6 Months Thread
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Anonymous
| There seem to be a lot of posts lately about 6-mo issues, and one poster mentioned that she feels really alone in her struggles because she doesn't know anyone else with a baby this age. Given that many of us likely feel that way, I thought it would be fun/useful to start a thread for parents of 6 month olds struggling through this stage. In my experience so far, 6 months is both wonderful (smiling, laughing, independent play, some structure and predictability...) and difficult (my baby is not yet STTN, starting solids is complicated, pumping enough milk at work is really hard...). This can be a safe place to share your struggles or ask your questions and get some support from people in the same place. |
Anonymous
| I'm a six-monther and I am finding my DD to be so sweet and fun. I'm really enjoying her. That said, I AM SO OVER getting up with her twice a night. She still wants to eat at night and I am so unsure of whether it's a real need for food (hunger) versus a want for food (comfort). Ferber says no baby over five months needs to eat at night and eliminating nighttime feedings along with sleep training is okay; whereas, Weissbluth says it's perfectly normal for a six month old baby to need to eat 1-2 times a night. Who's right? What do others think? |
Anonymous
| Great idea! I'll be back to discuss when I have more time. |
Anonymous
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I'm in for a 6-mo. thread, as I'm a FTM and am flying by the seat of my pants.
No words of wisdom on night feedings...kiddo usually goes just about all the way through but it's not because we did anything smart. Just her style. Don't worry, the universe will eventually seek its revenge on us for our good fortune in sleeping. I'm bracing myself and waiting for the other shoe to drop. My issue is that I know I *should* be sleep training and putting her down drowsy but awake, but I don't. I feed\rock to sleep every night. I secretly love it, and kid is out like a light. Will I pay for it later? Anyone else avoiding CIO and sleep training? Waiting to incur DCUM wrath... Be gentle! |
Anonymous
I'm the poster who is having trouble with night feedings. I also have a preschooler who slept through the night pretty early (adding to my angst over DD who is still up to eat!). I never did CIO with DC#1 and enjoyed rocking to sleep. It never caused any problems and worked just fine for us. I did cut out feeding-to-sleep around a year and it wasn't a problem. I figured "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". You shouldn't feel any pressure to do drowsy but awake or CIO if you're not having any issues. If your child goes down nicely after some rocking and you enjoy it - there's nothing wrong with that. |
Anonymous
Mine slept 8pm - 6am from 9 weeks onward. So while if course this is anecdotal and only my case, it is very possible not to wake to feed at 6 months (and much earlier, clearly). |
Anonymous
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My daughter hits the 7 month mark next week! It's a time of crazy change, right? I guess the whole first year is but I'm kind of loving this part. MILESTONES - mostly gross motor skills, i guess? she's trying like crazy to crawl and pull-up. she does that crazy 1-legged crawl thing for very short distances. she's mobile! sort of! we have done no babyproofing on the theory we had another month or two before she could really get anywhere. oops. NIGHTWEANING/SLEEP TRAINING - I decided I had enough of getting up 3-4 times a night about 5 weeks ago. Doc said she was big enough and we could give it a try. having read a bunch of sleep books, we adopted an amalgamation of theories. I decided to night wean first and got down from 3-4 20 minute feeds to 2 5-minute feeds without any crying. When I tried to further reduce/eliminate the 1am feed , things got screamy. But we're down to one serious fussing session (<10 minutes last night) and one feed (somewhere between 3 and 5 am). so . . . progress? we'll do ferber sleep-training soon. SUPPLEMENTING - she's FINALLY eating well at daycare. a bit more than I can realistically pump at work. SOLIDS - I offer her some twice a day. She is still really not interested. She'll suck down a teaspoon or two of purees and then just try to play with it. Doc didn't seem worried at the 6-month appointment but she still hasn't shown much interest and I'm not sure if I should start doing something different. my thoughts on 20:04: I'm sure the answer is "it depends". (infuriating, isn't it?) Most people I have talked to seem to say their baby kept one feeding for a long time (like a 4 or 5 am feeding). But as I said above, my DD was nursing A LOT. I had pretty good success slowly reducing the length of a nursing session (from 20 minutes to 15 minutes 10 to 9 to 8 to 7 and so on, each for a few days each). DD just started eating more during the day and on her own dropped some of the feedings! Ferber suggests a similar method more useful for people bottlefeeding (or at least babies that will tolerate a damned bottle at night, unlike mine). His suggestions for night-weaning nursing babies (just push the feedings further apart) didn't work so well for us. But my thought was you could try some variation on slowly reducing the amount consumed and see how baby reacts? |
Anonymous
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Yay for this thread! Great idea, OP! I am a FTM to a 6 month old boy - NMJ are his initials.
