Sleep Through the Night - Wylie,TX

Hi C.,
>
> I don't understand why your Dr. won't let you feed your baby. That
> seems ridiculous. So many other children get solids at 4 months. I
> started my own daughter on rice cereal at 4 months and when she got
> good at taking the spoon, I started feeding her fruits and veggies.
By
> 6 months she was eating 3 servings of solids a day. She is the
perfect
> weight for her height and is very healthy. Your baby is not sleeping
> because he/she is probably hungry and a tablespoon of rice is
nothing.
> That will not do anything for her. It gets dissolved so small. You
> should try feeding her a small Gerber size bowl full of rice before
> going to bed. You don't want to take the place of milk. I fed my
> daughter first then waited 30 min-hour and gave her milk. She never
> woke up from being hungry. The only other thing you need to be aware
> of is that she is old enough to be teething. She may be in pain from
a
> tooth trying to come in. Rub her gums with ice water or put some
orgel
> on her gums. Look for any swollen areas. The tooth may still be under
> the skin. If it continues you should give her some tylenol.
>

My son had the same problem at 5 months. The reason *I think* the pediatrician is telling you no solids (like Gerber baby food) just yet, is in the case your baby decides he doesn't like fomula or breast milk anymore.

However, I decided I knew my son better than the pediatrican, and gave my little guy gerber soft baby food (like carrots, squash,green beans, sweet potatoes,but nothing with chunks) an entire month early. At 5 months my son was your son's size. In my case he was totally fine with it, and it helped sustain his appetite. Also, he kept drinking his formula with no problems. But all babies are different, and even local pediatrician's disagree on the right "timetable" of foods to introduce. Now my little boy is two, and perfectly healthy.

I hope that helps!

C.,
I don't know if this is encouraging or not, but my first child did the same thing. She finally started sleeping through the night around 12 months of age when I quit giving her milk/or nursing her and only offered water in the middle of the night. I don't know that I would do that with a lil' baby, but that is what it finally took for her. I always just assumed she was hungry, even though she ate big people food and all, but she still woke everynight at least two times until we started this. It may just be your child. My second who is also five months, only wakes up one time usually. I am strickly nursing her and just started rice last week, so I think it is the child. I hate the thought of a baby being hungry so I am a sucker and feed them if they seem to need it.

Hang in there....they are only little a short while. If you do have to get up in the middle of the night, make the environment calming for you and treasure your lil' moments. My pediatrician said with me working that was the way my first one got time in with me....just a thought.

K.

C.,
You need to listen to yourself. You are your child's only real advocate. You can start solids as young as 4 months but it totally depends on your childs' reaction. I have 2 girls - 3-1/2 years & 9 months and I started solids at 5 months with both. You have a big boy - my little one is probably only his size @ 9 months & is average. They need food dependent on weight not age so do what you think is best. I would start adding cereal to his diet. Start with one meal a day for 2-3 days and then keep adding it at another meal until he is having cereal at 3 meals just like you. After cereal (rice, oatmeal & barley) try veggies & fruit adding one every 3 days to watch for allergies.

If your baby is not hungry then he is just waking out of habit. Try to keep it consistent & let him cry it out a little. Sometimes a cry in the middle of the night is just that & not really a wake up but if you rush to their side you actually wake them. So try to let them cry for a few minutes before you rush in to see if they are really waking up. Most babies should be sleeping through the night by 6 months. Of course that is easy for me to say as both of my girls slept 12 hours a night by 10 weeks.

Good luck!!!

C.

At this age sleeping is more about habit and routine rather than need for food. I am a firm believer in the babwise/secrets of the baby whisperer routine because I believe it helps establish routine/better sleeping habits for all children. If children are 10 lbs. they have the potential to sleep through the night if you are establishing proper routines. I would get babywise it is a super quick read, has a quick question/answer section and is effective if your willing to stick with it. If you're baby is getting enough to eat during the day, this may be simply a habit of waking at night. I went throught this too with my first child and until I started considering that it was something other than a food issue I was doing the same things too. Adding cereal etc. Another commom myth you here is that breastfed babies can't sleep through the night like bottle fed babies. It simply isn't true in my experience if you establish proper routines. I recommend this/these books not as a know it all but because someone recommended to me early on and not only does it make sense but is very effective. It is much easier to start with infants, so if you're trying to break some habits that are inhibiting the baby from sleeping independently the road will be more bumpy either way you cut it.

