Anyone have advice for a 4 month old who is awake every 15 mins from 2am to 6am?

[peapod987]

My 4 month old won't sleep properly at night. We're giving baby rice at 5/6ish with a feed and a 10.30pm night time drink feed (with rice and oats in) and have been advised not to feed at 3am anymore. She uses a dummy and thats what I'm replacing every 10 - 20 mins in the night. She doesn't even finish half her 6.30 -7am feed so can't be hungry all night. Know the dummies creating a problem but after 2 hrs of non stop screaming the other night I've gone back to it. I've just started the Gina Ford routine which works in the day (so she's not sleeping too much in the day) but am desperate for sleep at night time. Any advice very welcome.

Hi peapod. It is very hard being sleep deprived, but I have to say it's not always to do with hunger. 4 months is a little early to wean, and it's possible that it's maybe not sitting too well with her. If it were me, I'd be inclined to drop the rice and up the milk if you think she's hungry. It's also not a good idea to add rice or oats to a bottle, as it could be a choking hazard.

It does sound like the dummy is the problem - wish I had a solution for you! I have heard of people leaving a few dummies lying round the cot so that the baby can find one and put it in, but I'm not sure (can't remember!) if a 4 month old could manage that!

In case it is hunger, however, I'd also think about restarting the 3am feed - 4 months is quite young to be sleeping through the night, and babies have very small stomachs, so she may not take in enough to stop her waking and feeling hungry. Why were you advised to stop? I know it's a PITA to get up and feed at 3, but it sounds like it might be better than the situation you're in now.

And remember - it's a phase, it will pass!

I agree completely with Habbibu. Your little girl is too young for food I think and a little young to reliably sleep through the night. If it is hunger I would advise giving her more milk instead of trying to drop feeds.

2am onwards is also the coldest part of the night and the temperature can drop suddenly. Is she feeling the cold perhaps?

It can be very dangerous to add food to a drink for a baby. It is a choking hazard and should not be done.

I sympathise. My dd fed every 2 hours day and night until she was 7 months and while I was happy to feed on demand, the fatigue was horrid.

Thing is, the baby rice may be bulky but it doesnt have the calories a 4mth old baby needs to grow and satiate her hunger. And those 'night time drinks' are only recommended from 6mths I think.

I'd advise restarting the 3am feed too - 4mths is very young to be expected to sleep through.

Peapod - my four month old also wakes in the night - that's what babies do. You can't go giving them food at that age - She's probably bloody uncomfortable if you are stuffing cereal into her drink. Babies cry for many reasons, too cold, too hot, windy, hungry, lonely, and at this age, teething often too.

My DD had the dummy problem for a while, till we threw the dummy away and she grew out of it. The problem is - once they are old enough to refind and replace their dummy, they generally have moved onto other things and don't care enough to do so . Babies are exasperating little wotsits !!!

Who has advised you not to feed at 3am? DS goes till about midnight, then wakes at 2 and 4 and then 6. He was going from 12 - 4 but he's now teething so he's waking more, but it will pass. I know it's frustrating and frankly exhausting but you have the choice of feed her and have it over with in ten minutes or get up every ten minutes to fiddle with dummies. I know which one I'd take

Peapod, just in case you're worried - everyone, but everyone, is desperate for sleep with babies this age, and we've all probably tried all sorts - as they get older and it gets better you do forget all about it, I promise - but everyone will have a great deal of sympathy with how you feel.

I wondered about the find and replace thing, wmmc - it's scary how much you don't remember. DD's only just 2, ffs!

The baby rice/oats could be giving her stomach ache at this age. Just milk should be fine.
If she is losing her dummy every 10-20 mins and crying for it then I don't think she particularly wants it. She sounds like she might need feeding. A dummy just won't cut it when they are hungry.
Why not feed at 3am any more? Who advised that? My bf babies were still being fed in the night at this age as was my eldest who was ff.
I would stick to milk at this age. Forget the drink feed, it probably doesn't have enough calories to satisfy her hunger for a few hours.
She might not finish her morning feed because she is tired out from not sleeping well so just takes enough to feel okay and then stops because she's tired.

DD didn't sleep more than four hours straight till she was 10 months old. DS beat her at three weeks. Didn't do anything different with either. Babies are just individuals (and in some cases induhviduals

Habbibu - I believe that's called post traumatic stress disorder and we all suffer from it when we have two year olds! I don't remember anything about when DD did things - good job I wrote it down. Poor DS will have no record of anything though because I'm too busy juggling two to even notice most of the time

Oh absolutely I have sympathy for for anyone who has a non-sleeper! It is grim, but it will pass

The food thing is important though, as it could well be making the problem worse by flling her little tummy without providing the fat/protein/nutrients she needs, at an age where she may not be able to digest it properly as well - thus meaning she wakes up uncomfortable in the night.

