Exhausted: sleepless nights and weaning

P

Paddles

Registered User
I have a 17 week old who has been an angel, sleeping 12 hours a night for the last month. She take 4 feeds a day of 8 ounces. She's almost entirely formula fed with an occasional EBM.

For the last 4 /5 nights she has woken at least 3 times a night, I have tried to rock her/ pat her back to sleep but it seems unless i feed her she won't settle. Last night she was up every hour and i fed her 3 times - she takes between 4 and 6 ounces each time.

My question is, I know that they don't recommend adding solids until 6 months, but she is taking more than the recommended formula feed for a 7 month old and i can't possibly give her any more - she weighs 7.5kg, so she's quite big for her age.

Is this common - a growth spurt or a phase they go through at this age, or just hunger or a bad habit that I need to stop and if so does anyone have any suggestions, unfortunately i can't leave her to cry for too long otherwise she unsettles her twin sister - who has also started waking up twice but i think this may be due to all the activity and noise in the room, she is much easier to settle back down.

I'm sure there's no definitive answer, but i'd appreciate some opinions.

Thanks!
 
Sounds like a growth spurt.
Please don't give a 17 week old solids! That's not even four months.............
 
the baby wake up during the night, may be the baby experiencing abdominal pain or discomfort, they will often arch their backs or draw up their legs.
 
Sleeping comes from the brain not from the stomach ... that's what my US pediatrician would always say (his book is famous all over, but especially in the US). My oldest was / is very big, always 95%. I started solids at 4 months, same with the twins. At 6 months, they were eating wheat bread and other regular foods. They were all quick in that respect. I don't think there is anything wrong with starting solids at 4 months (assuming no allergies, etc. in your family) and the fact your child is above average weight and consuming a large amount of formula. However, I don't believe she's waking up because she's hungry.

I've always been told not to feed babies more than 32oz or so of formula ... and I never did. And my kids are good eaters.

Regarding the wake ups ... I would just let her CIO. She has been sleeping through the night before, so there is no reason for her to wake up. She's well fed, etc. Maybe you should also look at her bed time. Once they get older (and more active), often an earlier bed time is needed in order to avoid overtiredness. Overtired children have more trouble falling and staying asleep. My twins were in bed at 6 pm at 2 1/2 months (not sleeping through, but close), my oldest was sleeping 13 hours straight at 3-4 months, going to bed at 6 pm and waking up at 7 am. Never had any sleep issues with her (nor with my twins). Personally I don't think sleep regression if necessary if you continue looking at your child and their cues. Your child changes so their sleeping needs change and often they require earlier bed times in order to sleep better.

ETA: Just noticed you have twins ... anyway, I would temporarily seperate them (that's what I did) when needed. We had our boy in our room since he was a slightly worse sleeper, very loud but also battled reflux (spitting up blood, etc.).

HTH.
 
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Thanks for all the comments:

I don't think she's in pain, she seems pretty relaxed and not pulling her legs up or arching or anything. She has her hands in the mouth and if i give her a pacifier she sucks very hard.

Mom2sophie&twins - i'm ineterested that you say you put them to bed earlier when they are more active, she does seem a lot more tired and wants to go to bed earlier, but i put this down to her bad sleep patterns, her daytime sleeps have gone wrong too, and i've been keeping her awake a little in the evenings to stop her falling asleep at 6, because i thought that she was going to bed too early and that wasn't helping.

I've also read that you shouldn't give more than 32 ounces and she's taking more than that now and I'm not sure that's good for her..

HappyV - I thought that 17 weeks was considered to be 4 months...
 
My son was the same and with the recommendation of our ped. we gave him very small amounts of solid at 3.5months. This seemed to work for him and was back to sleeping throughout the night. However, do talk to your ped before feeding your baby before 4 months.

I really don't know why the recommended age for solids is now at 6 months (could be to do with allergies maybe). When my daughter was born 7yrs ago, the recommended age was 4 months and everybody I knew started their babies at this age.
Like Mom2Sofie&Twins, my son was also eating wheat bread and other regular foods by 6 months.
 
i thought at 4months, the babies' tongue thrust reflex is not fully gone yet, and their digestive systems are not that mature to process solids..hence the adjustment to 6months for starting solids.
 
totally depends on the baby. many babies are perfectly ready to and capable of eating solids by 4-5 months. others are slower to lose the tongue thrust reflex and/or cannot hold their necks up steady enough to be able to swallow/digest.
 
