What to Feed 10 Month Old So She's Not Hungry at Night???

This won't be the popular answer, and you may not want to do it if she has always been breast fed, but formula takes longer to digest which is why many formula fed babies sleep through the night earlier then breast fed ones. You could try giving her a bottle of half breast milk half formula at bed time to see if it stretches things out a bit, but in the end this could very well be partly behavioral rather then her actually being hungry, in which case you will need to help her learn to sooth at night without food.

Babies' need for sleep/food changes as they grow, and it sometimes fluctuates wildly. Sleeping through the night may just not be something she's going to do right now. You may just have to resign yourself to middle of the night feedings until she gets through this phase.

My DD nursed at night til she was more than a year old. It's not abnormal. What I would consider is a small amount of her regular food or some crackers or fruit before bed to give her a little something in her belly. See if that helps. My DH and I had the problem of DD waking all the time, obviously hungry. Once we started giving her a bedtime snack (which we still do, just something like a yogurt or some fruit), she slept better. If she is eating cereal well, what about other foods? Maybe she needs something more complex. Of course, nursing is still primary til at least 1 yr old, so I wouldn't worry too much. I know you are tired, but she will outgrow it. Promise.

Can I ask what you make your cereal with? If you are nursing, but you make the cereal with water or formula, then maybe she would like the taste if you switched over to making the cereal with pumped breastmilk.

Sorry, that's all I can think of for you. Good luck!

ETA: Oh, Julie may also be on the right track with the increasing daytime calories, even without cereal. Can you add in at least one additional nursing session in the evening? If now the baby nurses at 5PM, then at 8PM, which is just before bed, can you add an extra one at 6:30 PM? I know you'll feel like you are spending all evening just feeding the baby, but that might get enough calories in to get her a longer stretch of sleep.

I say keep feeding her at night and keep gaging her needs. Once she seems to be using the feeding to soothe, then I would change my approach. But if she is genuinely hungry, then I would keep feeding her. My oldest was hungry over night at least once until about 14 months. Per the popular advice that said we were letting him manipulate us, we tried to break him of the over night feedings (water in his bottles, CIO and stuffing him during the day). None of it got us around the simple fact he was hungry at night. We wound up going with our gut which said to feed him. He was formula fed too so I don't put a lot of stock in formula fed babies sleeping better. My youngest was breastfed but a champion sleeper from the very beginning. I think sleeping is not only a phase but also developmental. Some children sleep better, longer, faster while others go in and out of spells of it. Good luck. It’s exhausting for sure.

Sounds like she is hungry. Mix cereal with breast milk.

Also sounds like a major growth spurt or a milestone is about to come along. Is she crawling, trying to pull up, standing? Is she maybe teething?

Babies can change over night. so you just have to go through the list of possibilities and test them.

I let my son fall asleep while breastfeeding at that age too. I don't care what anyone says -- this is NOT the end of the world. It's not a crime against humanity. He outgrew it on his own, we never did CIO, the whole thing turned out fine.

BUT, as long as he fell asleep breastfeeding, he didn't sleep through the night. I don't think it's a question of hunger. It's the fact that their digestive system is working at the same time as their sleep system, so they don't sleep as deeply. And you're bringing much wetter diapers into the mix. And, if her general habit is to nurse herself to sleep, then she's going to reasonably conclude that being awake in the night is a problem only Mommy can solve.

With my son, he literally started sleeping through the night ON the night we night-weaned him. And there was zero crying. For the first two nights or so, he sort of fussed and grumbled and bitched and moaned, but nothing at all that rose to the level of crying.

So, that's what I recommend! :-)

I agree that she sounds hungry and needs more sustenance during the day.

When you say she is eating "finger foods", what does that mean? What foods are you giving her besides the breast?

It's been a lot of years since my kids were babies (now 15 and 12 yrs old), so I don't remember exactly the timing, but I am fairly certain my kids were well beyond cereal with fruit mixed in it by then. The practice in those days was to begin offering them cereal (3 x day at regular meal times) beginning around 4 months old. Which I followed, and they did great. By 10 months? I think they were eating all kinds of things... scrambled eggs, cheese, olives, strawberries, and anything soft from my plate (if I had green beans, they had a bite, if I had sweet potato, they had a bite, etc). I am fairly certain we were mostly past all the baby food puree items.

So, depending on what you mean by "finger foods", maybe you should be offering actual meals (on a small scale) at each of the 3 standard meal times every day? A cut up strawberry, some banana chunks/slices, some cheese, some sort of veggie, some grilled bites of chicken... whatever is on your menu for that day... actual food.

She is hungry, feed her. She needs the breast milk for brain development.

Tacos! If only I could give you the answer you were hoping for. But I'm afraid there is no magic food to do what you are looking to do. What you have is a scheduling problem, not a menu problem.

