6 month old still wakes every hour to feed

[Jars11]

I’m just at the end of my tether, i’m so exhausted i feel sick. My 6 month old boy has for several months now been waking up every 1-1.5 hours in the night and nothing but breastfeeding will stop him crying.

We established a bedtime routine a couple months ago and he falls asleep within 20 minutes so that’s not a problem. He used to be able to sleep for 2-3 hours but that’s gradually halved as time has gone on. He goes back to sleep easily most of the time after eating but nothing i or his dad do helps calm him when he starts to wake in thr night.

I’ve tried giving him formula and feeding him solids just before bed to help keep him full but that hasn’t worked. He’s got a white noise toy in bed too. We co sleep because he could never sleep alone as a little baby, and i don’t mind at all if only he just slept longer. We’ve had progress on this front too because be used to only sleep in my arms and i’ve gradually taught him to sleep on his own with me just laying near him.

How am i supposed to encourage him not to feed at night and go back to sleep? I’m not asking for 8 hours sleep but if i could just have 3 or 4 at a time it would be life changing. Please advise me.

Yup a 6 month old absolutely does not need feeding every hour at night .
It's totally ok not to feed every hour .
A newborn yes but a 6 month old isn't waking every hour from hunger

My daughter was sleeping 12 hours no wake ups at all at 6 months and still. Does at 2 years old.
No sleep training either

My 8mo still wakes every 1.5hrs and wants food, some nights she can go 4-5 hr stretches but others it feels like I've only just got back to sleep before she's awake demanding more!

I'm going back to work soon so working on decreasing feeding frequency, like a pp said I've picked 2 times in the night to feed her about 4 hrs apart, and any other wake ups she gets a shush, cuddle and offered water.

Having mixed success but what has been quite good is getting her to stay in her own cot rather than co sleeping, I think the presence of my breasts was frustrating her as she was right next to them, but I wasn't letting her feed. 1.5 hrs is one sleep cycle I think, so every time she got to the lighter sleep stage she'd be disturbed by being next to me. In her cot she's much more likely to do a 3hr stretch, and I'm hoping after a couple of weeks I can go down to just one night feed.

Really looking forward to sleeping for longer than a couple of hours at a time! Good luck with your baby.

Mine is similar- no advice really just sending support

I didn’t say a 6 month old can’t go 4 hours, some do this naturally and some slee through from day one, but forcing them to go 4 hours is a manipulation and is cruel imo.

Give over!

No 6 month old needs to be fed for calories every hour over night .
4 hours over night is not cruel.

That's crazy, crazycatlady. Crazy and unhelpful. Anyway I must go "manipulate" a toothbrush into DS's slightly uncooperative mouth (another reason to decrease night feed frequency) and then "manipulate" him into bed. He won't want to do either but I'm sure I know better.

😂😂

The more I read this forum, the more I get convinced that misery indeed loves company. Parents who have chosen to live on broken sleep for extended periods of time and not to do anything about it seem to become intolerant of other opinions and do not hesitate to use strong words and provocative statements to support their views.

Of course, there is nothing wrong in trying to space out night feeds for a 6 month old (even most of attachment parenting proponents with medical background will agree with this). It may not be easy and it may not always work but there is nothing wrong with trying.

😂 more useless outdated advice. Breastfed babies aren’t at extra risk of tooth decay from having milk overnight.

www.laleche.org.uk/breastfeeding-dental-health/

It is also nowhere near the same refusing your child breastmilk and brushing their teeth

@wintertravel1980 I’ve seen plenty of strong statements from you. In fact, anyone who seems to disagree with sleep training you have a pop at. So are you miserable?

I’m not, I’m perfectly happy, albeit tired

I’ve seen plenty of strong statements from you.

I do not think so:). This is my one and only strong statement on this forum and I thought twice before clicking the "post" button. I do give my opinions, disagree with non-factual statements and provide links to research but up until now I have not criticized opposing views (let alone actual posters). I just felt that words like "cruel" and "manipulation" are completely unhelpful when OP is clearly exhausted (she has said she is feeling sick in the original post).

Op also said she don't know how much more she can take before she breaks .
So to.make her feel. Guilty about trying to get more than a hours.sleep at a time. Is awful .

Routines aren't cruel.
Encouraged babies to sleep well isn't akin to abandoning them in a Romanian orphanage.
Crazycatlady you clearly feel strongly about your chosen parenting style and I'm glad it works for you, but many parents need to sleep.
Choosing a different style to yours isn't wrong.

I really appreciate everyone’s advice here, we all know that we have different parenting styles and opinions on what’s best for our babies and honestly there’s no need to judge or critisize one another so please don’t get annoyed with one another over my post. I’m honestly too tired to get offended or guilt tripped by anyone! I don’t know what the right thing to do is so i’m just going to try different things. I do know that i can’t watch my child cry or not feed him when he’s hungry so whatever techniques i try have to be gentle, but having said that my body is at breaking point and that’s no use to either of us. Trying to feed more in the daytime and offering water at night sound good to me, as does limiting the daytime naps when they stretch too long. I’m also thinking this reflux possibility could be key, so i’m buying a probiotic to see if that can help, maybe there’s more i can do to help him with that i’ll do some reading. Thing is, if he can only take in a little milk at a time because it otherwise hurts, then he is actually hungry that often isn’t he? And trying to stretch it is just making him hurt more, i mean i don’t know but it’s possible right? Thank you all again for the advice and support, and i welcome any more suggestions that might help us.

OP, I wasn’t suggesting you’re cruel or manipulative just the suggestion of making a crying baby wait 4 hours for a feed (which wasn’t you). I totally understand how tough it is - good luck with whatever you do. It does get better xx

Thank you :)

Jars, you should go see a paediatrician and discuss your suspicion of reflux. If your baby does have reflux, then he needs medication and a management plan and not just an hourly dose of milk from an exhausted mother. If he doesn't then encouraging him back to sleep without whipping a tit out every 60 minutes is genuinely fine. It's called motherhood, not martyrdom.

The main symptom of silent reflux is baby crying and arching his/her back during feeds (it was exactly what was happening to my DD when she was 6 weeks). If the baby is content and just taking small feeds, he is unlikely to have reflux.

I agree if the issue is reflux, the baby will need medication. DD was put on ranitidine (+anti-reflux formula) and it took 10 days to get her symptoms under control. She turned into a different (much happier) baby.

Was he checked for tongue tie at birth? My son used to do this, he was still putting on weight as I was feeding constantly so we never even suspected tongue tie but it was spotted at another check up around 10 months.. I think he was waking constantly as he wasn’t actually latching properly so even though he was feeding a lot he was still hungry!! Good luck OP hope you get some rest soon x

@Jars11 how did you get on with this? I’m in the same boat won’t my 7 month old x