growth spurt in older baby - how to deal with it!

[olivo]

my dd is 10 months and i am convinced she is having a growth spurt. last weekend, she started waking in the night once or twice and could only be settled with a feed. this is still going on - last night, she woke 4 times and twice i manged to get her to sleep for 45 mins with PUPD but the other two times, i had to feed her. she had 14 oz more than usual. she eats three good meals a day, a couple of snacks and has 3 x8oz bottles, morning, afternoon, and bed time (6.30 ish)

is this likely to be a growth spurt and do i just have to sit it out? she has a huge developmental leap in the last week, talking lots and pulling up and cruising. AM i doing the right thing feeding her if she seems to need it? that's a lot of milk each day!

Hi Olivo
I was just about to post about the same thing! My dd is 11months and for the past couple of weeks now she has been waking in the night and will not settle until she has had 6oz of milk! she is eating lots in the day too and the last 2 nights i've even given her a bit of porridge before her bedtime bottle! (i darent feed her anymore, she will burst!) she is still having an 8oz bottle mid morning and about 10oz before bed! I had been hoping to cut the moring bottle out by now but darent when she is hungry in the night!
Just like your dd she has just started crawling and cruising too so maybe they are just adjusting to using more energy? Sorry I cant be any help, hopefully someone else will be along soon with some answers for us!

hi llynnn - nice to know i'm not alone! had hoped this might pass in a few days but if yuor dd has been waking for a couple of weeks, maybe not!
i just cant believe she is taking so much extra milk - she cries every time she sees a bottle now!

my dd is the same as soon as she see's her bottle she wants it! There doesnt seem to be any filling her! I dont want her to get back into the habit of having a bottle in the night but she is really hungry for it in the night, and wont calm down until she has it!

can anyone help us??

I was going to post the same too!! DS3 seems to be having a spurt. He is moving a lot more so I guess he needs energy. I am bf and feel totally drained. He is having 6+ bf's a day plus 3 meals and desserts and occassional snacks (er, grabbing whatever he can see and troughing it.)

Maybe higher calorie food??

Honestly I think he is going to burst sometimes!!!

DS (now 3 yrs) had a spurt at around 10 months. It was a real shock having him go from mostly bm + 1 or 2 meals of finger food a day to not v much bm & 3 meals a day + snacks . It lasted a few weeks & then he went back to having loads of BM & not much food...really wierd!

I think its best to just follow their lead & ride a growth spurt out. DS has always slept stupidly well for a bf child & so its really obvious when he does have a spurt as he starts waking for a feed in the night again. He did just that about a month or so ago & so I just fed him whenever he woke & it lasted a few weeks or so & then he went back to sleeping again.

Last year when my dd was 10 months she was exactly the same, then a friend suggested giving her a bowl of Weetabix before bed and it worked a treat. She had been waking at 5 and the first day I started with the Weetabix she slept till 7 the next morning and every day after that. She would have a substantial tea at 5, then Weetabix and milk at about 6:15, then quite a big breastfeed before bed at 7. I couldn't believe she could consume so much within such a short space of time and was worried she'd be sick! But it worked really well and even now at 20 months she still has a snack before bed.

thanks! last night dd took 7 oz at 11pm and 8 oz at 3am - she woke at 6.30 as usual. will try the weetabix trick i think. i did wonder about reinstating her morning bottle which i dropped about a month ago - if she takes more in the day, will she need less at night?
llynnnn and iggle - let me know how it's going - i feel better for knowing i'm not alone!!

morning! well, last night dd slept straight through until 6.45!! i feel like a new woman!! I hope its not just a one off and that she is finally over the growth spurt and has settled down now! Think its lasted about 2 weeks, so hopefully that is it and she's back on track.
Just watch, I'll be back on tomorrow complaining that i've been up all night again!!
Olivo & iggle - hope you get some normality back v soon, keep me posted
x

that's good news llynnnn. fingers crossed it's back to normal (though not sure i can do another week of this!!)