and see what happens in the morning.