Why is my 6-month baby still waking up hungry twice a night?

[Anonymous]

Our baby still not sleeping through the night. He goes to bed at 7.30pm as part of a well-established bedtime routine without much fuss, but invariably wakes up around 12.30 pm and 3 am. He appears to be hungry, which is why we have not "sleep trained" him to date... We was exclusively breastfed for the first 5 months, which we assumed might possibly be part of the reason he didn't sleep through the night.

However, at this point, we've started him on solid foods - baby rice, pureed carrots, broccoli - that kind of stuff, plus we've started giving him some formula in addition to only breastmilk, thinking that if he got enough calories during the day, maybe he could sleep all night. He's a healthy weight, no medical issues. At six months, we think it's about time he slept through the night.

I'm wondering if he might be waking up out of habit. Should we start reducing the volume of his night feeds to get him out of the habit? He refuses a pacifier, etc. Anyone had any experience like this?

Any suggestions gratefully received!

[Anonymous]

He's still hungry! A large percentage of babies don't sttn until the second half of the first year. You could start cutting down on the first feed and maybe he will drop it with just some gentle encouragement.

[Anonymous]

I would read Ferber for ideas here.

[Anonymous]

Try giving a bottle with water in it.
Our pediatrician recommended that to me and on the 3rd night the baby slept straight through.

[Anonymous]

I don't remember the exact details, but only about 60% of kids naturally sleep the night, at all, let alone evernight, by 6 months. You could do a bunch of things to try to force the outcome, but these approaches are generally a lot of work and your kid may still not sleep through the night at the end of it.

I would just accept that it's normal and keep feeding my kid when he seems hungry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try giving a bottle with water in it.
Our pediatrician recommended that to me and on the 3rd night the baby slept straight through.

If you go this route (especially for that 3 a.m. feeding), try doing it gradually. That's how I got my dd to stop this feeding when she was around 6 months old. Start diluting her bottle by 1/2 ounce a night until its more water than milk. It eventually tasted so bad my daughter stopped drinking it.

[Anonymous]

"At six months, we think it's about time he slept through the night."
Not to be snarky, but you can think whatever you want.
The reality is lots and lots and lots of kids do not naturally sleep in 12 hour stretches. Neither do many adults. My kid was almost two before he started sleeping through the night.
I agree with 13:02. You can try stuff if you want, but it might just be a lot simpler and a lot less pain for everyone involved if you just feed the kid. I think your instinct not to "sleep train" him is correct. 6 months is still awfully, awfully young.

[Anonymous]

Nightweaning. Gradually cut down the nighttime bottles. Increase daytime bottles by the same amount. Same amount of nutrients, just during daytime hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"6 months is still awfully, awfully young.

No, it's actually not. Plenty of kids sleep through the night at or before 6 months. It all depends on the kid, weight, habit, etc. My 6 month old weighed more than my friends' one year olds. Different gender & body time. But if he's getting adequate food during the day, there is no "need" to eat at night. Obviously, you can't just cut both bottles one day to the next, but OP can wean her baby off of the bottles slowly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"6 months is still awfully, awfully young.

No, it's actually not. Plenty of kids sleep through the night at or before 6 months. It all depends on the kid, weight, habit, etc. My 6 month old weighed more than my friends' one year olds. Different gender & body time. But if he's getting adequate food during the day, there is no "need" to eat at night. Obviously, you can't just cut both bottles one day to the next, but OP can wean her baby off of the bottles slowly.

So you admit that it depends on the kid and then tell the OP that what worked for you will work for her. okay...

[Anonymous]

My kids both started at 8 months. We didn't train until they'd proved that they didn't need to eat anymore. (E.g., we could rock them back to sleep and they'd be fine, or they slept through a couple times on their own.)

[Anonymous]

Of course it depends, which is why your comment about how tender & fragile every 6 month old is BS. 6 months is not too young, as a per se rule, for sleep training or nightweaning.

[Anonymous]

OP, I could have written this post a month ago. My then 5.5 month old was waking up twice a night - usually at about 11:00 pm, and then again at 3:00 or 4:00 am. I knew that the first feed was a habit I started because I thought that I could make her sleep longer by giving her a dream feed when I went to bed. Instead, it just started a habit of eating at 11:00 pm. Oops!!!

We got rid of the 11:00 pm feed over three nights by CIO. My husband had to do the soothing, though. If I went in, my baby just wanted to eat.

I was okay with the second feed because I thought my baby was hungry. Then, lo and behold, last night - at 6.5 months - she slept 8-6:30. So, you might just need to give it some time.

[Anonymous]

A lot of babies start to wake up to the world around this time and actually start eating more at night because they are too distracted to eat during the day. So to answer your question, he is probably waking up hungry, because....I don't know, maybe he's hungry.

I personally would never give a baby this young water at night (I actually wouldn't give any baby water at night if what they're expecting is milk or formula). If your DC was previously sleeping through the night and just recently started waking in they middle of the night, it could be a growth spurt, a developmental leap, teething, wanting to reconnect because you're not with them as much, or actual hunger. Since we can't really know for sure what's bugging them, my advice (and indeed our approach as parents) has been to wait it out and do what you can to get them back to sleep quickly. I know a lot of people on here would disagree with that advice, but I agree with PP that 6 months is still quite young in the grand scheme of things.

[Anonymous]

If the baby goes right back to sleep after eating, I'd just go with it. It's not going to last forever - eventually he'll eat more during the day and sleep through. It's miserable now but it won't last long in the grand scheme of things.

My guy slept through the night from 4-6 months, then started waking up to eat (he started daycare at that point and didn't love bottles... plus he probably missed seeing me during the day). Around 8-9 months he went back to sleeping through the night and now is a pretty consistent 7:30 pm-7:30 am sleeper.