Sleep: he generally does well with this.... But only at night. I, too, still rock or feed to sleep, and it works like a charm at night. Bed at 7:30 (was 9:30 until about 3 weeks ago), and up for the day at 6:30. After several weeks with few night wakings, he's taken to waking up at 4:45am this week, argh. This morning he went back sleep with just rocking though, so not too bad. Naps are a whole different story though. On a good day I get a couple 30-40 min naps; on a bad day it's two 20 min naps and I have to fight tooth and nail to get him to go down for them. Eating: sucks. Severe food intolerance issues. He seems to react to most things. Most recently, dye-free Tylenol. He spit up 6-7 times after his first bottle this morning and had mucusy diarrhea. On both Prevacid and Zantac since those seem to help some symptoms (we don't really know if there is regular reflux too), and I'm wondering how I'm ever going to get this kid eating more than 2 real foods. Which is sad, since he seems to really like eating if it's super smooth. All we've successfully introduced so far is bananas and green beans. Not sitting up on his own or crawling yet, but he's cutting his first tooth. The poor kid is miserable, and the poor little guy has spent so much time feeling miserable already. I wish the tooth would hurry up so he can feel good again. |
Anonymous
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To the PP with the food intolerant baby (I'm PP 22:04) -
My DD has been through hell with food allergy issues. We tried it all: Zantac, Prevacid, soy/dairy free diet, Nutramigen formula. Nothing helped until I put her on Elecare. Now she's doing great. I was sorry to stop nursing, but I got over it really fast when I saw that she could finally eat without pain. Now we're doing solids and I was very nervous but it's gone so well because I think the Elecare gave her gut a chance to heal and mature. So far we've done rice cereal, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, pears and bananas. I hope you can find some relief soon too. Have you considered using an elemental formula? I know it's a really hard decision to make if you're committed to breastfeeding. Good luck. |
Anonymous
PP, so sorry you've dealt with this too!! I think we might have crossed paths on another thread... I was on a complete elimination diet from 8 weeks through 5 months to keep nursing DS, but finally gave it up and switched to formula for the sake of our family. Such a difficult decision, but it was the right thing. He was on Allimentum at first and then we switched to Nutramigen. When we were having difficulties with the Alimentum I spoke to the Ped, and she told us Nutramigen was our last option. I'm not sure why Elecare wasn't suggested, but he seems to do ok on the Nutramigen alone at this point. It's when we try introducing anything else that we're seeing problems again. Maybe I should do what you did and just back off trying to introduce any additional foods for another month and give him a chance to heal, and in the meantime just give him the Nutramigen, green beans and bananas. We have an appt with the Ped on Monday, so I'll speak with her about it then. Thank you so much, and I'm glad introducing foods is going so well with your DD! |
Anonymous
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This is 20:29, hereafter B's mom.
Let's talk changing table procedures for a second, because I'm about to bust out the duct tape. Rolling over has become the novelty du jour in our house, which is particularly tricky during diaper changes. Not so bad when we're just dealing with #1, but the other day we had a MAJOR doo and kid was rolling around so much it was like a s**t rotisserie. I've also been finding random items in her pajamas in the morning - I think because I'm in such a hurry to pin her down and get her clothed. Last night a paci got zipped up in her sleep sack and stayed there all night. Last week I actually found an entire tube of diaper cream in the back of her jammies (luckily caught that as soon as I picked her up off the table). Almost as bad as when I unswaddled her during week one and found a forkful of fried rice that had obviously fallen down when I was trying to choke down some dinner during a feeding. Mother of the Year award right here!! Any other stories of stellar parenting to make me feel better?? 
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Anonymous
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Hey all, My DD is 7 months--but close to the 6 month mark, so maybe I can still comment--also a FTM and trying to learn. I am LOVING this age--it is so much fun, her personality is coming out and I love watching her move..however all the "milestones" are totally messing up our sleep.
We did sleep training at 6 months and it went well--but now that she can sit up/pull herself up she is waking up and sitting up and unable to sit down or pulling herself up and our good sleep has gone down hill again. I know we should probably sleep train again, but just a few minutes of cuddle/comfort nursing helps her go back down..DH has been getting annoyed with me for doing it--and I know he is right, but I do love that time when it's just her and I cuddling. I feel now that she is mobile she is always on the move, So i love the extra cuddles
haha as for the PP--my daughter is S--so she has started to sit up and SAME THING with #2 especially, my huband and I serioulsy have to both change her sometimes...the duck tape is a great idea!
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Anonymous
21:31 or H's mom here. H wants to flip over on the changing table whether I am changing diapers or putting on jammies. MESSY! Not much to be done about the diaper situation except restrain her with an arm or a strap. I had found that H fought me less if I let her sit up as soon as possible - i.e., arms can go into shirt and jammies or the sleepsack can be zipped while she's sitting up, but it requires unbuckling the restraining belt on the pad. So, Tuesday, I sat her up to put on the jammies and she immediately LAUNCHED herself forward and off the dresser. I had a hand on her so she didn't break her neck. but I left a bruise catching her. parent of the year, right? fwiw, she didn't cry. i did. now, we do most of our changing on the floor. sigh. |
Anonymous
| Second time mom of five month old S here. She has shown a bit of interest in food...is it too early to try a puree? I can't remember this stuff from my first and don't have a ped appt. for another month. Any thoughts? She is EBF and has been growing/gaining like crazy. |
Anonymous
official AAP recommendation is to wait for 6 months now. but it JUST changed, I think, and lots of peds will still say to go ahead and try if baby seems really interested. |