All three of my kids simply would not naturally get into a schedule where they slept through the night. They all got their calories at night with frequent night feedings. My latest even regressed to eating every two hours at 8 mo (even though he went 4 as a new born). Often he didn't even want breakfast because he had snacked on me all night! I usually suck it up and wake up to feed, but eventually I hit my breaking point and sleep train.

I never was able to get my babies to eat enough during the day by offering more, Lord knows I tried! I simply had to let them starve at night until they were hungry enough in the day to make up the calories I stopped giving them at night. With my first I sleep trained at 8 mo. my second at 12 mo. and currently sleep training my 9 mo old.

I don't know what CIO means to you, but you don't have to leave them in their cribs alone. You can walk with them until they fall back to sleep (this is best done by the parent without boobs, sorry dad). Granted, they will cry, but you can be with them. Its a painful process no doubt. Usually takes us between 3-7 days, and the crying sessions can last an hour or more. But more often than not baby falls back to sleep in our arms within 15 minutes.

Just remember that your child is perfectly capable of sleeping through the night, its simply a matter of changing up the schedule. If you are not up for creating that calorie deficit at night and the crying that goes with it, then resolve to be getting up to feed you baby for at least another 2-6 months.

If you resent the behavior enough then its time to change it. You just have to decide what sucks more; unhappy, under- slept mom, or temporarily hungry unhappy baby? What ever you decide, just know that its not selfish to want to protect your sleep at this stage of the game. The whole family benefits when mom is rested.

You need to on read day calories and decrease night calories. Use her in both sides, but decrease time time by 1 minute a boob every 5 nights.

Also, it's time to teach her to go to bed at night without nursing. Do you have a soother in her crib? At her age, they start to love watching or listening to something in the crib. I'd try to change her night time pattern too.

AL,

I coslept with my son at that age-- I'm not suggesting you do this, but merely giving you my experience. I found that at that age, he still woke up at least once for a feeding. Remember that babies do digest breastmilk faster, in 4 hours or less, so yes, food (or some might suggest, formula) would be helpful. For what it's worth, he still woke at night for a long, long time.

I might go with something more complex, like avocado, if she'll eat it. It's rich in good fats. And maybe some O's or something with a different texture than the cereals. You could also try some baby foods or puree up some sweet potato or beans. I actually never did cereal with my son when he was that age; just fruits, veggies and grains. He seemed to get enough and I think it stayed with him longer.

It also helped to feed him a dinner *before* I nursed him, in place of an evening feed. He still was able to nurse before bed and fill up on top of the food and slept well that way too. Ten months is still very young for their bodies to self-regulate to wanting food at 'trained' times, the way even our two year olds are able to do. Their little stomachs just holler when they are hungry because they are still growing so incredibly rapidly. Hang in there, though, it does get better.

go for high protein foods, and try to do a snack about 1/2 an hour before you nurse for the night, it's good she is on table food, that makes life easier. Here are some ideas
*avacado
*whole grain bread with peanut butter, almond butter or sunflower seed butter (spread thing, latest research says earlier introduction of peanut butter actually reduces allergy risk and withholding it backfired)
*sunflower seeds
*ham, chicken, turkey cut up really small
*a hamburger
*there are vegan "hamburger" patties that are made out of beans, surprisingly the spicy ones were eaten most by the daycare babies so don't be afraid to do the ones that will be spicy
*whole grain flour tortilla (go for the Mission brand that have the highest fiber value) spread with cream cheese (or those nut butters from above) rolled up and then cut into slices
*cheese, any and all cheese
*beans - canned beans from soups will be nice and soft. All the daycare kids like to just eat the veggies and beef/chicken from the ready to eat canned soups. Buy the low sodium ones for any canned stuff.
*dried fruits like raisins, craisins, dried apples, apricots, etc.

Basically look for the most protein and fiber and think the opposite of someone wanting to lose weight, :)

Here's my 2 cents.

She's starving because you're filling her up with food instead of the nutrients her body needs in a huge way.

I'd make sure she's nursing as much as possible, it's not just a drink when she's thirsty okay?...lol. It's her main source of food. The other stuff is filler with no nutrition. She's starving.

Give her as much breastmilk as you can during the day. Cereal really does not have much nutrition in it. Sometimes babies that age are too busy or distracted to nurse a lot during the day and then make up for it at night.

My too also nursed during the night at that age so I do not think it is abnormal.

At this age, it's time to introduce other foods beside cereal and finger foods. Feeding at night at this age is telling you she needs more sustenance during the day . You can try oatmeal with mashed up fruits mixed in. I also made my own baby food at this stage- basically whatever we were eating (unless spicy) thrown into the processor and ground up. My little ones loved chicken and sweet potatoes, chicken pot pie, chicken and noodles, fruits/veggies mashed up, etc. If you mash it up and it's too thick, add a little water to thin it out. Also, pastas, like spaghetti and noodles are great at this age. Try foods one at a time to make sure there's no reaction. And prepare yourself for a mess-which is part of the fun.
It's important to wean off those night-time feedings. Anything other than water at night can lead to tooth decay- even breast milk.