Night Feeding

If he drinks the whole bottle then he is hungry and needs to eat. You may be able to work around the schedule a bit. Wake him at 11pm or last thing before you go to bed and give him a bottle then. If he is sleepy he may not finish it but maybe it will be enough for him to sleep until morning. The down side is he may then wake up very early (4-6 am) and be hungry then (mine did this and I put them back to sleep). Basically you may to be able to shift when he wakes up but if his is hungry at night you may be doing at least 1 night feeding for a while still.

Well, he is making it through the night by their definition. 6 hours is a "night" in many books. Do they have actual hours?

each child is different....I , personally would be surprised if a 5 1/2 month old DIDN"T wake up in the night for a feeding!!! Their little stomachs simply cannot hold enough food to keep them satisfied for the entire night. Maybe it is because all of my children were breastfed...and not on a "schedule"...they fed on demand...but I would have considered myself marvelously blessed if they only woke up once a night at that age!! lol
Good luck and congratulations on your new little one

The first full YEAR - you should never deprive your infant of feeding when they are telling you they are hungry. This is the most growth and development they will be doing in their entire lifetime and they need constant source of caloric intake - which includes overnight. You should feel very happy and lucky he only wakes ONCE.

It is totally normal for a baby to need to eat in the night for at least 1 year. My 11 month old just dropped her nighttime feeding, although she periodically still wakes for it. Just one feeding is AWESOME for 5.5 months!

I have always said that I don't get to stop being a mom or meeting my child's needs just because it's night time. Getting up once in the night is really not bad and he obviously really needs to eat and is hungry since he finishes the whole bottle. You'll hear of other babies his age that sleep straight through the night, but realize this doesn't mean that YOUR SON is ready to do that. There are just as many babies who are over a year (or even 2 or 3 years) who don't sleep through the night. He will do it when he's ready, and most babies stop waking to eat in the night as they start eating more and more table foods.

Also, I would be very careful about giving water. First of all, there is no nutrition in it, and your child needs nutrition at this crucial time of growth. More importantly, however, too much water can cause seizures and even death from hyponatremia. I started giving sips of water in a sippy cup around 6 months, but no more than that.

In my opinion, you should just keep feeding him. In general, I imagine kids CAn sleep through the night at that age, but it doesn't mean that every kid will follow that rule. He may be going through a growth spurt or teething and need the comfort of his bottle. Before you try any methods to wean him, I would talk to his pediatrician at his 6 month check up. My son did not sleep through the night until he was almost a year old and our pedi told us to feed him on demand at night (since he had weight issues). He also mentioned that 5- 6 hour is considered sleeping through the night with babies. With our daughter, we were told we could stop feeding her at night when she was about 7 months old, if we were comfortable...and she weaned herself from it in about a month. It's tough, hang in there mama!

First, make sure he I'd eating enoughounces throughout the day that he won't be missing needed nutrition. If he is consistently waking up at the same exact time, it's likely to be out of routine & not necessarily hunger. Since you'll be dealing with the routine, try going in and doing a Dream
Feed BEFORE he wakes up. Don't turn on any lights, talk to him or change his diaper- just sit down, pop the bottle in his mouth & lay him back down. I read about this & was absolutely amazed when I did it with my own baby & it was as easy as that. You can also try to do a Tank Up feed before bed. When my daughter was 4 months old, I moved her to a 4 hour eating schedule so she would eat at 7,11,3 and then right before bed (usually 6:30). We stopped her dream feed at 7 months, but for the first 3 months, during growth spurts & when we were stopping the Dream
Feed- her schedule was more like 7,11,3,5&7. The idea is to get am extra feed in (about 2 hrs apart) right before bedtime. If I were you, I would switch to the Dream Feed vs just letting baby wake up on their own because at some point you're going to probably have to deal with the habit part of waking up at 2.

That sounds good to me. My son didn't start sleeping 10-12 hours straight until just after a year old. He was probably 9 months when he gave up his night time feedings. I was very happy just to get 5 hour stretches of sleep. But all kids are different. He'll probably be seeing his pediatrician in 2 weeks for a check up so I would ask then if and how you should go about cutting out a feeding.

If he's drinking an entire bottle, he's hungry and needs to be fed. It's not unusal for a baby under six months to need nourishment in the night. You are probably ready to start solids soon, and when you do, he may not wake for that feeding anymore.

babies get hungry in the middle of the night, feed them. offering them water isnt going to cut it.my now 17 month old daughter has twice the normal growth rate, why ?
because she eats when she is hungry. if she wants a bottle in the middle of the night, i or her daddy get up and get her one, thats what we are there for to begin with.a full tummy helps them sleep, would you rather get up once in the middle of the night and simply give them a bottle, or would you rather get up with them 5 times a night because they want a bottle, and they are not getting one ??
K. h.

Weissbluth says babies may need middle of the night feedings till 9 mos. My son did, daughter didn't. If baby eats an entire bottle i would say little one still needs to eat! Sorry!

Our six month old has been sleeping through the night for several months, so it is possible for some babies. We didn't do anything special to get there, but she does nurse more right before bedtime. I would think that you could try giving him less to see if he's truly that hungry or just using the bottle to soothe himself back to sleep. You should also step back and look at his rhythym throughout the whole day to see if his sleeping and eating patterns make sense for his age. A lot of people say that starting solid feedings help them to go longer between feedings, but I wouldn't do it just for that reason... good luck~

I got both of my sons to sleep through the night by six weeks of age. It helps to have a plan before getting started so a habit doesn't form. Try feeding an extra feeding during the day to make up for the one that he is getting during the night. Span them out evenly throughout the day. Of course they do also go through several growth spurts during the first year, so be mindful of that as well. But you can still feed him what he needs during the day and be ok with skipping eating at night.
Best Regards,
C.