Hi,
I am a 47 year old mom and a child care provider for many.
Sometimes, mom knows best no matter what the physician says. You have to go with your gut feeling. The doctor is not the one getting up with the baby and he's trying to get you to go by the book. It would not hurt anything for you to start even spoon feeding your child some cereal. Start with the feeding at night to hopefully get him to sleep better. At four months my little girl, had to have food. She was, all of a sudden, not the happy little baby she had been until I started giving her cereal. Some babies need more. some babies can go all the way to a year without food and just be on formula or BM.
Keep doing it through the bottle until the baby gets used to the spoon. He may resist time and time again at first but keep trying just a little at a time. Finally he will get used to the texture and like it. If after all this he is still waking up sometimes you have to let them find a way to cry themselves back to sleep. They need to find a way to sooth themselves or you will have a child that will always wake up in the middle of the night. It might be hard at first. Maybe the first night or 2 just go check on him but don't pick him up. If evertying is okay. Then walk away. I would say don't let hime cry anymore than 20 minutes. The next night don't go in there at all just listen and wait unless it's a hard cry. 20 minutes can seem so long when you sweet little one is crying but it won't hurt them and may help both of you in the long run.
Lonie
Good luck to you.
Lonie

> Have you tried establishing a sleeping pattern? Bathe him before
> bedtime, give him a small bottle and rock him the same time every night if all
> possible. (maybe even read to him or play calming music)I have been
> very fortunate my son pretty much sleeps throughout the night.
>

C.,
I'm sure you're getting lots of advice on this, and there are so many different theories out there. The book that helped me was "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. She has a lot of good tips for how to gently transition to less feedings at night and longer stretches of sleep. It helped with my daughter who is now 17 months.
M.

C.,
It sounds like you have a big baby, just like I do. (He is 8 mths 22.5lbs and 29.5 in! Bigger than a 2yr old at his daycare) We started giving him solids about 4mths b/c the intake of food he was wanting was outrageous. My pediatrician told me that once a baby doubles their birth weight (doesnt really matter about age) they can handle solid foods. We were also told to never feed it to him out of the bottle (cereal) Try giving him a couple bits off of a spoon and see if he is ready to start eating solids. They will let you know if they are ready or not. It sounds like he is just not getting full off of just the bottle. I was also told use your instincts. The doctor doesnt always know what is best for your baby, just what the statistics are. Hope this helped a little at least. The biggest thing we found about sleep through the night is he needed a strict routine done the same way everynight at the same time.
A.

Hello,

My husband and I have been foster parents for a couple of years and have dealt with our share of sleep problems. I never really figured out a good solution until my neighbor recommended the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth. I read it when we adopted one of our foster babies and I hadn't been able to get her on a sleep/nap schedule up to her 7th/8th month. We first had to work with her pediatrician to deal with some allergy issues, but after getting all medical problems out of the way we started using the method from this book. Within a couple of weeks of keeping a consistent schedule she was sleeping from approx. 7:30 or 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. and taking two daytime naps. She is now almost a year and is still following this schedule.

Also - using a crib shaker or white noise machine has helped significantly.

I really don't think solid foods make any difference at all. In fact, I have a friend who says she watered her babies bottles down at night to make them less desirable and this got her baby to sleep through the night.

Good luck!

Dear C.,

Unfortunately it is very normal for your baby not to sleep through the night at 5 months old. You are not alone, I am the mother of 3. I also have a 5 month old son who I breast feed he usually wakes up every 2-3 hours, 4 if I get really lucky. I have a almost 2 1/2 year old and also a 4 1/2 year old. Most nights atleast one of the other 2 wake up, sometimes they all do. I wish there was something I could do, but I think it's pretty normal for most kids to wake up in the night. Atleast in my experience. I have tried to feed my baby rice cereal 1 or two times a day, I don't think it's helping as far as sleep goes either. But when they start eating solid food it will help, so don't get discouraged, just keep doing what your doing. The reason your docter won't let you feed your baby solid foods is probably there is an increased chance of allergies. If your baby is bottle fed he might possibly be able to start solid foods, but usually breast fed babies are getting what they need until 6 months.
It will get easier though! I hope this helps, your not alone!

Good Luck!

A. L

Feed that baby! Our doc said not until he is 6 months old too. But, when they are always so hungry and you need sleep - trust me it won't hurt them! Our son will be 6 months old next week and he already eats every vegetable and every fruit and not allergic to one! If you are unsure you can still feed the baby cereal our doc said we could start at 4 months old doing that- a spoon full at a time until he eats several spoonfulls at a sitting then start feeding him 2 times a day then 3 times a day. Good luck.

Hi, C.:

You probably don't want to hear this, but not sleeping through the night is perfectly normal at 5 months! Your pediatrician is right about not feeding solid foods before 6 months--earlier introduction of solids can lead to food sensitivities and constipation. If it helps any, not one of my kids slept through until they were over 1 year old, and sometimes they *still* don't sleep through! I know it sounds like lame advice, and getting up several times a night is exhausting, but this stage really will be over quicker than you know.

Good luck...many of us are in the same boat as you!

Best,
L.

My wife had this same issue with her first daughter. Her daughter was 3 months old at the time, I believe. The pediatrician refused to let her feed until 6 months time as well. So frustrated, she fed her her bottle with cereal; and that night, my step-daughter stayed asleep the whole night.

If you've noticed, not that many parents agree whole-heartedly with their pediatricians. Definitely take their advice, but trust your gut.

