Insanely hungry baby!

[Laura2211]

My 7 month old seems to be the hungriest baby ever! I started weaning him just before 6 months & he wolfs everything down i give him! And frustratingly is still waking for 2 bottles a night. He has 3 massive meals a day & 3/4 bottles plus these 2 night bottles. I offer him as much food as I can in the day but he still wakes. I have tried settling him back to sleep without feeding when he wakes but he just won’t until he’s had his bottles which he drains...

Can anyone suggest What foods could I offer him that are filling & will fill him substantially to keep him going through the night? He has plenty of yoghurt, cheese, avacado, potato, weetabix, banana all of which I think are filling...
Any other ideas of foods I can offer to try & fill him up?
Thank you :-)

When you say massive meals, what do you mean? At this age babies should still be getting most of their meals in milk form, how much milk is he having in 24 hours?

*all babies are different I know

So he has 2 bowls of porridge/weetabix for breakfast, an ellas kitchen sachet for lunch & then I normally do some vege/fruit combo for tea with yoghurt & he Wolfs down 2 or 3 bowls!
Has about 500-600 mls of milk a day too..,

Does the 500 to 600 ml of formula include the bootlegs he's having at night?

Try giving him more protein (chicken, eggs, broccoli) - it's filling for a longer length of time.

I don’t think many babies asleep through. Ds woke at 7mi this every 2hrs still and was fed at least half of the wakes so 3-4 times overnight and probably 8+ milk feeds daytime.

A pouch of food isn’t super filling as mainly veg based.

At 7 months lunch here was something like 1/4 cream cheese/ houmous sandwich, some grated cheese, cucumber inner in sticks, fruit. Greek yogurt after.
Dinner a small portion of what we had or something I froze, but main hot meal. Yogurt afterwards.

Fruit and veg aren't very filling. So check he is having plenty of protein and fat plus what ever the usual amount of milk for his aged group is usual.

Maybe add in a bit more protein and carbs, and a morning and afternoon snack?

At 7 months I think my hungry one had

Breakfast porridge then mashed fruit.
Snack banana
Lunch egg and toast (toast usually just sucked on!) Or soup and toast
Snack those ellas big puffy crisp things
Dinner Ella's pouch and bits of our food to play with.

Bottles of milk too obviously.

My other child wasn't interested in food at all about that age. They are all so different.

*bottles

More milk. There is hardly any calories in fruit and veg. Are you giving him protein and fat rich foods? It’s completely normal to wake for 2 or 3 bottles a night. Milk has more calories in it. At this age he should only be on two meals a day and be having milk 30 to 60 mins before meals. 3 meals from 9 months and snacks for 12 months. He is hungry then he needs more milk.

Abs there are some good sample meal plans in this guide from the Caroline Walker Trust. Hopefully that will give you some ideas

Add protein and carbs to his diet. We used to do a pouch and some veg on top. I was surprised how much babies can put away lol
Always make more than you think they will eat as they will tell you when they are full.

I used to make some food as well and freeze it for later. Carrots, peas, chicken blended together was a win. Sweet potatoes too.

It's quite normal for babies to still be waking for feeds during the night at 7 months. It isn't necessarily related to what they eat during the day.

How are you both getting on now @Laura2211?

Thanks for all your msgs! Yes I pretty much do similar to above - with the sachets, I had spotted they were mostly veges so I tend to mix some cream cheese, yoghurt or rice through them to thicken them. Also trying to get him to eat our meals so blending casseroles, bolognaise etc. He has about 600ml including night bottles. I have tried offering extra bottles in the day but he just isn’t interested...
I will keep pushing the protein & hope his night hunger reduces...
DD1 didn’t wake for a bottle after 2 months! (She wasn’t a great sleeper but was never interested in food when she woke up) so this is all strange to me!

@PanicBuyingSprouts thank you for the link, lots of great ideas there x

Glad you find it useful