Offering water to stop nightfeeds - pls help me with 7mo DD?

[titferbrains]

Have offered water for last 4 nights. She took it on 1st 2 nights, we were up with her for 2 hrs and then I gave calpol as I could see she was struggling to get to sleep and felt it was her teeth.

Last 2 nights she refused water. Woke at 4.30 on Sunday night, and 3.50 last night (but went to bed a bit earlier last night so roughly same time). Sunday night I sat with her on my lap and sh patted/stroked till 5.45am, then fed her as she was crying a lot rather than trying to go to sleep on me.

This morning very cross again when offered water and quite cross generally about not being fed. she almost fell asleep about 3 times but started crying. I could hear her little tummy rumbling and I think she really "hit the wall" so I fed her at 4.55am. She fed for about 15 min - 10 min one boob then 5 min other so a full feed - then went down without a peep and I woke to hear her playing at 8.22 this morning (should have set alarm DOH).

So what do I do now? reintroduce a dream feed in the hope of her going thru till 6/7, or offer a water FF at 4am if/when she wakes up, or keep trying to stretch her when she wakes and see how this goes? Or offer less and less of a full FF each night?

She has been up for at least an hour for over a week now and I'm very tired. Feeling better for having longer stretches of sleep but am desperate to get thru the night till 6/7. I know she's doing really well but...

I would reintroduce dream feed, it's worth you both getting upset. Can you do the dream feed 11pm 12am that way you get a fairly long strech of sleep?

Was doing this a few weeks ago but was getting really tired staying up till 11 to give feed then resettle myself - think I am completely over tired myself as I keep waking in the night, taking ages to fall asleep etc. Is why I'm trying to crack the nights. and hate the thought of going to bed at ten to set alarm for 11.30pm. Just want to sleep from 10pm!!

Also am aware that we should try and drop dream feed at 7 months so would this be a step in wrong direction? she turns 7 mo next week.

anyone else actually done the water thing?

Sorry but she's much too young for this IMO. Night waking in a 7 month old is the norm, not the exception. Sleep training while teething and possibly still in the 6 month growth spurt region is pointless, possibly a bit mean. By all means try a dream feed.

I tried this last week. My DS is 7 months also and has always fed at least twice, often three times, between 10pm and 7am. He is FF and has started taking less and less in the 2am and 5am feeds and even waking for just the one feed so I thought I would try water to see if he was waking out of habit rather than hunger.

It worked the first night and he went back to sleep, it didn't work the second - he tried to sleep but couldn't as he must have been hungry. The third night it worked again and the fourth night it didn't. So we have decided that his pattern is to feed every three hours through the night and we will just have to put up with it. I wouldn't have even been trying to get him to sleep through if it wasn't for the fact that I am back at work full time and exhausted from the night waking.

He has always been a better feeder at night than during the day so I guess we will have to leave him until he sleeps through when he is good and ready.

Hi, My dd is 6.5 months and is also waking a few times a night. She is different everynight and I too am exhausted. I tried giving her water 2 nights in a row when I would mormally give her a bottle (formula) btu she screamed as though I had poisoned her. Sometme she wakes and I give her her dummy and she goes straight back to sleep. Other times she dozes for 15-30 mins the wakes again, and again. This is when I get confused. I think she must be hungry as she does settle if I feed her but then she sometimes only has 2-3 oz which suggests she wasnt hungry. Its really hard to know whet to do for the best, isnt it!
I dont want her to go hungry but then again I dont want to get her used to being fed to go back to sleep.
I know it doesnt help you, but I am going to try not to feed her tonight (I know this sounds cruel but if I bring her in my bed rather than feeding her, she settles just as well and for longer, again suggesting she isnt hungry as such...).
This may be a complete bust and I bet I give in when I am exhausted at 4 in the morning. But we will see.....

well have given myself a new problem

having had water 2 nights running, she now will not accept a bottle at night. Screams and acts very pissed off. A bloody nightmare. Have decided to leave bottle for a week (she takes it fine during day and at a bedtime) and will try again next week. Will do breast feeds in meantime. Am concerned that my supply is dwindling tho... She's waking at 5am now for a feed and seems very hungry at this time.

Ugh I am so tired of thinking about all this. Would anyone like a very pretty smiley 7mo baby girl?

Does the dreamfeed have to be 11.30? Could you try bringing it forward? Maybe try a 10pm feed - if it works great, if not revert to 11.30 and gradually bring it forwards by 15mins every few days?

I wouldn't stop feeding a BF baby at night. When she no longer needs the night feeds she will stop naturally herself. Why the hurry? If you are finding the interrupted sleep difficult have you thought about co-sleeping? You're supply will re-establish in a few days if you continue with the BF at night as thats when you're hormones are most receptive to stimulus from suckling. Good luck.

Off to do dream feed now, I do worry about the effectiveness of breastfeeds as dream feed because she is so sleepy, I dont' think she stays on till she's really full IYSWIM. I have to keep jiggling her to remind her to suck. Anyway I guess I'll have to just cope. From what I've read elsewhere she's going to continue to wake at 5am regardless - I do try to fill her up with carbs in the evening but generally that's only about 1oz milk with baby rice and fruit puree.

