Weaning help !! 8 month old still not sleeping through night!

[DaisysMummy17]

Hello, I’d really like some advice. My 8 month old little girl is still waking several times throughout the night. I’m exhausted. We are still breastfeeding and I try giving her her dummy sometimes it works other times she will still want two feeds throughout the night. Is this comfort or hunger ? I’m thinking probably hunger.

She currently has baby porridge in the morning. A homemade fruit purée and toast for lunch and a vegetable purée for dinner. We’ve had big issues with constipation so hence trying to go slow with foods. Her constipation was bad when we started doing purees with lots of mixed veg so we stopped that. Her poos were coming out like a big tube of toothpaste and causing her so much pain and upset. We tried porridge with cows milk but have a feeling full fat cows milk causes her issues like it did with my older daughter. We are worried about giving her anything too binding.

Do I need to add a protein ? I’ve tried eggs which would have been a good protein source but she had an allergic reaction and got a red rash round her mouth.

She’s not overly keen on yoghurts. We’re trying to avoid jars if we can (not saying there’s anything wrong with them just preference).

Please can you help me with food ideas. She is just starting to get her bottom two teeth through hence not giving meat yet.

Thank you I really appreciate your help

Food doesn't make them sleep, it's behavioural and they still need milk at night at this age, it also is sleep inducing. Milk can be fattier too. You can try to change the pattern of what happens but it won't necessarily mean they stop waking. I also don't think they fully start digesting some of the foods till they're a bit older.

Learning to walk and talk can be big nighttime disrupters. Personally I coslept and immediately fed my son back to sleep through those times and he didn't stay awake for several hours like some babies/ toddlers I know. That's just what I chose to do. There's no right or wrong way to handle it.

Water at meal times too.
What kind of fruit puree are you offering? Apricot and prune is good for poops

And pear is v good for constipation.

There is a big sleep regression at 8 months so its unlikely to be the food intake & more a growth spurt. With mine i noticed that whenever there was a development in his awake time it really affected his sleep. Learning to crawl, rolling over etc meant constant wake ups every hour for a week to 10 days before calming again.

My youngest is 16 months and still isn't sleeping through.

Could your daughter have a cow milk protein allergy and she has reacted to the cheese you gave her?

I must say my son was waking every 2 hours till around 18 mo (I actually can't remember it was such a fog); I'd have loved him to be waking twice a night!

I looked at everything when mine still wasn't sleeping through at a year. I mean, all the books SAY they should, right? Everyone else says they start at around 6 weeks, right? This is what I was tellign myself, until my GP said "sometimes it's just the nature of the child. Sometime they just don't sleep as much as other children".

With my son, you could feed him a feast before bedtime, have him run a marathon the day before, black out blinds, no intolerances, etc etc etc etc etc....it was just the way he was. He didn't start sleeping through until he was almost THREE, and even now most night wakes once a night (though now at this age he can get himself back to sleep). He still even now only at 5 years old sleeps around 9 hours. His personality though suits this, so in hindsight (and isn't hindsight an absolute bitch) itmakes sense.
My middle one starting sleeping through at 6 months, my third at a year and a half. Middle one wakes about once a night still (blankets come off, monsters in the room etc), youngest sleeps straight through. So on average, after 5 and a half years, I still get woken at least once a night.

Sometimes (after getting them checked by the GP of course), no matter what you do, it's just the way the child is.

Personally I coslept and immediately fed my son back to sleep through those times and he didn't stay awake for several hours like some babies/ toddlers I know. That's just what I chose to do. There's no right or wrong way to handle it

^^This. Lack of sleep is pure hell, torture - we do what we can to survive. I ended up bringing the then 2.5 year old's bed in to my room next to my bed and he slept next to me for the next year whilst I "sleep trained" him.

I'm going back a long time, but my DD hardly slept and I can't really offer you any advice. You could hear her rustling in the night, could check on her and she'd be awake. If she fell asleep during feeding, yes, she'd wake up as soon as you moved her and maximum time for sleeping in the day was 20mins. This won't help you now, but fast forward a few years she always wanted her own bed, even if ill so no disturbed nights (which you don't often hear). I'll admit I had a couple of times I insisted sleeping on the floor in her room though.

