11 Mo. Old Wakes All Night to Eat

It sounds to me that this boy has a bigger appetite at night and could possibly have a small snack to possibly tid him over to the morning. He was 11 pounds at birth and is now 22 pounds a very good appetite -- this may be the one that "eats you out of house and home". Try adjusting his solid food intact a bit before bedtime to see if this works. If so, you may be able to cut out a bottle or two in a short time. Since you let him have his own scheulde, you may want to gently change it for him and put him on a schedule for food. Good luck.

Even if he is hungry, he will make up for his nutritional needs during the day. I would definitely wean his night feeding as they are no longer necessary and both his and your sleep are fractured, regardless of what you feel.

2 weeks early is still considered full term, so he should be sleeping 11-12 hours at night.

Remember that his sleep is just as basic a need as his eating, and his eating is better made up during the day than his sleep.

Sorry to be so blunt and factual, but I gotta run-I do wish and LO the best.

Blessings~

A.,

Is he getting enough to eat during the day? Is he normal size and weight? I would just make sure that he is eating enough during the day and make sure he's not using the feedings as a "pacifier" to get back to sleep. Try to get it down gradually over a week or so by going to 2 and then 1 feeding letting him soothe himself back to sleep if possible. Maybe substitute at least one bottle in the night with water at first. See if this has become more of a habit. Good Luck!

A.,

If it's any comfort at all, my son will be two on Feb 22, too and up until he was 1 he was still getting up every 2 hours for a feeding. I got to where I would just hand him the bottle. We moved over to regular milk and after that he slept fine. He is almost 2 like I said come this February and he is weighing in at nearly 35lbs!! He's not fat, he's got some heighth on him. He just loves to eat. So just to let you know, you're not the only one. Good luck!

That is all good advice. I would do a rice feeding right before bed. I dont know what his feeding habits are -when he eats during the day what not- but I would again feed him right before bath then bed. That way his tommy is full and the warm water sooths him then hopefully he is out. I also like the advice dropping about 1 or 2 oz at night and slowly breaking the habit. (this on top of the rice) Hope it works

my daughters both did the same thing....it's just a habit of waking up and being fed. the only way to stop it is to not feed him! it'll be torture for you andexpect a few nights w/o sleep...but once he figures out that there is no benefit to getting up, he'll stop. it literally took both my girls 3 BAD nights. you'll feel guilty, but you'll be a better mom b/c you'll get a better night's rest, he's not going to starve! he'll make up for it be eating during the daytime-just what you want. it'll be hard-but worth it!

feed him more during the day, switch to water only at night. he will learn after about a week that day time is for food. my 14 month old during growth spurts eats as much as my 3 year olds !

My son was just the same. I started feeding him grown-up food around 10 months. He still ate his baby veggies, but I would give him bulkier foods (not chopped up and mashed) this made it a bit harder to go through his system and thus kept him from waking up so often. Also, He would only lightly snack at dinner time, then his big meal was around 9pm and then bath, story and bed about 10-10:30pm. He would sleep until about 5 or 6am!!
(I changed to bulkier foods after he was eating 3 jars and an 8 oz bottle and still waking up at night!!!)

those are both very good suggestions! I have just one thing to add to them. When my 15 month old started waking at night for a feeding after she had slept through the night for several months we opted to add just a little rice cereal to her last bottle before bed. Seemed to work for us - she's sleeping through the night again. Hope this helps.

I think you have two issues here... 1. He's not sleeping through the night and 2. He still takes a bottle. I would tackle the sleeping issue first. My son did the same thing and I had to go to work and was exhausted. I read a book called 'How to solve your child's sleep problems' by Dr. Ferber and discovered that it wasn't that he was hungry, but that this had become a habit for him that I needed to break him of. He, too, was a big boy and a good eater. Believe it or not, but after about four nights we were sleeping through the night and it was never a problem again. I had to follow a schedule of shorter and fewer feedings at night until they just disappeared. You (and anyone else with sleep issues) shoudl read this book b/c it talks about lots of issues and gives practical solutions.

A.,

I am going to take some of what Carrie said and tweek it a bit. First figure out which bottle you'd like him to drop first, then start this process. Cut out one ounce from that bottle every couple of days to point where he's only getting 1-2 ounces. Then add the water like Carrie said. He'll more than likely drop that feeding all together because he'll realize it's not worth it. Then once that feeding is dropped, do the same process with the next bottle you'd like to cut out.
I myself have a 10 month old and she wakes up to eat once a night. She doesn't like her bottles during the day, just at night so I don't mind getting up ONCE a night for this. I know she'll drop it before too long.

He may also be going through a growth spurt and will drop the extra feedings on his own too.