My 7m wants fed every 2 hours.

[jasper]

I have a gorgeous 7m old baby boy .
He wakes about every 1-2 hours in the night wanting (breast)fed. In the last 2 months he has woken MORE frequently .
He is happily on a daytime routine re. naps...I put him down once in the morning for half an hour and then again at lunchtime for 1-2 hours. Both times he is awake at first and falls asllep within mintes.
Same is true at night. He goes to bed at about 8pm but then wakes every 1-2 hours wanting fed (for about 15 min, then goes back to sleep)
He is a very happy baby.
I introduced solids at 6m but he still gets lots of breastfeeds.
In one sense it is not a problem yet as I can catch up on sleep during the day.
Do any of you have any thoughts?
Up till about 4m he only woke twice in the night.
Now it is more like 5-7 times.
Nothing but a feed will get him to go back to sleep. He starts by whimperring which becomes a full-blown cry by about 5 minutes.It seems a bit cruel to try controled crying with such a young, happy baby but I do not want to let current habits continue indefinately.
I have sort of decided not to worry till he is nearer 9- 12 months but would appreciate your views.
Thanks,

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jasper - my ds did this. Slept very well till he was about 5 months then started waking more often. After a week or so I gave in and just took him into bed with me. We then co-slept on and off for nearly 3 years.

Around 6 months babies experience separation anxiety and wake to seek reassurance. As you will know breastfeeding is more than food and the comfort aspect of a 'feed' will soothe him. If you don't want to co-sleep then I'd say look for other ways to reassure him - soft lights, musical toys etc. Good luck!

when my dd did this, friends talked about how clingy bfed babies are...but I'm not so sure. I think once we'd got the balance right between milk and solids, and stopped feeding her simply because she'd woken up (because she COULD sleep through sometimes when tired enough) then it reduced the number of waking times. my dd started using a dummy at around 9 or 10 mths too - it helped her to drop off if she did rouse and still has one now at bedtime, at 2yrs. gosh, this is bringing back memories of nighttime waking, and putting up with it for a long time because I too could nap during the day. not sure exactlywhat did it for us, but it did get better. never did controlled crying though.

Robinw I always thought controlled crying seemed a good idea in theory, but that was before I was faced with a wee baby who might require it! That must have been awful when you discovered dd was ill. Funny you should mention this as ds has developed an extremely snotty nose and rattly chest .
Funny also you should mention light and warmth as I am starting to wonder if he prefers some light in the room ands I have left the central heating on tonight as it has been very cold lately.
His last meal is at about 6pm and is usually some mushed up veg or other, maybe with rice and potatoes followed by a banana. I guess this is pretty high on the GI. I will certainly try some low GI stuff - do you have any suggestions?
I'm afraid I am rubbish at expressing, but will try the same breast twice trick.

Eulalia, I can see us going down the co-sleeping route! I am not opposed to it on principle, it's just that I don't sleep too well when ds is in the bed with me ( he thrashes around a lot)but that is probably the lesser of two evils as the nights get colder (the other evil being constantly having to climb out of bed). I had not thought about the separation anxiety thing.

Bundle do you have any tips about getting the balance between milk and solids?
Ds has always spat out a dummy but if your dd did not take to one till she was older I will try again. (funny how quickly you can stop being a "dummy snob" )

Thanks everyone for taking the time to help and for reminding me I'm not alone in this.

Jasper, my youngest was like that too, and I never did find an answer except to co-sleep. We tried two nights of controlled crying when she was about a year old. First night she cried for something over 2 hours ending up hysterical and sick and it took hours to calm her down. Second night she cried for more than 3 hours with the same result. We went back to co-sleeping. It wasn't the perfect solution as I didn't sleep that well but it was better than no sleep.

My DD slept a lot better once she discovered her thumb, which was at about 18mths, when everyone else's baby is giving theirs up, lol!

Hope you find a solution that suits you both.

Jasper, I seem to remember it had something to do with how much she ate at teatime (declaration of interests: dd was part-GF baby, part my own instincts!) and so working backwards, not to over-feed late-ish afternoon so she wouldn't then have much in way of solids to keep her going in bed. the dummy thing has been a godsend, but I still shriek inwardly when I see babies/children with their dummy all day long. dd knows 'dummies are for bedtime' along with a host of comforters. also something which helped us enormously: introducing sleeping bag because she was very wriggly and never stayed under her covers. still wears one now at 2 and a quarter.
I know what you mean about wee ones thrashing around in bed. dd usually ends up horizontal with her feet pushing into daddy's chest!

Jasper, I seem to remember it had something to do with how much she ate at teatime (declaration of interests: dd was part-GF baby, part my own instincts!) and so working backwards, not to over-feed late-ish afternoon so she wouldn't then have much in way of solids to keep her going in bed. the dummy thing has been a godsend, but I still shriek inwardly when I see babies/children with their dummy all day long. dd knows 'dummies are for bedtime' along with a host of comforters. also something which helped us enormously: introducing sleeping bag because she was very wriggly and never stayed under her covers. still wears one now at 2 and a quarter.
I know what you mean about wee ones thrashing around in bed. dd usually ends up horizontal with her feet pushing into daddy's chest!

oops

My ds used to keep waking through the night and would only drop off if I b/fed him. My hv suggested offering water at night she told me that ds needed to learn that night time was not feed time and by withdrawing the night time feeds he would learn there was nothing to wake up for. If he was really thirsty he would drink the water. She reassured me that ds really didn't need feeding at night he wouldn't really be hungry and would get all he needed in the day. I must admit it took a bit of time for ds to get used to it but he did. Don't know if any of this is useful to you but it worked for me. I do know how you feel because I went for several months when ds wanted feeding nearly every hour!

Thanks scuba.
At what age did you try the water trick?
How many nights / weeks did it take till he stopped waking in the night?

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Thanks Robinw, I will try your suggestions.That baby dinner actually sounds quite tasty...
Yes he is still in the cot next to my bed and he does sometimes end up sleeping in beside me as it just gets to be such a pain hopping in and out of bed.

Fish (but not shellfish) and meat can be given from 6 months onwards. Pretty much anything except eggs that aren't hard boiled, peanut butter and honey (all after a year) can be given.

I've read that ideally dairy shouldn't be given till around 9/10 months. I am starting weaning and find advice quite different. It seems odd that baby petit filou (sp?) is sold for babies at 4 months onwards.

Oh yes I also seem to remember that spinach should be left for awhile too ...

Sorry this is not about sleep!

That's a good point. Some of the baby jars for 4 months contain meat. Hmm.

When dd2 finally rejected the breast at 16 months, I found the only to get her to have milk at bedtime was by giving her some breakfast cereal (Oat Crunchies) to munch as well (she won't drink milk on its own, only with food). As a side effect, she has been consistently sleeping much better since having a bedtime snack.

I was quite surprised this time round to find that Petit Filou etc was recommended from four months, I'm sticking to what I learned first time round and avoiding them until after six months, I think we will avoid meat until after then as well, I think their poor little digestive systems probably have enough to cope with for the time being.

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