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Early wakings - any advice?

4 replies

Essie3 · 10/08/2009 14:44

DS, nearly 14 months, is going through yet another phase! (Previous phases have included not sleeping through, ever; refusing to settle; waking for a play at 2am...)

This one is annoying.
It started when he was sick last week - nothing serious, but he threw up halfway through his supper. He was fine afterwards and wanted more food, so I suspect something got caught and he has a sensitive gag reflex (like me!). I gave him a bit more but didn't want to overdo it. He then woke up at 5.45, I bf him, but he was still unhappy (no, angry!) until I gave him a yoghurt at 6.30.
He's done this every morning since - the best we've managed is 6.45.
I know it's not excessive, but he was sleeping from 7.45pm-7.30am before, which was civilized; but now he seems to be waking up early and starving hungry.
Nothing has changed with bedtime routine - he has his supper at 6 or shortly after, and bath and bed from 7. However, one thing which has changed is that I've dropped the last bf before sleep - so he would be bf at 7.40pm or so, then bed. I dropped that 3 weeks ago.
I've tried giving him more food at teatime, but nothing doing. I've tried doing tea a bit later, but that doesn't really work if he's hungry and shouty!

Any suggestions? Previously, he would get breakfast at 9, sometimes with a small snack to keep him going at 8.30 or so on a nursery day. For almost a week, I've been giving him breakfast after a fight at 6.30 or 7, but I don't want to start A New Pattern.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
SOLOisMeredithGrey · 11/08/2009 02:50

Perhaps he still needs that bf that you've dropped? he's obviously hungry, so maybe reintroduce it, see if it helps.

AliPalli · 11/08/2009 06:20

Maybe he has adjusted to getting the very early morning feed? The Millpond Sleep Clinic people in their book suggest addressing this by cutting the length of the feed down each night by a minute, so that they gradually adjust back to taking the milk at different points in the day.2

If you don't want to BF him before bed, maybe try a small snack after his bath but before bed? I read this on the contented toddler community forums.

abdnhiker · 11/08/2009 08:22

My 14 month old is ravenously hungry at 6am every morning, which I know is not helpful. I do feed him yoghurt before bed as a bedtime snack, maybe that could replace the last BF before sleep?

naturopath · 11/08/2009 08:45

hmm, I give my ds weetabix now every night netween bath and bed (ie post-supper) but he still wakes between 5 and 6 am evry day.

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