Help! 10 mo old now waking at night!

[charliesmom06]

Hi everyone,
After many months of sleepless nights, we finally thought we trained our little boy how to sleep through the night about 6 weeks ago.  Now, for the past 2 weeks, he has been waking once a night again and unable to settle himself back to sleep... we give him between 1-2 hours to do it himself, but we end up feeding him 3-4 ounces of milk to get him back to sleep as I think he may be hungry.  He is eating a good amount of solids during the day, but we have trouble getting him to drink enough liquids.  It seems like he is truly hungry, but based on his high solid intake during the day I would think he could make it through the night even though he is probably only getting about 13-16 ounces of milk a day.  He drinks hardly any water or juice.  We try many times a day for him to drink more, but he always seems too distracted/uninterested.
Here is his typical day:

8am- wake and 3-4 oz bottle
9am- breakfast of oatmeal and fruit
10am- nap for about 1 1/2-2 hrs
Noon- 2-3 oz bottle
1pm- lunch of veggies, cheese, fruit, cereal
3pm- nap for about  1 1/2-2 hrs
4:30- 2-3 oz bottle
6pm- dinner of meat, cereal, fruit, veggies
7:30pm- bottle and bath
8pm- bed

He has been waking between 3 and 4am the last few weeks.  Does anyone have any insight as to why this may be happening and suggestions for us?  We have tried pick up/put down for a few hours and he never seems to settle.  I do not think he is teething as I don't see any teeth coming through and he doesn't seem to be bothered at all during the day.

Thank you so much for your help!

[Lizziebeth]

Hi there, just a thought but I'm wondering if perhaps he needs slightly less solids so that he can take more milk during the day.   It sounds a bit like he's full up on solids so that he's not interested in drinking milk but is then waking in the night to make up for the lost calories in the day.  In turn, the night feed is then putting him off his morning feed.

I hope the mods will correct me if I'm wrong ... but I think at this age, they are supposed to still get most of their daytime calories from milk (around 16-20oz).

Your mid-morning and mid-afternoon milk feeds look good but I wonder if you were to cut back on solids at dinnertime, then it could encourage him to take a good milk feed at bedtime and hopefully make it through the night.

HTH

[¤ Efka ¤]

I would slightly disagree about solids and milk. At this age my son had about same routine for feeds. But I have heard that at this age some babies still need some milk during the night.
And some babies just generally drink less milk.
Other thing to consider is where do you give him his milk? Maybe quiet room without distraction would help?

[KathrynK]

Looking at your routine I would suggest that perhaps he needs slightly less daytime sleep- some night wakings in older babies are due to too much daytime sleep, especially when they are awake for an extended period in the night. I would suggest limiting both naps to 1.5 hrs max and see if that helps with the night wakings. I had a similar period with dd around this age and she too would tend to go back to sleep after some milk. It wasn't the hunger that was the cause of the waking, but let's face it, if mummy comes along with some yummy milk when she's had nothing to eat or drink since before bed she's not going to say no thanks, is she?! I would guess this is the case with your lo-  the hunger may not be the cause of the waking.
Also one way to encourage him to drink more may be to drop a bottle- which sounds bizarre, I know. If you were to combine the 2 bottles in the middle of the day, I would perhaps move lunch forward to 12 noon and give the bottle before the nap. Quite often you find that he is more hungry for the milk as he's had none since waking, and takes more than the current 2 bottles combined. This was certainly the case with dd- she went from 2 x 3 oz bottles to 1 x 9oz! Many babies are on 3 bottles at 10 mo, we made the change at 9mo. He may then also take more water with meals as he may be thirstier.
If you do decide to limit his naps you may need to give it a while before you see his night sleep settling as a result.
hope this helps
Kathryn

[charliesmom06]

So would you recommend giving him his second bottle around 1pm after lunch and his third bottle after supper but before bed?  Is the 4 hr EASY routine pretty much finished by this age?
Thank you so much for your suggestions!

[Isabella's Mummy (Lilab4)]

Not sure if this will help, but my LO is the same age and her day looks like this:

7.30 wake
8.00 Milk (4-8oz)
8.30 Solids (ready brek, fruit, toast)
10.00 snack of fruit / cheese
10.30 1 - 1 1/2 hr nap
12.30 solids (varies, but if she has a jar, she will also have yogurt and fruit)
2.30 milk (6oz, but this bottle is sometime refused)
3.00 nap (1 1/2 hrs)
4.30 - 5.00 solids (same as lunch - she also picks at our food when we eat a little later)
6.30 bath
7.00 bottle (7oz , story, clean teeth and bed for the night)

I think maybe your LO is getting a bit too much daytime sleep, I usually try and stick to 3 hrs  max a day unless she is sick.

Isabella also has lots of solids and sometimes doesn't want much milk, but this doesn't (touch wood) seem to affect her night.

Hope things improve for you soon

Lila  xx

[KathrynK]

that looks like a good routine lilab has posted there. Let us know how you get on