Thanks for all the input. Only started giving her rice as advised because she is a huge baby (17 1/2 pounds) and was told to stick to that for as long as possible before giving real food at 5 months. Shes 18wks at the moment. Agree will be better off doing 3am feed again. Health visitor recommended water at that time as she is so big, but that makes her scream more. Just so hard being so tired with a 2 year old as well!

Agree with others that everyone is desperate for sleep at this age but if she was only waking a few times a night with the 3 a.m. feed then you have to return to that for the time being, IMO

Gina Ford is not "the answer" I'm afraid, so try to take any advice with a pinch of salt (not literally, obviously, that's bad for your kidneys) and don't stress if things don't 'work'

you have had some great advice .. i would get rid of anything that is not just regular formula

a hungry baby needs only milk. her weight is no indicator of her pyhsical ability to digest food

hopefully you will find that lots of extra milk will satisfy her and she will settle more

a young baby needs feeding a lot

it is too young to drop night feeds if she is still waking for them

Where is she percentile-wise in height and weight btw?

Your HV is giving you very poor advice tbh.

Baby needs milk. Nothing else, nothing more. Her digestive system is too immature for food, it will strain her tummy and not fulfil her nutritional needs. Her size is irrelevant to her gut development and your HV should know better than to suggest that she needs food.

If her sleep can be improved with a 3am feed then I'd say just go with that. She is still so tiny to go without a night feed.

Sorry to throw in a brief answer - we fed on demand and coslept. Got given the contented baby book and realised it would never in a million years suit us or ds as it seemed to contradict our instincts, so we went with the instincts and it worked. ds loved being near us, night feeds were easy and we lost very little sleep.
It just happened to really work for us - I only mention it in case you think it would help you too! Definitely were still night feeding at that age too.

Hello peapod987 my LO is 18 weeks and about 17 pounds as well. You say you feed her at 10:30pm, do you wake her up? If so have you tried dropping this feed instead of the 3am one? My LO would wake at 3am whether I fed him at 10:30pm or not so by dropping the 10:30pm feed I could go to bed earlier and therefore wasn't so exhausted.

peapod - my DS is four months (erm 16 weeks I think) and over 20 pounds and is just on breastmilk. Your HV is talking bollocks and should be told to belt up!

Wow that's gold top breastmilk

Libra - I'm feeding a toddler too! Its crazy how much milk I am capable of producing from my 32K boobs!

My LO is nearly 4 months and is feeding twice a night still. He is also a big baby, about 16lb, but just can't last through the night yet. I am exhausted, but know that he stll needs the 3am feed at the moment. I will be thinking of you tonight!

My 4 month old is also huge and goes to bed and feeds at 7pm and wakes every 4 hours for a feed after that..... tis normal and tis wot babies do!

I accidentally put DS (2 months) to sleep in more clothes that recommended by Grobag (Sleepsuit and short sleeved vest, rather than pyjama top and short sleeved vest) a few nights ago and he didn't wake up at midnight as he had always done before. Nor did he overheat. Tried it deliberately the next night- same thing. I got up to check the temperature at 2am and found that it is only 16o, although 21-22o in the evening. I think he was just cold. He still wakes up at 3am ish but, touch wood, that seems to be his only night time waking now.

The hv has told you to feed your baby rice, but to drop the 3am milk feed? This does not make sense, she is telling you to feed her and not feed her to solve the same problem.

Hiya, just joined this thread, we had a very similar problem with our ds at exactly the same age, in the end we used Millpond, a child sleep specialist company, and they were AMAZING, did not ever ask us to shut the door and leave him to cry, and gave us huge amounts of gentle and sucessful suport.

we did have to drop the dummy and all external stimulus that ds was reliant on to go to sleep, as everytime he came into light sleep, he woke up and couldn't settle himself back again.

they gave us a personally tailored 3 week gradual retreat program, and i followed it the very best i could, and by magic in week 3 he was sleeping 11pm - 7am with NO WAKING - i kid you not! and by 6 months old he had dropped all night feeds and was sleeping 7-7, and still does aged over 2yrs. although it was hard work for a few weeks, and things got worse before they got better, i don't regret it or the couple of hundred quid it cost for a minute. it saved my sanity and our marriage, and ds was far happier when he wasn't exhausted. google millpond! good luck.