Should I feed at night again??

[wheresthebeef]

DS is 7 months old and is FF and for the past month has not had a feed between 7pm and 7am the next morning. He has never been a good sleeper, and although he did go through a brief (blissful) period between 4 and 5 months of waking only once in the night for a feed, he quickly reverted back to pre-bliss habits of waking many times in the night. I have previously tried dreamfeeding without much success of extending his sleep, Not too long ago I also gave him a bottle at about 1am over a few nights but he never drank more than half to 2/3 of the bottle, and I concluded that he was probably not waking from hunger. He is up sometimes 6,7, or 8 times a night. He used to slip back into sleep with re-insertion of his dummy, but now when he wakes, often I find the dummy is still in his mouth!!!!!! And he's still crying!!!! I'm wondering if I should re-introduce a feed at some point in the night to see if maybe he is hungry, but I'm really afraid of accidentally starting a habit of him wanting to be fed in the night if he really doesn't need to. Also, it's very possible that he is teething as he cut his first 2 bottom teeth at 5.5 months.
Anyone have any experience of anything like this? Should I give him a bottle at 2am???

[ThatsNotMyBabyBelly]

I wouldn't, I would offer cooled boiled water as I doubt he is hungry at that age. Certainly wouldn't presume it was hunger anyway if that makes sense. I know mine get very easily into the pattern of waking and having me go to them before going back to sleep, but your ds might not be as unscrupulous as mine

Have you tried some ibruprofen before he goes to bed if it might be teeth? It is much more effective than paracetomol for tooth pain.

[Iggly]

Well DS went through phases - sometimes he was hungry at night, other times not. Depends on growth spurts and whether he'd eaten much in the day or if he was ill so had to catch up on food at night.
So you can try a feed and see what happens. You can always gradually reduce it again!