Surely she can't be this hungry? Can she?!

[blushingmare]

DD (6mo) is ebf and has always had really short feeds. During the day she only feeds for max of 5 mins at a time and only from 1 side. But I have a fast let down, she seems satisfied after feeding and goes 3-4 hours between feeds so I think she's getting a reasonable amount.

She's never been a wonderful sleeper at night, but not horrendous either. Her typical pattern up until recently would be 10, 2 & 5 feeds. However in the past 2 weeks after her 10 o' clock she has then woken every 1.5-2 hours through the night I have tried leaving her in her crib and soothing her, but she never really settles and the only way to get her back to sleep is to feed her. Her night feeds are always much longer than her day feeds - tonight she fed for an hour between 2:30 & 3:30 (with a poo in the middle!!)

It has coincided with weaning, but I'm mostly doing finger foods and she's not eating much, so not sure that will be making a difference.

It's particularly mystifying to me because I really feel like her sleep "technique" in general has had a big improvement in the past month. She's taking far more consistent daytime naps in her pram without needing rocking and for her bedtime feed I'm no longer feeding her to sleep, so I would have thought these things would have contributed to better nights, not worse!

What's going on?! Is she really this hungry over night? Any sympathy tips from anyone?

Could be teething at that age, she probably needs the comfort rather than the milk iyswim - which is still perfectly valid reason to wake you up!

It will go in phases, it won't always be like this - try a bit of calpol if she seems unhappy/in pain.

May well be teething Sleds although she doesn't seem distressed or upset at all when she wakes - she's just awake and then starts to grizzle when I don't pick her up. Thanks for the suggestion though - it may well be that and I guess there's no way of knowing til teeth appear!

I had the same pattern with my two, between 7 and about 9 months old. It was exhausting! Eventually they went back to 12.30 and 3.30 'feeds'.

As someone has already said, I think it is more about comfort than food, though the milk will do them good too. Whatever the reason, your DC needs you in the night, and if feeding helps, then I go for it as the easiest option :)