1 year old fussy eater suddenly waking for milk in the night

[SummerLightning]

My 1 year old has almost always been a super fussy eater. He is a bit of a milk monster and it took until about 9 months to get him eating well. Then he got Hand Foot and Mouth disease and has had various other ailments and ever seen has been really fussy again.
He will happily eat rice cakes, fruit, yoghurt and bloody Hipp organic jars. But is very hit and miss with anything else. We keep trying him though and occasionally he will break with the norm and eat with something that we have cooked.
Anyway, he has slept trhough since 6-7 months and we dropped dream feed at 8 months, since then he slept through and didn't even seem hungry in the morning.
The last 5 days he has started waking in the night, and screaming inconsolably. He is perfectly happy in the day time. For the first three days we cuddled him back to sleep, brought him in with us, gave him calpol even though we didn't think he was ill. On the fourth day he was so beside himself at 4am that we tried some milk (in desperation, didn't really think it would work) and he drank 150ml, screamed, and when offered another 150ml, drank that and fell asleep.
So yesterday we tried to feed him up on his favourite foods to see if it would make a difference. He slept better before 4am, waking up a couple of time and crying, but we didn't need to go in to him. but at 4am he was the same again, and again drank 300ml of milk.
Is this a big growth spurt? I thought we had well and truly left the night feeds behind. Unfortunately this morning he wasn't really hungry for his breakfast which makes me worried we are getting him in the habit of having a big feed at 4am, which is obviously not ideal! I think we are going to try offering him more snacks through the day rather than just at meal times and see if that makes a difference. He seemed pretty stuffed at tea last night so don't think I can more down him then.
Has anyone got any other suggestions? I am dreading going back to work next week if he is still sleeping like this! Also I was hoping that the next growth spurt would be when I could try and get him to be less fussy!!
Also is it bad for him to be having this much milk? With the extra feed he is having he will be having about 800ml milk a day.
Thanks for any suggestions!

That is not too bad as an amount all day but that is a lot for him to want at 4am, although maybe that is how much DS2 has at around the sametime. I put it down to teeth with DS2. He wakes at about that time screaming has a feed then eventually settles back to sleep sometimes it is worse and he needs remedies or calpol/neurofen. But he doesn't always do it so i've put it down to teeth. DS2 eats quite well so I don't think it's hunger in his case. Not sure if this helps or just confuses you. By the way that food preference isn't too bad, at least he likes fruit. Will he eat porridge. If you still think it's hunger you could try porridge for supper? In fact I might try that!

Agree with Veggie, does he have supper? Weetabix or porridge might fill him up and stretch him out till morning. Worth a try?

Hello summer. DD was doing the same thing recently re waking in the night. We put hers down to teeth, gave her calpol and soothed her. She has now (touch wood!) stopped waking and is back to sleeping through. It may be that he is eating because he is awake rather than being woken by hunger - if that makes sense. I'd try the supper thing like daisy suggests.

Hope things improve for you.

Summer, DD still has about 650ml a day, I don't think 800ml is bad. Also, O is a fussy eater and since she had that virus ten days ago, she is only just getting back into solids again.

I wonder whether it is worth waking him just before you go to bed to give him milk. This has got to be better than him waking you up in the middle of the night.

Hope things improve, I am sure it's worse for not being in your own house.

Thanks everyone,
I will try the porridge thing, he likes Ready Brek so will try that before milk at bedtime.

ladyt it was 2 months ago that he was ill, so I think it is time to stop making excuses from that point of view. But someone did tell me that HFM can affect their taste and appetite, but don't think it can be apparent any more.

Agree that it might be a chicken and egg re being hungry. After all if I was waking up every 1-2 hours yelling in the night I would probably be hungry too. But it seems that milk is the only thing that will properly re-settle him. And he wouldn't resettle after 150ml either. I am worried about it becoming a habit drinking that much milk in the night! I don't know if I can face night feeds again long term!

I don't think it is teeth, he has no other symptoms, he is not grumbly in the day, or clingy, in fact he is super cheerful and generally adorable. The only other thing, which is what we thought before the food thing, is that he's changed and is learning a lot of new things at the moment, and all of a sudden too. However, he is also definitely more hungry in the daytime too, so I still think it may be that!

Anyway I have my fingers crossed for tonight, will let you know how it goes.

So many things can affect waking, developmental leaps as well as teeth etc. A good supper is certainly a good idea though, by a year old ds hardly bf so I used to give him a banana or toast or something witha cup of milk before bed. Dd eats like a horse though and still feeds several times a night.

FYI I tried to give DS2 millet porridge tonight after dinner but before bath. This is not a large period of time and he was on the whole not impressed with the prospect and I managed to get him to take 3 spoonfuls before he clamped shut. To be fair he is definitely not well tonight and has upgraded from a little lurgy to a full blown snot monster! Good luck SL

SL, we have been having a crazy sleep patch lately too. On and off for probably 5 or 6 weeks with a mix of good and bad, and then 2.5 weeks of almost all terrible. I have just now found the first hint of a molar coming through - seems that they are bothered by them before you can see them?

