hunger and early waking

[bouncysmiley]

Help! My 17 m old has recently gone from sleeping through until 6.30-7 to waking at 5 am starving. We bring her into our bed in the hope she'll nod off but she is wide awake and clearly tells us she is hungry. I try her with milk, which she'll take a bit of, before saying 'food' or 'breakfast'. She will then eat a larger than normal breakfast but is then up for the day. She is teething and we weaned her off her dummy and swapped her gro bag for a duvet about a month or so ago (a few weeks before all this started) but nothing else has changed. She eats like a horse and naps for an hour once a day (twice on occassion). Her bedtime is 7pm and she goes down easily and stays asleep but 11 hours a day is not really enough for her and we are exhausted. Any ideas?

A bit more protein and fat in her evening meal? This will keep her full for longer, and she might not wake up hungry... They have such tiny stomachs at that age, I think it can be difficult for them to get enough calories in to keep them going all night!

Offer a bit of supper.
Maybe some rice pudding a tea cake or something similar.

May just be a growth spurt.

I long for the 11 hour stretches. 2 of our dc do it but our baby is in sleep regression

My 2.5 yo has a little supper before bed, cheese or some nut butter, that seems to do the trick.

Do you give supper? Our 15mo has a big bowl of porridge before bed. Keeps her going through the.night.

What time(s) does she nap & how long for?

At around that age we had early waking too & it was in part developmental (wonder week) & partly because ds was napping too early (11-11.30am). I shifted his nap slowly to 12.30pm & within a few weeks he was sleeping in til 7ish.

Was going to add she might well be hungry as she's not eaten for 11hrs but it may not necessarily be the actual cause of the ew, but more of a symptom iyswim? Hence why am questioning routine. Also wise to consider other factors such as lighter mornings (use blackout?) Or noise (birds/neighbours) etc?
Hth.x

Our 15 month old gets us at 5.20 . I know a few other early wakers. Sadly not sure its due to hunger though! Yes they're wide awake and ready for the day, but we give a bedtime snack and milk. . .