To give 4 and a half month old porridge

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My DD is 4 and a half month old. She wakes 3 times during the night to feed. I offer her 5 ounce and she drinks 4 - 4.5, so she truly is waking to feed. I have been told that mixing some baby porridge in with formula before bedtime will help her sleep longer. However now a days your advised to wait until 6 month to give baby any sort of food, but baby porridge says 4 month+ on packaging.

Dunno what to do for the best. WWYD? Let baby wake for feeds or try and fill up more before sleep?

throw thankyou for that info... I managed to track down the original paper:

bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/3/5/e002299.full.pdf

Very interesting reading....

everything else I have read on the topic suggests that in the absence of the known risk factors (smoking, drinking, low birth weight, sofa sharing, prone position etc) there is no statistical difference in SIDS rates for bedsharing and roomsharing (in a cot) infants. In fact I remember one reference which actually found a positive protective relationship of besharing.

It's interesting that for 3/5 data sets the information about mothers alcohol intake and drug use was missing and filled in with a predictive statistical model, but otherwise the research looks robust.

Very interesting.

I still maintain - as does that piece of research - that cosleeping (ie room sharing) for the first 6 months halves the risk of SIDS.

I realize this thread is not about that, but like someone else said, the OP is obviously someone who cares for her baby deeply and wants to do the right thing. So I think it's only right to highlight that for her so she is making an informed choice

Not sure what your point is. None of that research negates what I'm saying. But it's interesting so thank you for sharing.

I was just trying to say/show you that I'd not read any research saying that - but obviously then you linked to the study

OP I meant to add as others have said that there is a major sleep regression and growth spurt at 4 months.... waking frequently for feeds is still very normal at this age and not an indicator that baby is ready for solids. Just continue to feed on demand

These months are hard work and tiring. It gets better

Just found this interesting response from UNICEF to the 2013 BMJ article....

www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/08/UNICEF_UK_statement_bed_sharing_research_210513.pdf

Sorry, I'll stop spamming now I just find this topic so fascinating!

The multivariable risk associated with bed-sharing in the absence of these hazards was not significant overall (OR = 1.1 [95% CI: 0.6–2.0]), for infants less than 3 months old (OR = 1.6 [95% CI: 0.96–2.7]), and was in the direction of protection for older infants (OR = 0.1 [95% CI: 0.01–0.5])

More recent study funded by the lullaby trust ^^

journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0107799

Ok i promise I'll stop posting now!!

(I'm off to bed - I'm 5 hours behind the uk)

Sorry for derailing your thread OP. Hope you had a better night. My 5.5 month old's sleep has improved a lot in the last week or so, as others have mentioned the 4 month sleep regression / growth spurt can be very long. Hang in there!

Hi, DD refused her bottle when I tried to give it at 11:30pm. I was still awake in bed for a while so I went back in at 12:40am and she drank her usual amount. She then slept until 5am. Last night was a good night. Thanks for everybody's advice

Oh just remembered I did a NC coz the other name was rubbish haha. I am the OP of the thread

Ahh that’s great then!
Glad you are ok. These threads often get a bit judgey but hopefully you’re ok.

People often forget that anecdotal ‘what I used to do was...’ type posts aren’t always helpful, particularly to first time parents who perhaps don’t have wider family support a the drop of a hat to ask.

When I trained to be a breastfeeding support volunteer, it was a real effort to begin with not being anecdotal. That’s why our training included birth and breastfeeding debriefs; to offload all of our baggage so we could then start afresh and use well-researched, non biased information.

Their top tip was never ‘give advice’. Give support that’s always backed up with research.

It’s a good way for parents to get good info as well....always check with research (nhs/unicef/breastfeeding network etc) so that you can then go back to your partner/mother in law/friend etc with a leaflet or current statistics and say actually, I’ve found this so I’m good thanks”.

Please don't. Far to little. Just because others have done so and been fine means nothing.
You could end up in a and e with a very yellowed skin seriously poorly little baby.
It's not worth the risk.

Thank you verbena