Thanks for giving a clear view, see now that she is still too small for weaning, and frankly she is doing extremely well sleeeping for 10-11 hrs with only one dream feed in the middle.

Just wanted to encourage you. I've been in the same position with my dd who is now 8 months and has only just this last fortnight started to sleep through totally. I did give her some water at night but I think she was ready when she was eating enough during the day, she's now on three proper meals. She is entirely breastfed.
It is so hard to think when you are tired and it is 4 am and all you want to do is sleep. .
Good luck.

Thanks everyone. She woke earlier last night, 3.30am and then woke again at 5.30. At 3.30 I tried to give her a long feed so she would sleep longer [desperate icon] and then at 5.30 I staggered in, scooped her up and brought her to our bed, where she seemed ravenous, she fed and seemed to feed/sleep on and off till 7. Better than being wide awake at 5.30 with no signs of going to sleep !

Can you recommend a good protein meal? haven't got my head around protein yet, ie how to give a good amount in solids - she hasn't had meat yet, rejects scrambled eggs, doesnt' appear tolike savoury food - gave her potato with cream cheese and she was seemingly horrified. She did seem to like raw tomato when she tried it ages ago so maybe smooth tomato sauce with lentils and carrots pureed?

Lentils, chickpeas, quinoa flakes added to things, fish 'pie' (ie fish mixed with potato/spinach), omelettes if she tolerates finger foods, pureed chicken with veg or cottage cheese. Add some fruit or sweet pot to savoury things to sweeten them a bit.

Although to throw a spanner in the works, my DS started sleeping through when he was having a big carbo meal for supper! I guess they're all different, the little blighters, so it's worth trying different things after a bit if something doesn't make a difference. Also - to give you some more hope - my DS was recently having two feeds at 1am and 5am and within three weeks decided to drop them both of his own accord and sleep through. I didn't have to do anything in the end - I guess he was just ready. He is nearly 8 months, exc BF but eats like a pig during the day, as well as 4 BFs. It will happen but I know how crap it can be, those nights. Now he wakes me up at 2am to show me he can crawl. Sounds like your DD is doing well to go 10-11 hrs with one feed.

Is her poo coming out sticky like peanut butter? Or solid logs? If not, the food is not being digested yet so you're wasting your time and filling her tummy without offering her anything she can actually use = her waking more for more milk to get calories her body can use.

Sorry but the water thing sounds like GF rubbish to me - I thought it had been discredited?

Can I ask, why do you want to stop the night feeds now? Is it to get more sleep yourself, or is it that you think she should be sleeping through at this age? At 7mo they still need night feeds don't they? But maybe you can get more sleep without stopping them ...

I find if I bring my LO into bed with me after his early morning feed, he sleeps MUCH longer in the bed than he does if left in his cot, so this could help if you need to catch up on a bit of precious sleep.

Totally agree with Chez, why do this with a baby so young? They need the milk... Yes we're all tired with young children, I have 3 young ones but the aim isn't to make them sleep through asap. Let them feed when they need to, they need it.

Oh and milk will give far more calories than any tiny few spoonfuls of food so don't think that will make her sleep more...

I did the water thing with my 1st dd at 6 1/2 months. It didnt work. She would get really mad as soon as she realised it wasnt milk and i would have to rush off and give her a bottle.

I tried everything, the only thing that worked was letting her cry it out. It took 4 nights, and i would go in to her and pat her every 10 to 15 minutes to let her know i hadnt abandoned her. It was a gruelling 4 nights but worth it, cos it trained her tummy to not expect a bottle at 1am and after that she slept really good and was well rested and hungry for breakfast in the morning!

Really hard tho, watching the clock, every minute seemed like half an hour!!!

OR just feed her????!!! As 6 month old BABIES are supposed to be? Christ people these days, I can't believe some posts I read, seriously. 6 MONTHS old and you want to give water instead of milk when a baby is hungry? Pray tell why?

So in other words she slept through her hunger after crying for nights, nice....

Sorry this kind of thread REALLY upsets me and I can barely believe so many mothers are denying their tiny, hungry babies a proper feed when they are HUNGRY!!!!!

Seriously - if you had a dtomach the size of a plum you might need to feed a bit more often as well.

What's the point unless to gain more sleep for yourselves? Babies aren't easy! I still feed mine a couple of times a night and he is nearly two. Of course they will cry if they are hungry.

You'll get no sleep either way - unless you do train them to accept that constant night time hunger is 'normal' and they won't get anything even if they yell for nights on end. That to me is tragic

Have you been hungry? Do you know what it feels like? Yes of course you do. Please, don't do this to your babies.

woah there, I'm just like any other parent wanting a bit more sleep, I read a few threads where the water thing seemed to work and as it's my first child, thought I'd try it. I do know my baby and have realised that she has now shown me the longest she can go without food. So now when she wakes I feed her. The water thing clearly didn't work in my case! she woke up even earlier, 2.30am last night, but thankfully didn't wake again till 545.

Introducing solids is extremely confusing and not exactly a bundle of laughs as far as I can tell, am sure most people are just human and trying to muddle through as best they can.