Thank you so much to everyone that has replied. The last couple of nights have been better ! I don’t know what it is but I think it may be a combination of things.

-We have given Robyn a little bit of what we’re havibg for dinner ie mash meat veg etc

-We haven’t bathed her every night (we got into a bath bed routine every night) and she did have eczema for a little while which can flare up now and then.

• We are feeding and putting her straight down at 7 instead of 8. In my opinion this is useful for her sleep cycles. Usually she will wake up as we are going to bed when she is put down later, so now she seems to be waking up before we go to bed, has another little feed and goes down for a good few hours. She always has two feeds during the night regardless of anything. So I’m sorry to anyone that says babies after 6 months don’t need milk feeds - mine certainly does ! Thank you as always for you lovely ladies advice. x

@Bananacentral couldtn't agree with this post more, this is great advice op.

You can puree meat too, lambs liver especially is very high in iron and very good for them. lentils, chickpeas all the pulses very good and filling too. Puree and freeze in the silicone molds, and you can always add a pouch of puree prunes to this as well

Your baby isn’t waking up because she is hungry, she’s waking because she like waking up for company and a bottle of milk, yes she may still need one feed a night but anymore than that she’s waking out of habit. You need to break the habit.

It’s completely normal for babies to wake a few times still at that age, my eldest slept through (apart from a few sleep regression phases) from 12 weeks, my youngest is nearly 3 and still wakes once most nights although he just needs a drink of water and a hug these days. Some babies just sleep better than others, nothing made any difference to my rubbish sleeper apart from waiting, he started sleeping better around 18 months but still woke a couple of times then.

If you speak to a paediatrician about sleep and young children, many/ most don't sleep through reliably till ages 5.

Ds1 was 5.5; he would sleep all night from age 3 without stirring if he went to sleep with you co sleeping but dh wanted him 'in his own room' 🙄 so it took a while longer for him to stop hopping into ours in the night.

Haven't even got a room sorted yet for ds2; I intend to cosleep for as long as possible! Ironically he does the whole 'put them down sleepy but awake' thing that ds1 couldn't do!

There is nothing wrong with your baby! My 11 month old has slept through the night twice in his entire life. Wakes many times at night and breastfeeds several times. He’s my third child and the eldest two were the same. They are now 7 and 5 and sleep beautifully. It’s just a matter of time, it will get better. Some babies just take a long time to sleep through. 8months is tiny

Thanks everyone. It’s actually so reassuring to hear that baby’s actually don’t often sleep through the night. My friends baby has since he was a newborn, I don’t know why or how, she said he doesn’t sleep much in the day (Robyn would be sooo overtired!!) I don’t mind being woken up a couple of times it’s just if it gets more than that I’m kinda exhausted the next day ! My eldest who is now 7 has always been an amazing sleeper from the age of 2. We never hear a peep out of her and she was breastfed also. Xx

My 8 month old has porridge each morning
Veg purée for lunch
Half a mashed banana or veg purée for tea
Quite small portions too but before 1 it doesn’t matter as milk is the main nutritional source still
Will introduce some finger foods around 9/10 m and still bf

Reading one of your last posts, it clarifies some things.
With DS, sleeping through the night, meant I could get 7-8 hours sleep. That easily meant 22:00-6:00!
In that respect, yes, they'll need some feeding. What they don't need is feeding every two hours at that age.

But that often meant long naps during the day, or falling back to sleep after the first morning feed.

I think it's a good idea to put her early to bed, as tiredness can affect how well they sleep.
That is something I wasn't so alert to when DS was a baby and might have helped too. I've since realised that he's one of those people who gets irritable when he can't sleep.