Hi C.,

I am not a physician, but am a mom too. I do not do well without sleep and our physician also told us the same thing, but I could not take it anymore and talked to my sister,(who had 3 kids) she told me that Matthew was starving and that I needed to feed him some "real food". He slept for the first time all night long on October 15, 2003 (born June 29, 2003)I pumped for 6 months, so she told me to start with cereal first and then graduate to fruit after he did this for about 1 1/2 weeks. So, I began putting 1 teaspoon of cereal in a small bowl with my breast milk (or formula) the regular that you have been feeding him and and I began feeding him with a spoon. You want the consistency of the cereal to be like cream- a-wheat, not too soupy, but not too lumpy. His first reaction was very weird, because he didn't really know what to do and he kept spitting it out, but I kept at it until it was all gone. Example, if you give him 4 to 6 oz of milk at each feeding, I would do it just 3 times a day, not every time you feed. He is a big boy and mine was too. After a 1 1/2 week of this, then I did fruit, progressed with all the fruits and then went to vegetables. Same thing, 1 teaspoon, and then moved it up to 1 1/2 teaspoon and just started addind a little more and more each week and he loved it. Got the spoon feeding down and began doing much better because he wasn't so hungry anymore.

Email me at ____@____.com and I can tell you more.

A WONDERFUL book that I read and it helped me tremendously was the "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". Letting them cry it out did not work for Matthew, (I tried and he cried for 2 hours), so obviously I didn't do that. Another thing I did was keep it consistent EVERY SINGLE NIGHT even on the weekends. We feed him around 5:00pm to 5:30pm as much as he could, bottle mixed with his food and after dinner, the nightime ritual would begin. Ours was the same EVERY NIGHT. WE never deviated from it, when we did, we paid for it the next day. Babies, kids love consistency and structure. It makes them feel safe and familiar. I would then began putting bedtime music on, the bath, the rocking, singing to him and then the bottle (always one at bedtime for him) until I found what worked with him and he began sleeping from 7:00pm to 7:00am. Some of my friend's kids would go to sleep at 5:30pm or 6:00pm, I don't know your schedule, but it is tough when you can't see your baby for longer than 1 or 1 1/2 hours, but SLEEP TO HIM IS MOST IMPORTANT!! I cared more about him getting his rest than me seeing him. Again that book helped me out a ton!!

It cramped our style expecially on the weekends when we had to get home to put him to bed, but it was more important for him to get his sleep than for us to be out and about. Plus it made the weekends so much more pleasant when we just followed our routine.

Matthew just turned 3 and I can honestly say that he still sleeps 10 to 12 hours a night w/a nap during the day and he is one happy little boy!!

Sorry this was so long, but I BEG YOU TO BE consistent with his sleeping and his bedtime routine and you will be amazed at the difference it makes in your child and in you, not just now, but in the long-run.

G. B.

I think given the fact that your son is 5 mo and 18 pounds, he's ready to start solids. I started my daughter at 5 mo. and she did just fine. My pedi. said you can start between 4-6 months and definitely if they are over a certain poundage(15 maybe??) Go ahead and start him on cereal and then when he does fine with that start introducing mild veggies such as sweet potatoes and squash(baby food of course or fresh pureed veggies). I think this will help him to sleep. If you BF and have a good solid foundation for that, you could also introduce 1 bottle of formula right before bedtime. My daughter went between breast and bottle just fine. The formula seems to stick to them longer in my opinion. My daughter seemed so hungry from birth that we had to supplement formula from almost birth. She was a good sleeper and started sleeping 6 hour stretches at about 2 months. By five months, she was sleeping 8 hours a night at least. Anyway, I know every baby is different, but maybe these suggestions will help.

Good Luck!

Are you breastfeeding? This makes a difference. Enjoy your little one's time. When it is the right time to start food, it will change. Don't rush it. They grow up so fast. Maybe he just needs some more Mommy time. Also maybe he is sleeping too much during the day.
Billit Mom of 5 Jedi

C.,

I understand where you are coming from- our baby (who is now 11 months old) took quite a while to sleep thru the night as well...what helped us was feeding him more (giving more in the bottle) each time. I have friends who say they put their baby to bed at 8 or 8:30 pm, and then wake the baby up at 10:30 or 11:00 to feed more- they say that helps. I don't know how much help this is, but I these are just what I have found and heard.

S.

I feel your pain, my son is 8 mos old and he woke up just like that until we starting feeding him more. He was hungry!!!! My doctor told me to start cereal and solids at 5 mos, but I was scared he would choke. But since we did, he sleeps through the night and then some. Maybe try more cereal, like giving him cereal bottles every other bottle. My son didn't like the rice cereal, so I gave him the oatmeal.
I really wasn't sure why he was waking up until we starting feeding him solids, after that he has slept through the night.
Good LUCK!

Hi C.,

I have a 5 month old boy and he was waking to feed once in the night until just recently. His Pediatrician gave us the OK to just give him water when he'd wake up at night and it worked! He's now been sleeping through the night for 3 weeks straight!