Hungry baby milk just at night to ensure a full nights sleep

[mumsrthebest]

Hi all, my son is 11 weeks old and is still waking in the night. I know he is still young but would like to try and get him to sleep through the night. He usually has his last bottle at around 10pm - 10:30pm and wakes at 2am and then 5am. On his 2am feed he generally only has an ounce and falls asleep. This tells me he doesn't really need it so I have been trying to put him off by putting his dummy back in and this works for about an hour and then to be honest I give in and give him a bottle (too tired).

My friend suggested I give him hungry baby milk for his last feed before bed. Has anyone else tried this? She tried it with her son and he slept through as he felt fuller I presume.

My son has had awful colic too that seems to have gone this past week or so but we are still putting colief in the milk (going to reduce dose next week as he will be 12 was) Do I need to do it ŵith the hungry baby milk too?

Babies aren't meant to sleep through the night. All you need to do is Google baby Sleeping patterns and habits. They are babies, not adults, and even adults don't sleep through. Give your baby a cuddle and a feed and get over it. That's life with a baby.

So all those people who have babies that sleep through are doing something wrong?

Please enlighten me?? Should i be waking my DS up?

Nice eleanoralice. It is perfectly possible - mine is far from the only baby I know of that age or a little older sleeping through - the OP isn't asking for the moon on a stick

Of course not. The point is that most babies of 11 weeks old do not sleep through the night. Some will, but most don't. That's the normal situation. Sleeping through is defined as a 5 hr block, not 12 hrs. The ISIS sleep project from Durham uni (I think?) has lots of info on normal infant sleep.

So, if your baby is waking twice in the night at 11 weeks, that is normal/typical/to be expected and not a problem that needs fixing.

It would be not normal and worrying if an 11 week old slept through the night. Their tummies are tiny and can't hold enough to last all night. I get that your knackered and want some sleep but it's only been 11 weeks! Why did u expect?

Have a laugh.

Are you saying I should worry about my baby sleeping through??

All these people that say read the research and books ..... I'll just go by what my baby does thanks!! I'm too busy looking after him to be reading university research.

I know lots of mums who have baby's who sleep through.

Whatdoido Looking at my text messages, mine was doing 10.5 hours from 11w - I can assure you he is perfectly normal and healthy

The point is that the OP has a baby with normal sleep patterns. There's no need to try and push for the baby to sleep through when they're not ready. Hungry baby milk won't help with that necessarily, and may cause other issues. So as annoying as it is, there isn't a problem that needs to be fixed.

Nobody's criticising your parenting or your baby, unimaginative.

Some 11-week-olds sleep through the night.
Many don't.
And many of the ones that do will stop doing it again once they go through a major sleep shake-up at 4 months.

OP, I wouldn't bother trying to get him to sleep through by tinkering with his milk intake at this age. He seems hungry, and hungry baby milk doesn't actually have more calories, so even if it makes him feel full it won't actually be filling him up, if you see what I mean. Also, odds are good his sleep is going to change massively over the next month or so anyway, whatever you do or don't do at this point.

He's not designed to sleep through the night at this age. For goodness sakes. His sleep pattern is completely normal. He has been in this world for less than three months.

Don't give him hungry baby milk, and just accept that right now he needs food in the night.

(Mine slept 10 hours at 12 weeks, btw! Once. Then never did it again. Turns 2 this spring. Sigh.)

Erm I think the comment was 'it's not normal and worrying'

I agree what the OP is describing is normal, but some babies do sleep through.

As a mum who is in the same situation I was going to offer some advice for helping to drop that 1oz feed.

But everyone just wades in saying it's wrong blah blah

"My 12 week old sleeps through 8-8"

How big is your baby?

DD was tiny and weighed about 10lb at 12 weeks. Her stomach simply wasn't big enough to hold enough milk to last for more than 3 or four hours. When she was newborn I had to feed her every three hours. Bigger babies have bigger stomachs and can go longer between feeds. DD didn't sleep through until she was 9 months.

I know how draining lack of sleep makes you feel OP, but at 11 weeks most babies don't sleep through, so don't feel that you are doing the wrong thing.

Oh my goodness, some people really get their knickers in a twist, my 5 healthy bottle fed children were all fed with sma white on health visitor advice. If your baby is waking for 1 ounce only at 2 am , I don't see why you couldn't change to 'hungry' milk but I would do it for all the feeds.and my kids all slept through the night from approx 6 weeks onwards......

I don't think actively trying to drop a feed with an 11 week old baby is the right thing to do, tbh. If the baby doesn't need it, it'll drop on its own soon. I appreciate that you don't agree unimaginative, and it's not meant as a criticism.

Sigh, if your baby sleeps through, fine. But they have such tiny bellies, they shouldn't be! It's normal either way but I don't think messing around with feeds is normal to try and ensure a 'full' nights sleep. Just go with what your baby is telling you.

He is normal weight.

He's only ever woke once or twice anyway.

And yes he could drop the 1oz feed and maybe go 11pm to 4/5pm.

Then you find the morning feed will push a little bit later over time.

tbh I think most people would get frustrated at making a bottle a 2am for only 1oz to be drunk!!

I have three "babies" 1 age 10 months and 2 age 22 months they all wake at least twice a night for a feed.

And also at different times

You do 6 night feeds a night??

No I express so dh helps.

When I got caught in a snowstorm I sent my dh to get formula for my tiny baby as an emergency. He got the hungry baby stuff by mistake.

I called the hotline as I thought 'oh well hopefully he'll be ok'. The lady on the phone - to her credit - said, no...not give her that. It'll give her a tummy ache and make her constipated. Dh loved that trek back out to get the right one

Good luck. It's knackering isn't it?

If you're formula feeding it might be worth trying cow and gate. It's slightly thicker and helps with colic babies. My first did really well with aptamil but we had to move him to hungry baby early (about 12 weeks) as he was just eating constantly. Funny enough he slept through at about 14 weeks. The second (now 5 months) had awful colic but cow and gate was recommended by a nice sensible midwife as thicker. Works a treat. He started to sleep through at 9 weeks on his own (this is normal too guys). Personally I'd be very frustrated by getting up for an ounce. If you want to try hungry baby just go for it. Just be sensible and if he seems a bit constipated or has acid move back. Your baby, you know best. And a happy mum is a happy baby, a tired grumpy depressed mum is not good!

My daughter is small and always slept relatively well, I don't think size has much to do with sleeping through, she started sleeping through of her own accord at around 16 weeks.

Though she did always drink her milk when she woke, rather than taking just a couple of ounces.

My understanding of it is that hungry baby milk is for that bit before 6 months where you can't wean yet.
Or if your baby is never satisfied or on 8oz bottles.

Hungry baby can cause more problems, so I would be looking at how you can change the feeding habits with first milk.