Most of the time he has been grand during the day, but very upset at night, chewing his hand, etc.

So could be molars on the move? This is prime time for it.

Calpol doesn't cut the mustard for nasty teething here. Calprofen 30 mins before bedtime often sees him through the whole night.

The few times I have offered milk overnight lately, he has seemed keen but I'm still breastfeeding so can't tell if it is just for the comfort or if he is actually drinking lots. I am selfishly not keen to restart night feeds so am not making this a regular option!

veggie i hope the porridge works for you! Ds had about 5-6 spoonfuls, was clearly not very hungry. Let me put it in his mouth but kept spitting it out.

mom yes could be. He really doesn't show any symptoms though, no chewing hands, no red cheeks. Admittedly when his other teeth came through he only woke at night and was cheerful in the day too. Hopefully it will get better, as it really is his worst sleeping ever!! Hopefully be better at home as well, as we will all be a bit more relaxed.

Oh dear...he hardly drank any milk after the porridge!
Tempted to do ladyT's suggestion of reintroducing dream feed temporarily but he settles so badly at the moment that I think I will give it a miss.

SL DS2 doesn't chew his hands in fact he is quite averse to anything but mushy type foods (even off his fav pastas) just wants mushy soft foods with rice and still loves his yoghurt. I think it's because when the front teeth come through all the pain is right in that part of the gum. I imagine when the molars come through as it's at the back the chewing action helps...just a theory.

SL, we don't always have obvious teething symptoms other than grouchiness in the night, so wouldn't necessarily rule it out. But it does sound like he might be hungry at night. It is worth plying him with things other than just at mealtimes. Maybe the other thing is to see what denser, more filling things he might eat? I'm thinking things like cheese, either in cubes or grated on things, or the porridge idea, so he gets some carbs in him (which is what fills you up). DS is a bit the opposite, not a milk monster at all, won't drink more than about 300ml a day, but will eat as much as my 2.5 year old...

Thanks everyone, I am feeling a bit better even though I don't know what the problem is.
Hopefully it will fix itself soon.
I agree that it seems like he is hungry, it is so strange that he has gone from waking in the morning not starving hungry to not sleeping due to ravenousness overnight though!
invisible he used to love cheese, now he won't touch it. He does like readybrek which I guess is pretty filling.
Oh and good news on the non-fussiness thing, he today ate a load of turkey mushroom and pea risotto. That is unusual!

SL - Forgot to say that the non-eating is almost always a teeth thing for us. He has barely eaten solids at all the last week. Then yesterday he all of a sudden started eating again, and last night he slept through for the first time in over 2 weeks.

We are also away staying with my parents and I think the DCs are, in general, out of sorts when not at home.

Here's hoping things get better! When I was up for 3 straight hours in the middle of the night a few nights ago, and nothing would settle him, I could at least take solace in the fact that it couldn't get too terribly much worse.

Hi, there, this sounds like my DS (20mo), right down to the recent illlness (Sept, then NOv/Dec) and night terrors. He is a milk monster, too, and we have been getting through one of those big four pint things of full-fat milk every day and a half to two days partly because of his milk habit, and partly because of all the coffee I have needed to survive this regime!

Now cutting down on the amount of milk at night feeds (his poos were getting very runny and threatening nappy rash), giving him a bear to sleep with and reading a story before bed.

I guess it comes down to time, patience, and cutting down the milk till it's not hunger waking the LO. Also, unfortunately, "sleeping through" is not a linear process, and it seems certain children (mine, yours, other posters') are going to repeat this cycle again and again, and we've just got to deal with it.

Hi all,
Just wrote a long update, bloody computer decided it was going to crash before I got chance to post it.

Anyway it was probably really boring anyhow, the upshot is the last 3 nights, although he's not sleeping great, the hunger seems to have fixed itself. I just need to get him back into a routine of sorts now so that he decides sleeping til 7 is a good idea again! As he's grumpy as hell getting up at 5-6 after he's been up an hour not to mention me and DH.

Also he has outgrown a load of babygrows that he's been in for ages so maybe it was a growth spurt, who knows?!

mom i hope things get better soon, 3 hrs up in one go sounds awful!

wingedvictory good luck!

Thanks for the encouragement, SummerLighting! Yes, it seems some children just are affected by changes, while others take it in their stride. By the way, your additional note about the babygros does make it sound like a classic growth spurt. Can I ask, has he got any chub? My DS, despite all his growing, is very skinny, and I have a feeling that is why growth spurts affect him - he has not got the stores to help him grow without a massive eating programme!Munch munch munch (there, does that look like a round-faced child eating?)

He's actually reasonably chubby. But not massive. He's less of a chubster than he used to be though.