Sleep

Hi There~
I had the same problem with my son. Are you feeding him right before bed? Sometimes kiddos will associate sleeping with eating and they can't fall back asleep unless they eat again. (Need the bottle to fall asleep)If that's the case, you'll have to rearrage the whole sleep routine. Eat, bath, story, sleep cd, nite, nite...Also, once babies hit the 6 month mark they start eating a lot more. So maybe upping the food intake would be a good idea.
Good luck!

He may be growing & hungary...try adding another fruit or vegetable (I found more food later in the day has helped my girls sleep). You'll be amazed how much he'll eat in the next few months!

I'm betting his teeth may bother him and from my experiance tylenol never did much for my daughter but Motrin did!

My daughter nurses, so I really dont know how many ounces she gets, but at 6 months she ate a lot. I wouldn't put the cereal in a bottle, I'd just spoon feed it to her. That's better I believe. She would eat about 4-6 tablespoons of cereal in the morning, plus about a jar of fruits, sometimes more. Then in the evening she'd eat about a jar and a half of veggies. My pedi said that there is no set amount they should eat, they eat until their done, and thats how much you feed them. Even with all that food my daughter is about 20th percentile for weight, but 97th for height.

About the juice, i'd cut it out, or at least down. At this age they should only get about 4oz and that should be 50/50 with water. Juice has a lot of natural sugar so that could be causing sleeping problems.

As for the sleeping through the night, maybe he's going through a growth spurt. They do want to eat more then.. its perfectly fine to make him another bottle (no cereal in it) and see if he'll take it. It might be all he needs for a few days. And I'd keep up the Tylenol, in case it is another tooth.

I am in agreement with everyone else, if he is hungry keep shoveling it in. My son was a pretty big eater at 6 mos and now he is just a scrawny lil 19 month old even though he still will eat anything that will not eat him first. Tip for teething, my midwife suggested rubbing a small amount of the tylenon on those sore little gums. It seemed to ease the pain a little. The other thing I have learned is alternate tylenol and ibuprophen. For us tylenol didn't work unless rubbed on his gums (and now thats like trying to massage the gums of Jaws) but ibuprophen seemed to take the pain away quite nicely. I assume it works better because teething is more of a bone pain, and if anyone else remembers trying to cut wisdom teeth it was no fun. Or also look for "teething tablets" you just disolve a couple of those in there mouth (which happens faster than you can blink and trust me don't taste them... been there tried that ewww gross LOL) If all else fails for the teething keep a bunch of small pickels in the fridge, they are nice and cold and chewey and my son loved to gnaw on them until they got warm. Not only does it seem to help but it is definatly picture worthy =) Good luck and well wishes that the sandman and your son soon make amends.

S. in Eau Claire

At 6 months old I fed my kids the following:
8 am 3 T. of cereal & 6 oz bottle (use part of bottle to make cereal)
12 noon: 1 2nd foods veggie and 1 fruit and a bottle
4 pm: 1 2nd foods veggie and 1 fruit and a bottle
8 pm: same as 8 am
I also throw in a 3-4 oz serving of juice in there somewhere during the day.
With this schedule they should sleep from 8 pm - 6/7 am
Good luck,
J.

Hi J. -

My son started waking up at exactly 4 a.m. at that age, too...but he was teething his upper teeth (he got his 2 lower at 4 mos), and Tylenol and some rocking did the trick. Once we figured out that's what it was, we put a little numbing stuff on his gums right at bedtime and that worked okay. If he still woke up, we'd give him some Tylenol and he'd go back to sleep until around 8a.m. Good luck!

Dont worry about over feeding your baby. It cant be done. If he is hungry, feed him. Remember he is going through major growing streaks during the first few years and needs a lot more food than you can imagine. Try feeding him more food less formula and give him cereal before bed. It sticks longer and they arent hungry in the middle of the night. I had a very hungry boy too and this worked for me. Good luck! L.

I am with Kandice on this issue. I have always nursed my son so I am not exactly sure the exact amount my son would drink, but at 6 months old he ate a lot and often. I also think that you should start feeding your son his cereal from a spoon. At his age my son was eating some cereal and a fruit or vegetable 2 times a day. At this age he will really be learning how to eat from a spoon more than getting a ton of nutrition from the food. It would also probably be a good idea to cut back on his juice intake. At 14 months I still only offer my son 4 ounces of diluted (50/50) juice a day. He thinks it is a great treat to have the diluted juice or even just really cold water. With teeth coming in, it is important to be carefull of juice because it is a common source of early tooth decay in children. Hope this helps, and don't worry your son will eventually get back to sleeping through the night he is more than likely going through a growth spurt.