It seems to me that a lot of the research on delaying solids is based on exclusively breastfed babies, and i can understand why it should be encouraged to continue with breast milk for as long as possible especially if your baby is satisfied with what he/she is having.

However, if you have a formula fed baby it would make sense to me that the reasoning is different. I am now giving my baby 40 ounces of formula per day, having added a nightime feed back in - the recommendation is not to exceed approx 32. This gives her a bloated tummy. To drop a little of that in favour of a small amount of rice cereal that I can mix with EBM (i do have a small amount!)would maybe stop her tummy being so bloated as i can reduce the formula and increase the cereal slowly.

Even my other baby is taking over the 32 ounces but until I looked into this I hadn't thought to start her on solids and now i'm wondering whether I should start her at the same time. She isn't displaying as many signs though. I don't want to push them into taking something they don't want and I hope if they're not ready they will just refuse and I'll have to stick with the waking in the night and try again a week later.
 
Paddles said:
Thanks for all the comments:

I don't think she's in pain, she seems pretty relaxed and not pulling her legs up or arching or anything. She has her hands in the mouth and if i give her a pacifier she sucks very hard.

Mom2sophie&twins - i'm ineterested that you say you put them to bed earlier when they are more active, she does seem a lot more tired and wants to go to bed earlier, but i put this down to her bad sleep patterns, her daytime sleeps have gone wrong too, and i've been keeping her awake a little in the evenings to stop her falling asleep at 6, because i thought that she was going to bed too early and that wasn't helping.

I've also read that you shouldn't give more than 32 ounces and she's taking more than that now and I'm not sure that's good for her..

HappyV - I thought that 17 weeks was considered to be 4 months...
Click to expand...

If you're interested I'd recommend getting a copy of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. He was our pediatrician in Chicago. He's very down to earth and has been practicing for years. He's done lots of research in the sleep field and I am currently waiting for his study on twin sleep (in which we participated). I've seen it for sale in Hong Kong (the kid's book store in Stanley Plaza has it). Some say it's difficult to read, but I never had issues with it, although it can be a little repetitive at times. He shares great information on the importance of sleep and how sleep works for the various ages. Highly recommended it (and I don't get commission ;))!

With regards to the solids, just try ... agree with pp, you can always hold off if needed. My 3 way above average kids were only ff and have done great with solids. They're still great eaters. Agree, follow your instincts.
 
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Paddles:
I agree, the main benefit I see is the study on kellymom talking about iron supplementation, but obviously that doesn't apply to a formula fed baby, as they are iron fortified. I was searching for these answers last night as I am anxious to start solids myself :)

Dr. Jack Newman's answer appeals to me, but I'm still holding off... I don't know why I'm so worried about it?
 
just so that u can feel better ...i have a 6 month old who wakes up every HOUR by the clock from 11 pm to 6.00am....and he is a healthy happy baby/....i guess he just can;t stay away from me!! i am looking for miracles too so pls. help.
 
I started my son on solids when he was 4.5 months old, partly because he seemed ready and partly because he was still waking up 3-4 times, sometimes more at night. He has always been 95 percentile and we thought solids might get him through the night. He was exclusively breastfed.

He took to solids very well, and by 8 months I had introduced pretty much every food possible (bar nuts and honey).

Introducing solids did not get him to sleep through the night. And we tried everything. Then at almost ten months he weaned himself and slept through the night at the same time.

Now he is a fantastic sleeper, both at night and day.

His not sleeping at night NEVER affected him- he was a happy, healthy, big baby who was sitting unaided at 4 months and walking at 10.5 months.
Now he is an intelligent 23 month old who will not stop talking!!

We were too waiting for a miracle that would get him to sleep- we tried everything and nothing worked. Then one day, around ten months, it was like he just got it and that was it.
 
I started mine at 5.5 months but my mom told me it is a little late because my grandma started me and siblings on baby cereal once we are like 45-50 days old!!!! I will never do that but we all survived and healthy so i guess 4-5 months is really ok for SOME babies to start solid....
 
Just a little update... i went ahead and started solids last week, and actually gave to both my twins and it's been incredibly succesful for me. They both love it and the first day they giggled and smiled at every spoonful. It has improved the nights - i noticed a difference on the 2nd day, and they seem more settled.

I'm taking it very slowly - just a few spoons of baby rice each day and I will introduce further foods at a slower pace than i would if they were 6 months. Their milk intake is at a normal level for their ages too - so for me I believe it was the right thing to do.

Thanks for all the comments, opinions and suggestions - another step forward on the adventure of parenthood :o)
 
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