Just Started weaning 6 mth old and now he is waking in the night (1am or 3am) what is going on....?

[Romilly70]

DS is just over 6 mths (10days) started weaning him about a fortnight ago.
He is eating reasonably well, fruit puree and porridge in the morning, a tiny bit of veggie puree at lunchtime (he is not that keen, so i don't push it) and a bit more fruit puree and porridge at tea-time.

He is not in a routine, but i have been careful to make sure he doesn?t reduce his milk too much; i was writing it down to double check that he was having a minimum of 600mls per day (minimum according to Annabel karmel book.)

DS was having between 700ml and 1l per day, so I stopped writing down and also he was sleeping through till 7am.

However yesterday he woke at 3am for a 120ml feed and today he has just woken at 1am had 120ml and gone straight back to sleep. I am going to be a zombie if he has stopped sleeping through the night... :( There is no health visitor to drop in & see ? we are in France, usually I have to make an appointment to see the paediatrician, but that is more for jabs, so I have been muddling through by myself.

Obviously ds is hungry, but not sure what exactly the cause is. All I can think is before, I was putting a scoop of thicker milk in his last feed, (mixed with his normal milk), but I stopped that as the tin ran out about the time i started weaning and I thought he wouldn?t need it, as he was eating as well.
Also today he spent about and hour in his doorway baby bouncer which hangs from our verandah, so was wondering if that made him hungry too ? although he wasn?t in it yesterday, so I am not sure what is causing this night waking.

I have some baby cereal which you put in the bottle ? I have not used it yet, the French don?t have baby rice so I bought this before my parents brought over some cow and gate porridge. However I read some comments on MN that cereal in the bottle was not a good idea, so I am loathe to use, it, but was wondering if a little bit in his last bottle (say 1tspn as opposed the the 3 tablepoons they recommend) would be the same as the thicker milk.

Anyway, thanks for any advice!

It might be a growth spurt - I think there is quite a big one at 6 months - in which case hopefully it will settle down fairly quickly. Alternatively, are you sure he actually is hungry when he wakes up? At that age there is so much going on developmentally, not to mention teething etc, that I think random night wakings are pretty common. 120ml doesn't seem that much to take if he really is properly hungry - maybe he's just having it because it's offered to him and he likes the comfort of having something to suck on, rather than because he actually needs it?

Also, I hate to say it, but in my (incredibly limited) experience, as soon as you ever start to think you've got anything sorted baby-wise, they have a nasty habit of proving you wrong . We never used to hear a peep out of DS (7mo) after he'd gone down for the night until he turned 6 months...not any more!

My DS is 25 +3 and already on 3 meals a day. What he eats/drinks seems to have no relation onwhether he sleeps through to 7am or wakes in the night.

He had half his 6.30 bottle last night (3oz) and only 2 oz of his 6oz dream feed - but slept through. So my theory is development spurts are the reason for any night wakings.

I'm still bf-ing in the morning and in the night if needed - but after next week's holiday I'll give him water if he wakes in the night and will stop bf completely.
I'm then looking at the different types of sleep training to get him to sleep through. But also resigned to the fact that we may have a few nights of waking over the next year or two (illness/teething etc) so concentrating on getting him to get back to sleep quickly if he does wake.

Hope this helps

There's a growth and developmental spurt around 6 months so he will be more hungry. Milk will fill him up more at this stage so be careful he's not losing out at the expense of veg/fruit.

Also be wary of giving fruit after lunch - I'd give a veg purée as can make baby windy at night, wake them up and they'll want a feed to help soothe it!

thank you, the 6 month growth spurt would make sense as he has actually been sleeping a bit more during the day over the last few days too.

He normally only takes between 120mls and max 160mls in his bottle - he tends to be more "little and often"
He zonked out at about 7.30pm, woke at 8.15pm had about 10mls and then was asleep again - almost 11pm now and not a peep, so would make sense that he is not that hungry when he wakes, just wants comforting.

Oh well, i'd better get some sleep myself in preparation for the next waking!

Mine's started waking more since starting weaning a few days ago. I heard it's quite common for a number of reasons: 1/ it's an acquired skill, this eating lark and at that age anything new they learn can interrupt sleep 2/ wind/ indigestion from introducing solids 3/ weight gain slows during weaning because purees don't have the calorific content of milk which can initially actually make them hungrier at night even if they feel fuller during the day.

Add to this teething and growth/ developmental spurts and it's another fussy time for babies. I feel like just as i get over one hurdle and DS starts sleeping better, along comes another challenge and i'm back to being blurry eyed!