1 year old waking in the night hungry

[CathyandHeathcliff]

I stopped breastfeeding my DS two months ago, he instigated it. He used to wake regularly for feeds but since I stopped feeding him, his sleep got much better.

Now the last week or so he’s been waking really crying and won’t settle for hours. Last night we had 1:30am, 2:30am, 3am, 3:30am and 4am. Eventually he slept but was after 4. Then we had to be up at 6am for work, he was up by then anyway, crying again. So we gave him his usual morning formula and his breakfast and he was right as rain. So by process of elimination (I had already given him baby nurofen in the night in case it was his teeth and it made no difference).

He has a really big appetite and eats loads during the day. In the evening he has a decent dinner, last night he had fish pie with cheese on top, followed by a baby lolly I made myself by freezing a yogurt. Would rice pudding or banana be better and more filling?
Those that do feed their one year olds at night (and aren’t breastfeeding) do you give formula or just cows milk? I was hoping to move to cows milk ASAP, once this tub of formula is finished, we haven’t got much left.

Any advice welcomed.

[LeGrandBleu]

Do you give a bottle right before bed? sometimes it helps.
And of course cow milk is absolutely fine.

[surreygirl1987]

My son is 12 months and seems to be going though some sort of annoyinf sleep regression where he wakes screaming and just wants to play? Are you positive it's hunger?

[Snowpaw]

I have a hungry 11.5 month old and I give her evening meal at 5pm (main course followed by fruit or yoghurt) then at 6.30 I give her 6 ounces formula and sometimes even a small bowl of porridge as well if she seems hungry still. Sleeps at 7pm and generally sleeps till 1.30, quick shush and hug (no milk) at that time then sleeps till 4.30ish. At that time I do give her some formula. Then up at 7.30. I figure by 4.30ish she’s gone 10 hours since last having anything so seems fair to me that she will be legitimately hungry, and it settles her down. Cows milk would be fine at that age. A bottle of milk in the night sounds like it might help you all get the most sleep! theyre growing such a lot and I reckon it’s no bad thing.

[MeadowHay]

Are you sure he's hungry? I'm struggling to understand why you didn't just offer milk after a few wake ups to see? That would give you your answer. FWIW DD often goes through phases of horrible screaming night waking now and then and always has. If she won't settle for a long time or continues to wake constantly we always offer a bottle (although it's been a few months since she had one in the night, we would offer in a sippy cup now instead). Its very rare that she's ever drank more than an ounce or two and often especially around your DC's age it was just refused outright, so the waking definitely wasn't hunger or thirst. Also we always offer water first in our hirerarchy of things to do to try and settle them on a bad night, have you offered water?

[AllesAusLiebe]

We have the same issue here with night waking and I'm positive that it's not hunger.

My DS has a meal at around 4pm, then a bowl of muesli before bed at 6:45pm. He's very good at night, however, the last few weeks have been tough with him waking almost HOURLY from 2am.

I wondered whether it was either due to the change in the weather (I live in the north and it's quite cold here at the moment). Could he be becoming cold at night?

Maybe give some breakfast cereal just before bed? At least this will eliminate the query of hunger. Good luck! I'm so frustrated by mine and his erratic sleep at the moment - it's tough.