Help needed - Baby started waking in the night - time for solids?

[merrykittymas]

DD nearly 20 weeks usually sleeps from 11-7am. For the past 3 nights she's been waking at around 4am and having a feed then having another one again at 8. During the day she has a feed every 3-4 hours so the last few days I've been putting her to the boob more frequently in case it's a growth spurt.

Do you think she is ready for solids, she's small for her age and was nearly 3 weeks early. On the one hand theres the wait until 6 months argument yet on the other most babies of her age and under have already started weaning. I'm so confused over it and swing from yes we will start to no we will wait. I said I would wait until I got the signs for her is this waking her needing something more than milk?

Also don't know if this is related but she's recenlty became a nightmare at feeding she bites my nipples and they are sore! She'll feed for a while as normal then she bob on and off and bite my nipples with her gums. When she does it I say no and take her off the boob for a minute.

Could she be teething? I think biting and waking are definite symptoms. As for solids, does she seem hungrier during the day as well? We've just been through the same decision-making process with our 20 week old baby and it's a tough one!

Hi merrykittymas,
I recently started solids with DS at 15 weeks because he had slept through for almost a month, then started waking 2-3 times a night. He was on SMA gold then, so I put him on white and the problem stopped, but soon he was finishing 9oz and asking for more (he was breast and bottle fed at the time, so I could give him a bit more from the boob).
Other signs that he was ready were that he would watch everything that we ate with great interest and everything started to go in his mouth.
My HV said that we could start on baby rice before he was 4 months, but to hold off on fruit/veg until 4 months. He has gobbled everything we have given him, so he was definately ready.
You could try a little baby rice once a day and see how it goes. If she's not ready she will probably spit it out.
Hope this helps - the weaning debate is a nightmare, I think you have to just go on what your daughter needs as an individual.

I don't know if she's teething I can't feel anything but she grabs everything and eats it but I thought that was just a developmental phase.

She's about the same during the day she's always been a really fast feeder 10 minutes and she turns her head away but now she does this bobbing on and off and biting my nipples , it hurts :(

Well, it could be a growth spurt, or it could be that something other than hunger is waking her up (cold? noise?).

It could also be that she needs more food now, but that's not necessarily a reason to start solids. Ds started solids at about 20 weeks (he was waking 4 or 5 times a night and I was desperate), but since then I've read a lot more about it and it does seem like a good idea to wait until closer to 6 months.

Ds also did the biting and generally messing about thing you describe. with hindsight, I think he usually did this when he wasn't all that hungry - he didn't do it so much when his feeds were spaced out more for whatever reason. I found that feeding him when he was tired helped too!

At least leave it a few days before you decide.

Hi,
when DS was about that age i started to give him baby rice at tea time, mixed with breast milk, initially he only took maybe 2 tsps, thats all. He too was small for his age and was 3 weeks early.
We felt that this was mild enough to start with and certainly didnt do him any damage/harm.
How about trying some nipple shields?
I know it is difficult isnt it to know what to do about the weening buisiness as you want so much to stick to expert advice. However, if you feel that she is ready for more than just the breast then go for it, you know your baby best.
HTH, good luck.