3am waking -any suggestions?

[PoisonedApple]

Hello All, wondered if you might be able to help... My 5 1/2 month old has slept through sporadically since about 3 months but is now regularly waking at 3am, at first whinging a bit then talking to herself then full on crying until about 5 am.

I have tried shush patting which calms her for a short while (enough for me to think hah! Finally and start to drop off and then she starts again). In desperation I gave her a bottle 2 nights ago which she ate but then wouldn't touch her 7am bottle.

I am giving her small bits of food (honey banana porridge) but I'm not convinced she is ready for real food as she is just tasting with her tongue and then pushing it out.

I don't want to get in the habit of feeding at 3 but leaving her to cry with intervals of shushing doesnt seem to work.

She has a dream feed at 10.30pm.

Any help much appreciated as have zero help and a toddler and I'm very very very tired!

Just one quick thing - honey isn't suitable for babies under 12 months due to the risk of botulism.

Have her daytime naps changed at all? Have you increased her milk feeds - maybe it is just hunger so what she's having just isn't quite enough to see her through now?

There's one bit of advice I've heard which is that if your baby regularly wakes at the same time you can sort of pre-empt it by rousing her a little bit beforehand then shushing back to sleep. I've never tried it as I've been scared my son would just wake up, but someone else might have experience of it!

Oh no! Thank you so much for telling me about the honey! Naps are the same, not sure if I want to wake her up either but I'll give anything a go...

honestly at that age I'd be feeding her, she may well be hungry. there's a growth spurt at around 6 months so this may be why. if you don't want two night feeds you could try dropping the dream feed (which would mean you could go to bed earlier).

once she's properly established on solids including protein etc you can then look to cut out night feeds.

Feed her something proper before bedtime, baby porridge or mushed up banana, pot of yogurt. She sounds hungry at 3.00am, this would probably push her through or at least then at 3.00 you could just give her milk which is reasonable at her age to wake for that. Those guidelines about wait until they're 6 months is nonsense I think. Don't wake her from naps cos sleep begets sleep!

Could she be teething? That use to disrupt my daughters sleep when she was. Also, she used to wake at 5am sometimes when really young and I would feed her, but eventually realised if I let her cry she would go back to sleep after five mins or less! After two nights no more night waking!

No, please don't give her food earlier than 6 months without medical advice. If she's hungry milk is what she needs at this age.

good point - any chance she could be teething?