Hungry four month old waking in the night

[sorchaocleirigh]

I started feeding baby rice to my four month old son last week on the advice of the public health nurse - he is 18lbs (more than 8 kilo) and just hungry all the time. The thinking was that the baby rice would fill his tummy.

He is still waking up twice in the night and I am utterly exhausted.

He also won't take a bottle - I've tried Avent, Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature and Nuk. I don't mind breastfeeding him but I would really like to fill his tank enough to get him to sleep 5 hours in a row. He was doing this for a good few weeks but now it's bed at 9.30pm or so (I then go to bed too), and then up at 1.30am, 3am, 5.30am, etc. It's killing me.

I was thinking that formula would fill him up more and that as he likes the taste of baby rice that it's the bottle he doesn't like. I don't want to give up breastfeeding - I breastfed my daughter until she was a year - but I need to sleep.

Should I introduce more solid food feeds as well? What about weaning directly to a cup?

I've tried to give him expressed milk - and so has my husband, mother and a babysitter (who works at a creche) and it's either been an epic battle or just plain failure.

Help please!

you poor thing! have you tried a cup? my DD was a bit like that, she took a bottle, but would wake quite a lot during the night, the advice i got was putting them to bed at about 7 with a big feed, i gave her a bit of rice around half 5 for dinner, then i used to feed her at about 10 half ten, while still asleep, i didnt wake her, she wasnt even aware of being up and out her cot, but she just fed away, still asleep then straight back to bed and slept till 7am peacefully!
why dont you try the bottle of formula at about half ten when he is asleep and he maybe wont know the difference? xx

Thanks glasgowmandy, I will try that. I haven't tried a cup yet - I bought the Tommee Tippee first cup on the advice of the nurse but haven't used it. I thought that maybe introducing the spoon and the cup in the one week would be too much. But I will try your suggested schedule.

I will try anything.

it is hard isnt it, i never breastfed so i dont really know about weaning from breast to bottle or anything, i just know that when i feed DD at 10 half ten, she dosnt even know shes feeding, and i manage to get a good 7oz int her without her knowing lol, then she goes straight back to bed,
just be as quiet as you can, hopefully baba will just feed from the bottle thinking its the breast.
i have the tomee tipee first cup, it is ok but just watch because it comes out really quickly! hope things get better, let me know how you get on xx

At 4 months most babies go through a sleep regression. Filling your baby up is only likely to make him uncomfortable and is certainly not guaranteed to get you more sleep. Bear in mind that babies are 'designed' to wake frequently.

Is it possible for you to co-sleep/'sidecar' the cot? I find it's the only thing that keeps me sane because I don't need to wake properly to feed.

Just seen your response in Weaning about co-sleeping ;) if you can't do that as you say, do look into removing a side from the cot and pushing it against the bed... all you need to do then is roll your DS over, boobs at th ready , feed and roll back.

Thanks for the advice - I'm not trying to force the food down, really, My daughter is nine and I can't remember what we went through with her at four months...

He's at the foot of the bed so it's not so much trouble to get him out to feed, it's just that I thought we were past this and I hadn't heard of the four month sleep regression before.

Fingers crossed for better nights to come!

I have the same thing, my son is enormous lol! He is 5 months and still wakes twice at night, its perfectly normal and I wouldnt advise baby rice cereal at any age, its empty calories and the nutrients from your milk is all he needs. He is probably going through a growth spurt and needs to feed more often, hopefully wont last too long, I know how tiring it is! (and my other 2yr old ds is currently waking in the night at the moment!)
I can only suggest as the others have and keep him in bed with you, its the way to more sleep in my case anyway!