Sleeping through is such a variable thing. My daughters didn't sleep through until they were in reception. My ds bf to sleep until about 6 months ago and still does occasionally. He only started sleeping through just before he was 3 but now still wakes in the night.
Babies wake for reasons other than hunger. Bf is about so much more than food. It's their main source of comfort. Ds was a dreadful eater and weaning was a slow painful process. He didn't eat reliably until about 10 months. He still tends to eat a good breakfast, variable lunch and is rubbish at dinner. He's 3y 9m and has a bf at bedtime and sometimes on waking. He's naturally reduced his feeds and will eventually completely wean himself like his sister did. One thing I did differently with him compared to his sisters was to offer the breast as often as they woke, or cried. The difference being that with him I am a single parent and have been from day one so no one else to try and settle him. The result has been a very contented, settled baby that is satisfied with a bf whatever the time of day or night. Nursing is like a magic cure-all. That might not be the case for all babies but my advice is to always offer a feed and see if it settles them. I wish I'd have done that with my daughters as I'd have probably saved myself a lot of sleepless nights. Instead of baby wakes, nurse baby, baby back to sleep, mummy back to sleep within half an hour, my husband would insist that I try to settle them in other ways and so they cried for much longer and never settled for as long. Ds was waking in the night for a feed until he was about 2.5years.
It can feel overwhelming at times when you're tired but it does settle gradually and you'll adjust to their pattern. It's really hard but I think it's worth it and it's important to realise it's completely normal for babies to do this. The sleeping through thing really annoys me as it's not the norm for bf babies. Breast milk is different at night for a start and you produce more prolactin. The breastfeeding network are a great source of support. Hope it gets easier and well done for nursing beyond 6 months

My little man is the same! Breastfed and waking up loads, he goes to bed at 8 and I fed him at 7 yesterday, not a full meal but some carrots and I got 3 hours? So now wondering if being full before bed will help but don't trust me on that as only done it once!

I didn't BF my 3 girls and I think it's relevant to say that as BF babies may wake for comfort feeds more than bottle fed babies.

I think at 8 months you can start to be firmer about night time waking and settling generally. My youngest was a reflux cmpa baby who was dreadful at night for months. At 8 months she no longer had reflux and was on a dairy free formula and happy. I switched from a co sleeper crib to a cot. I put the cot right next to my bed but from night one I decided I wouldn't lift her once she was in there. She had a bottle then I lay her in and put my hands through the bars and patted and stroked her back etc. She screamed her head off for a bit as I was cuddling to sleep before but I stayed with her and comforted like that until she fell asleep.

If she woke in the night I just put my hands through and shushed and patted etc. The following night she cried and woke less and by the end of that first week I was saying goodnight and leaving and having no night wakings. I never actually left her alone to cry as it wasn't something I was comfortable with but the whole issue resolved very quickly when I wasn't lifting and holding.

A month later I moved the cot against the wall away from the bed and soon after I moved her into her toddler sister's room. She's now 26 months and I rarely/never really have night wakings or settling problems.

It worked for me. It may not work for you but you could try a gentler variation or do some feeding and some patting in between maybe.

Good luck!

My DS is the same age as your DD. I agree with pp who said your baby should be eating a wider range of foods. Especially meat for iron. You can shred it finely and mix with runny veg purée. I give my DS tastes of everything from my plate. He likes fruit and yogurt for breakfast, other meals are what we’re having mushed up, usually meat and veg. He also enjoys the occasional chocolate button or a teaspoon of cream!

Unfortunately my DS still wakes several times a night and is now refusing to go in his cot. I’ve resorted to co sleeping to maintain my sanity. I figure he’ll sleep when he’s ready.

If your DD is allergic to egg you need to inform your GP who will refer you to a paediatric allergy clinic for tests. They will confirm the allergy and invite you back at regular intervals to be re tested to see if she’s grown out of it.

I’m sorry to anyone that says babies after 6 months don’t need milk feeds
Nobody should be saying that. NHS advice is that babies need breast or formula milk as their main drink until at least one year old. Not giving them milk will result in malnutrition.

In original medical research studies on babies (I'm guessing under 1, certainly under 6 mo) sleeping for 5 hours was classed as "sleeping through".

It's since been evolved by the baby sleep industry into this western gold standard of 12 hours uninterrupted sleep which makes mums feel like they're failing if their baby can't do this.