Puzzled by 14.5 month old's nighttime eating

[afeswick]

Good morning ladies,

So some of you may have already seen my posts related to my DS's sleep (and my lack thereof).  During the last week we've managed to get him to sleep in his crib the whole night, and only need to touch him and ssssh for him to lay back down and go back to sleep when he wakes at night.  He's always woken at least once to eat, and I was going to start getting serious about night-weaning.

Then.....on Tuesday he's had a huge appetite, eating absolutely tonnes of food, even an hour before bed.  He woke in the middle of the night for 8 oz of food, and still wanted more.  Same on Wed, except this time he had eaten twice at night.  Last night, he went to bed with an absolutely stuffed belly, then drank 4oz to bed (our routine is to let him have a bottle and rock him before bed), then woke two hours later to finish the bottle (4oz), then woke a few hours later famished and had 8 more oz, then woke a few hours later and had 6oz.  We had JUST gotton into the good habit of managing to get him to resettle without food, and if he really wants a bottle he'll stand, point, throw things out of his crib and won't settle at all until we give him one.

So my question is this: first of all, is there something wrong with him to eat so much all of a sudden? I mean, I've heard of growth spurts, but this seems ridiculous.  He ate TWO suppers last night.  Should I try to just give him water or watered down formula so that he doesn't start transitioning all his feeding/caloric consumption to nights? Do you think this nighttime feeding is reinforcing waking up to eat? How long will this last? Why do none of the books talk about a growth spurt in the 2nd year?

I know this is unlikely, but I'm starting to panic that he has a tapeworm or something is wrong with him.

What do you ladies think? Should I just run with it for the next few days since he does seem to be famished at night?

[afeswick]

Nobody has any advice?

[firsttimemummy]

I remember someone saying to me, when DS woke in night and I wondered if he was hungry, that even adults would love a nice snack in the middle of the night, even though they don't need it.

We used to give DS water in a bottle at night when he woke (Mum says we were all 6 weeks old when she stopped night-time feeds, so I am pretty sure that by a year a LO can manage without food in the night, even if they would take it when offered).

Not sure about growth spurts but my DS honestly can spend some days where he eats constantly (he is now big enough to go and get his food supplies from the cupboard!!) - one day I was making my packed lunch for work and DS was going to a friend's for the day .... he had much more food for me for the same time period (and I know he will have shared some of his friend's food too!!)- and I eat quite a lot!!!

Make sure he is eating lots in the day, maybe even having supper, so you are reassured he wont starve in the night.  To be honest, even on the RARE days that DS doesn't eat his dinner he wont waken earlier the next  day (he has just turned 2 but I don't remember him ever wakening due to hunger from day before).

Hugs