14 month old suddenly hungry at 4am

[martha7731]

What do I do? This has happened the last few nights - before that he slept through from 6 months onwards.

I can tell he is genuinely hungry and as soon as I give him milk he conks out again, but I'm really resistant to establish a new bad habit.

I've been holding out on giving him milk until 5am (plausibly 'morning') but given that he then goes back to sleep again - as he has just done now - it is still a middle of the night feed really isn't it, so part of me wonders whether I should just give in straight away at 4, instead of letting him yell and get upset for an hour.

Various reasons why this could be happening - he's had booster jabs this week, he's dropped to one nap recently, so too knackered by bedtime to have proper milk feed then. I'm not resistant to getting tough per se - the problem is that I'm pretty sure he is genuinely hungry at 4, rather than just trying it on.

Any advice welcome! Cannot bear thought of returning to regular night feeds...

Well, my experience is that they go through phases, and no habit lasts forever. If he's genuinely hungry, then he's genuinely hungry. Probably it's a growth spurt or something - my 22 month old certainly still gets phases where she eats desperately for a few days, starts being really wakeful (growing pains?), and then one day she wakes up and she's out of half her clothes.

If he's been such a great sleeper to date, and it's only the one feed, I think he'll stop as soon as his need for food dies down again.

But then I'm a very on-demand, child-led sort of parent, so this might not work for you.

Thanks Tortoise. I am normally tougher and more routine-led, but he seems so genuinely hungry that I'm reluctant to leave him to cry in case it is just a short phase. So think I am going to try going with it for a couple of nights and if it becomes a bad habit, will have to break it then!

I'd second the advice to just 'go with it'. My 21mo is the same - will go through phases where he is starving at night for a few days, then suddenly starts sleeping again. I'm another demand-led parenter though and am not entirely convinced young children developing 'bad habits'.

We've solved this one by always having a decent supper plus keeping a supply of bananas by the bed. DS loves bananas and will go and grab one if he is hungry and then go back to sleep.

In your case, I would definitely say that if your DS is going back to sleep again, why not let him have milk? There doesn't seem to be any point in you all being awake for an hour when it's probably something he'll grow out of anyway.

Yes, I think (hope) you're both right. It's just so annoying when you think night feeds are all in the past to feel like you're starting all over again....