5mo night feeding - thirsty?

6 replies

fraktious · 01/10/2011 07:54

DS used to go a fair while at night but lately it's been 2 hours stretches and rocking/shushing won't settle him. It coincided with us putting the aircon on to bring the room down to a bearable temp and that makes the air very dry so I wonder if he's thirsty? I know I am and babies dehydrate faster.

We co-sleep (bedside cot) so access to boob is easy but I'm wondering about offering him water so he takes his calories during the day and then night waking for food doesn't become an ingrained habit.

It's really starting to mess up his sleep and because he's bobbing on/bobbing off I'm worried he's starting to use me as a human pacifier to help him get to sleep - his daytime sleep is noticeably worse which makes me wonder whether the lack of boob is making it difficult for him.

OP posts:

RitaMorgan · 01/10/2011 08:27

Is he on solids yet?

Does he not feed during the day? Maybe he is making up for it at night.

Do you feed him to sleep usually? I found my ds slept better once I stopped feeding to sleep.

Original poster

fraktious · 01/10/2011 08:39

We're going to try him on solids today - he's 23 weeks but showing all the signs for BLW so we figure give him some carrot to play with and if he eats then he eats and we're off, if he doesn't he's not ready and it's not a problem.

I do fees to sleep at night I quite like it but I can see how it's not helping, although it won't make giving up easier.

He seems to eat well during the day. He takes anywhere between 5 and 7 oz of EBM when I'm at work and usually both sides when I'm around.

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DitaVonCheese · 01/10/2011 08:43

Sounds like 4 month sleep regression to me.

Original poster

fraktious · 01/10/2011 08:49

Well dita we went through that (and it was bad) and it got better when he was rolling and sitting and then it worsened again, either the cumulative effect me going back to work or the aircon I think.

OP posts:

RitaMorgan · 01/10/2011 08:51

Maybe he is making up for the comfort of breastfeeding if you're at work during the day rather than the calories?

There's nothing wrong with feeding to sleep while it works for both of you. I did get to the point at about 5 months where it didn't work for us though, as every time ds woke a little in the night he needed to feed back to sleep (at least every 2 hours too!). So I stopped feeding to sleep at bedtime and DP rocked then ssh-patted, which meant he could also be rocked or patted back to sleep in the night. We also had a bedside cot and moved ds into his own room at this point. Managed to get feeds down to 2 a night with DP patting him at any wakings in between, and ds soon stopped waking in between feed times.

mancinleics · 01/10/2011 08:53

Teething and wants comfort? My 5MO DD was waking and feeding every 2 hours at night last week and after much head scratching we've pinpointed this. A bit of dentinox on her gums at bedtime seems to have helped and we're back on one night BF and two stirrings for a cuddle.

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