7.5 mo old suddenly now wakes up starving in the middle of the night

[jneuvirth]

My 7.5 mo old daughter has slept through the night since about 10 weeks old.  She eliminated the dream feed on her own at around 5 months.  She also eliminated the cap-nap on her own a few weeks ago.  Her schedule WAS as follows (until recently):

7 am - 7:30 bottle
9:30 solids
10-11:30 nap
11:30 bottle
1:00 solids
2:30-4:00 nap
5:30 solids (cereal)
about 7:15 - bottle
7:30 sleep

In the last 1-2 weeks she has been waking up around 3-4 am , I let her go a long enough time that I know she isn't going back to sleep, and then I give her 2 ounces and she sucks it down like a vacuum.  One night, just out of curiosity, I gave her a 4 oz bottle and she sucked that down just as fast.  She is absolutely starving at this wake-up, and very mad when it's only a small bottle, but I refuse to increase it.

Anyway, how do I get more calories into her during the day?  She has never been a huge volume drinker.

Her morning bottle is usually 7-8 oz.  But the rest of the day she will usually take 5-6 oz. per bottle feeding, and the last feeding of the day, she will drink between 3-6 oz.  But never the whole thing.

I try by filling her up with cereal at 5:30, but she still seems very hungry.

Last night she actually woke up at 1 am crying for food, and I finally gave in at 1:30 with an offer of a full bottle.  She took 6 ounces and slept until around 7-7:15.

Should I try just giving her water in the middle of the night to cut out the nighttime calories?

HELP!

[teezee]

if she will take some water in the night - i say go for it! at times my lo will just want a drink if her mouth is dry (due to winter and heating..) and that does the trick. have you tried just settling in the crib? the day you gave her the extra oz in the night feeding - did she eat as well during the day?? also you may want to try to slowly wean off the night feed by slowly watering down the bottle little by little every few days, then she will naturally not be getting the extra calories at night and start taking more during the day.  she does not seem to be eating much at night though so it makes me wonder if maybe the A time in the morning should be shortened a bit?  it does seem a little long for a lo that age - my lo just recently started staying up 3 hrs and sometimes has a hard time getting there even now!  the morning A time 'should' be the shortest of the day.  the morning nap is seen as an extension of night sleep and 'should' be shorter than the pm nap.  at around that age, my lo started having night wakings and they weren't from hunger, but rather just needing routine tweaking..3 hrs at that time was too long for a total of naps throughout the day.  2 1/2 worked much better and cut out the wakings...now we are down to 2 hrs. every lo IS different, but i would definately start experimenting with the morning A time and see if it helps at all.

[tylersmommy]

It doesn't look to me like she's getting enough calories from formula during the day. Even if she eats tons of solids, it may not make a difference because they aren't filling in the same way as formula. When did you drop her to 3 bottles? 7.5 mo is pretty young to be on 3 bottles, especially if she doesn't take much at each feed. Honestly, I would add a 4th bottle back in when she wakes from her 2nd nap. I suspect she isn't getting enough calories late in the afternoon, as she has a 4.5 hr stretch between solid meals. if you look at her routine, she eats about every 2 hrs all day until afternoon rolls around. If you add in another bottle then, you can keep her solids meal where it is or move it up a bit (and give her a bit less cereal so she'll eat some of her bedtime bottle), and finish off with her bedtime bottle. Or you could move her solids meal up to right when she wakes from that nap in hopes that she'll take more at bedtime. Whatever change you make, give it several days to take effect. Hopefully that will solve it!