Weaning and sleep

[cogitosum]

Ds is just shy of 6 months. I Breastfeed. He was sleeping well until about 4 months (7 hours then every 1-2 hours) then hit the 4 month regression and for 4 weeks did about 3-4 hours and then woke every hour. Since just before Christmas he's been back to 7-8 hour blocks (although after the long sleep he wakes every hour).

However we started solids about a week ago when he took some broccoli from my plate and ate it! I've been offering finger foods a few times a day ( mostly veg and potato although gave weetabix with expressed milk for last 2 days which he pretty much ate all of).

Since then he's been even more constipated than normal (he's ebf but on gaviscon which makes his poos very hard) and his sleep has gone out of the window. Friday and Saturday nights he was up pretty much every hour. It's improved since then but he's waking a lot and is very windy!

Is this likely to get better as he gets used to digesting food? I've been advised to stop giving him solids in the evening. Is that a good idea or will he wake up hungry for them?

He's not dropped any feeds yet but he's never a really enthusiastic feeder during the day (I have to feed him in the dark as he gets too distracted if I'm out).

To summarize (and bump) ds sleep has been adversely affected since introduction on solids. Should I stop giving solids in the evening to give digestion time before bed or will he be hungry ( so should I give weetabix in the evening?)

Also posted in weaning

Hi- I'm having a similar issue. Ds is ebf too and was on gaviscon but we've stopped that now as he generally sleeps ok. My plan was to do baby lead weaning but when it came to it I was worried about choking and allergies (anxious first time mum) so started with just baby rice and porridge.

Didn't initially see any difference with sleep but as soon as I introduced some carrots, apple, banana (very mushed) he has been waking hourly moaning and oftenfarting. It could be teeth-this was my first thought but now I wonder if his digdigestive system isn't ready.

I don't know what the answer is but in the interest of getting some sleep ive gone back to just baby rice twice a day and am planning to VERY slowly introduce vegetables and fruit again next week- no improvement yet though.

Are you offering water with solids?

Yes he takes water quite happily ( I guess from taking the gaviscon from a cup). We're doing blw (hate the term but I guess it's what we are doing as I'm not spoon feeding at all).

I l've stopped giving banana as I've heard it ca cause constipation!

Hi, when ds started solids he became terribly constipated & his sleep got worse. It lasted about 3/4 weeks then his sleep improved (although still not great!). The GP gave up some paediatric movicol, & I found 1/2 sachet a day worked wonders. After about 3 weeks I stopped using it & he hasn't been constipated at all since (& he has loads of bananas!). He's now 9 months. I think their guts just have to adapt to solid food.

Ps. As he was 6 months I didn't worry about slowly introducing food nor did I purée/mash anything. We just went straight to 'normal' food. & baby rice is disgusting!! Also he can have full fat cows milk on weetabix, it doesn't have to be expressed breast milk.

Hi, I had this problem with my daughter. Food was all going really well and then she got so badly constipated it was awful. There was a lot of straining and crying and a few sleepless nights. The doctor recommended lactulose and giving her 2.5ml twice a day did the trick. Also, feeding her prunes, pears, plums etc did the trick and now I try and make sure she has pears fairly often to keep her regular. It did get better and after a few weeks her digestion got used to food and it wasn't a problem anymore. Hope that helps!

Thank you.

I'd rather avoid more medication as he's on he gaviscon do don't want him on one thing to treat one symptom and something else to treat the side effect etc. he was already having quite hard poos before weaning. I hoped it would improve

Will try prunes thank you. Have been told to avoid pears as the acid can make reflux worse. It's all a balancing act!

Hi, I just wondered why you're still using gaviscon as I thought weaning helped with reflux and you might not need it anymore? Mine is only 6 weeks and I suspect reflux but have heard tummy issues settle over time and with weaning (I hope so!). I just wondered about the gaviscon as I've heard it causes constipation.

Hi, we're having similar problems. DS is 7.5 months and since he started weaning his sleep has become very broken. At its worst he was waking and straining every hour through the night. A few weeks later and he now only wakes every 2-3 hours, this is much better, but still hard work.

We've been to the doctors because of the frequent straining and constipation (he poos every 3-4 days and it's hard) and been prescribed lactulose (didn't seem to help much) and now movicol.

I've been told that his little body is adjusting to processing food and it might take a while to get used to it. One thing that DS doesn't like, is drinking water, which can't help, although yesterday I added a very little apple juice, and he took about 10ml - amazing for us (no idea how we are going to get movicol into him).

We've also tried bringing his last meal forward and I think this helps, reducing banana and giving him the pulp scraped out of a prune (not sure this is making any difference).

He is definitely crying less with the straining, and things are gradually improving, I hope things improve for you too soon.

Thank you. Happily he loves drinking water (although he likes to feed himself resulting in lots of spillage!)

Yes the gaviscon causes constipation we're hoping to come off it soon as solids are meant to help with reflux but he's only just started solids and not having much so can't take him off it quite yet