Please help!!!! Multiple night wakings - maybe is time for solids?

[macosta]

Hi my dear friends!!! I need your help so badly. My husband and I are extremely tired and we don't really know what to do.

Our 6 month old baby went from being such a wonderful sleeper (8PM to 8AM straight!!) to waking up several times at night (usually goes to bed at 8Pm, and then he wakes up at 11Pm, then at 2 Am and then at 5AM). This started to happen like two weeks ago and he seems to be hungry when he wakes up. I don't fed him because I don't want to create a bad habit but I am SO worried he might not be getting enough food.

He is a big boy (~19 lbs) - very good eater and I supplement with Formula. I would say he is now getting ~32OZs per day. I started to give him rice cereal once a day a week ago, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.  What is going on?

I have no clue how many oz of liquid vs solids should I give him. When you start with solids, does the 2.5oz per pound rule still applies? If so, does it means that my son should be getting 40 ozs of food (solids + liquids)??

After reading the baby whisperer, I came up with the following schedule (please take a look and let me know if it makes any sense. I don't want to overfeed my baby!!!)

Please give me your input - I am desperate!!! Thanks in advance

6:30AM   wake up and breastfeed!!
7:00AM   Activity
8:00AM   Breakfast - Solids (1 jar  - 2.5 oz)
8:30AM Nap
10:30AM   Breast or bottle feed
11:00AM   Activity
12:00PM   Lunch - Solids (1 jar - 2.5 oz)
12:30PM   Nap
2:30PM   Breast or bottle feed
3:30PM   Activity
4:30PM   Dinner - Solids (1 jar - 2.5oz)
7:00PM   Breast or bottle feed
7:30PM   Activity (Bath)
8:00PM   sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SallyDom]

Sounds like you've got a hungry little boy that needs a bit more solids. I am by no means an expert (but I am sure someone else will reply soon). I don't know where I saw it but somewhere on here I saw someones 6 month feeding routine and it was something like:
7am wake: bottle (or breastfeed in your case)
8am breakfast: cereal (made with formula/breast milk)
11am bottle/breastfeed
12pm lunch: yoghurt and fruit
3pm bottle/breastfeed
4.30 dinner: meat and veges
7pm bedtime bottle/breastfeed

It was something like this and obviously you need to introduce foods carefully to ensure no reactions etc. but this is what I follow just about with Dominic who is now 28 weeks old and he seems happy with it. I find it great to see other people's routines and then adapt them to how it suits us. How fantastic if your little one slept til 8am, I'm sure once he settles into eating more he'll sleep till that time again. We're struggling to get Dom to sleep past 6am at the moment (though poorly and teething so hopefully getting better now)
HTH
Sal
x

[*Natasha*]

How long have you been on this routine? Introducing solids is not the answer to night waking i am sorry. Looking at your routine their is a big awake time from the last nap to bedtime and i think your LO is waking at night due to being overtired. If i read your routine right their is a 5.5hr awake time before bedtime which is way to long and something even my 14month old would struggle with. I would either bring bedtime forward or give a 45mins catnap around 5pm to get through until bedtime if you want to keep it at 8pm. That is alot of solids at this age especially for a bub that has only been on it a week. Perhaps the solids you are giving is upsetting the tummy and causing the night waking? What have you introduced so far?

[macosta]

Well, I haven't implemented this routine with solids yet. I was just trying to come up with one to use as reference. So far I have only given him rice cereal once a day (in the morning) - I started a couple of weeks ago but it doesn't seem to make a difference - he seems to be hungry. Don't you agree it's time for him to start solids? He weighs ~20lbs and is giving me all the theoretical signs.

Now I have no clue how many oz of liquid vs solids should I give him. When you start with solids, does the 2.5oz per pound rule still applies? If so, does it means that my son should be getting 40 ozs of food (solids + liquids)??  Do you have any suggestions?


By the way, before starting giving  him rice cereal, he was on a 4 hour easy routine that looked like this. I know there is a long time between his last nap and bedtime, but I just could never get him to take a catnap in the afternoon.
7:30AM   wake up and BF
8:00AM   Activity   
9:30AM nap   
11:30AM   BF or Bottle feed!!   
12:00AM   Activity
1:30PM   nap   
3:30PM   eat   
4:00PM   Activity
6:00PM   eat   
6:30PM    Activity
8:00PM   eat   
8:20PM   bath
8:40PM   go ot bed   

Thanks for your help!!!!!!!!!!

[*Natasha*]

No that is fine to start solids i though you were following that routine already in regards to solids At this stage start out with one meal either after the morning feed or late morning feed around lunch time. No solids isn't a quick fix to stopping early waking or night waking. As for quantities of solids an few tablespoons at each meal is fine at this stage otherwise anymore may start interferring with milk intake which at this age should be between 26-32ozs a day. I definatly think the earlier wake time is due to being overtired at night. At 6months my DD was only on 2 naps a day as she ALWAYS hated the catnap so i know how you feel. Your old routine looks great but i would bring bedtime forward to perhaps 7.30pm instead. So when solids are established for all meals your day could look like this:

7:30AM   wake up and BF
8:30AM   Solids 
9:30AM nap   
11:30AM   BF or Bottle feed!!   
12:30PM   Solids
1:30PM   nap   
3:30PM   eat   
4:30PM   Solids
6:00PM   eat   
6:30PM    bath
7:00PM   eat if you want to do a top up before bed 
7:30PM   go ot bed

HTH
 

[becky1969]

It's possible you've hit the 6 month growth spurt. We had a pretty major one then, and my LO woke for a feed for 3 nights (I went ahead and fed him) then was done. Your LO may very well be hungry. I'd increase liquids during the day, rather than solids, as they have more calories per oz. With solids, you'll introduce pretty slowly, 1 food at a time, and your LO probably won't take more than 2 Tbs of any one food for awhile. Some babies tolerate solid introductions better than others, but you'll want to go slow just in case. Increasing BM or formula during the day will stave off the hunger better! And my guess is it may be a temporary growth spurt.

by the way, at that age my LO was 21 lbs, but was only eating 1 Tbs of solids 2 times/day. So I also had a heft little guy! His formula intake was right at 40 oz. at that age.

[hersheycolemans]

Wow, what an eater! My grandmother says that's a sign of a healthy baby, though!

Does he have any teeth yet? I started my lo on pureed vegetables at about 7 months, but maybe he's ready now. My babe was most satisfied by pureed brocolli with a little bit of shredded cheese and some plain rice cereal added in with milk to pack some extra calories and vitamins.

The other thing that helped her sleep more soundly through the night was to make sure she got a short catnap in at around 4pm (I read this in Tracey's book). It should last no longer than 45 minutes and wake him if you have to. By incorporating a catnap, it bumps dinner later (and closer to bedtime ) then you can offer a bottle once more right at bedtime. It helped our babe out - I hope you can find some help with this. Best of luck.