8month old wakes up every one and half hours

[Daisy8680]

last two nights were terrible as DD was up every two hours before midnight and every hour after 3am. I didn't change her routine at all. Would she be hungry at night? I used to feed her twice but those two nights I feed her three times. However, in the daytime, after her formula feed, she would be hungry again around 1 hour and half later. She doesn,t like her milk as she would only take half of her formula in the morning. So I am confused as whether she is hungry or just tired of her formula. Should I try to offer her more formula or just give her solids instead? I am worried that she only take 8oz formula in the daytime and around 5-6oz during the night, which is way less than 24oz of minimum milk intake for her age.

[Bex09]

Up until one year old milk is still the main source of food, with solids being more about getting them used to new tastes, textures, etc. has your DD always been fussy with her milk? I doubt that she is fed up with it, but I guess it could happen. Have you tried offering more solids? Is she doing well with them and interested in eating more?

At a guess I would suspect something else is going on here. Any teething going on ATM? My DD always goes off her milk and food when teething or if she is coming down with an illness. The frequent NW could well be from pain of teeth too yk?

[Daisy8680]

she takes her solids well. Actually she prefers solids than formula now. This morning, she would not finish her 5oz milk (left around 1 and half oz in the bottle) but took around 2oz solids. Yesterday I tried to give her only formula when she was hungry but she would not take it at all. Should I starve her so that she would take more formula?

Another question is for her night feedings. I suspect that because I am not consistent with her nighttime wakings, sometimes feed her and sometimes pupd. So she is confused. But I don.t want to cut out nf because she doesn,t take enough milk during the day. How could I nf and at the same time make her sleep longer? I post her daytime routine below and could you see if any problem with that?

Wake up: 6:30am
E: 7:30 5oz formula (left 1 and half oz) and 2 oz solids at 8:30
A: 6:30 to 9:20
S: 9:20 to 10:50
E: 11:20 2 oz formula and 5 oz solids at 12:30pm
A: 10:50 to 2:15
S: 2:15 to 3:45
E: 4:15 5oz formula (left 2oz) and 4.5 oz solids at 5:30
A: 3:45 to 7:20
BT: 7:20.

Woke up every two hours. Fed her upon waking at 9:45pm and 2:40am. Should I cut out 2:40 feedng?

[Bex09]

Will be back later when I have longer to look at your routine hun. Just wanted to say though that as long as your DD is getting food (solids or milk) then don't worry too much, if she prefers solids then go with that. You can't force her to drink milk and she will take what she wants. Certainly don't starve her to try to get her to drink more milk though.

[Bex09]

Ok hun looking at your EASY it looks pretty good, only thing that I do wonder is if the last A time to BT is a little long at just over 3.5 hrs. Average for an 8 mo is 3 hrs and 3.5 hrs for a 9 mo. Just thinking that this might be making your DD OT by BT causing the frequent NW. Have you tried an earlier BT, say 7pm?

As for feeding in the night I agree that it is probably a good way of getting more milk into your DD so if you are happy to still feed in the night by all means carry on. Do you not feed your DD milk before BT? I wonder if she would take a bottle as part of your WD routine (not feeding to sleep!) but so that she has a fill before bed. My DD always had, and still does have milk before bed.

In terms of confussing your DD it is important to be consistent yes, but if you choose a time that you will not feed before and use PU/PD until this time then your DD will soon understand that if she does wake before that time she won't get fed. So if her last feed is at 7pm, you could decide not to feed before midnight, for example, and then not again before 5am. Or whatever times you think are appropriate, if you only want to do one NF you could maybe not feed before 1am and then not again until morning. Only you can decide this really. What is important is that for the other NW you use shush/pat or PU/PD to resettle your DD. Does that make sense?

[Daisy8680]

I will try limit her last A before BT around 3hrs tonight and see how it goes. I do feed her before BT but she doesn,t take much in that feeding. For now, for her nw, I just need to pupd once if she cries and she can put herself back to sleep. How can I let her not to wake up at all?

[Bex09]

All you can do is keep being consistent with the PU/PD and she will eventually get the message hun. You are making great progress and once your DD can self settle on her own without needing the PU/PD then hopefully the NW will stop.

[Daisy8680]

Thank you for the great advice. I will keep working on it and hopefully DD will stop her nw soon.

[Bex09]

Good luck and keep us posted.