Night Time Bottle - Savannah,GA

my 6 month old eats cereal with baby food in it and a bottle. (About 2 to 4 ounces of formula after her cereal) You could try giving her cereal and fruit before bed. she might not want to get up in the night if she is so full!!:)

I have a five month old who also got up for a while at 2am. We first tried the before bed snack. I would feed my son at 7 or 8 but then I would wake him again before I went to bed at about 10 and let him drink whatever he wanted, usually 4-6oz. This was just enough to hold him over most nights. If it's habit rather than hunger we also tried the following. I would change him and rock him to see if that would put him back to sleep. Sometimes he just needed the cuddle time. If that didn't work I would give him a bottle of water when he would get up. This isn't as thick as formula so he didn't get use to eating at that time, but he got a drink to make him happy.
Good luck!

My daughter didn't sleep through the night without a bottle until 6 months when I started cereal. Every kid is different. Give her time.

she's still young, and that's normal, but you may try giving her water in her bottle when she wakes up in the middle of the night. that may get her the sucking she wants but not get her full so that her stomach will not be used to getting full in the middle of the night. also, i thought the advice of waking her and feeding her right before you go to bed was a great idea!

my kids went to bed about 9 so about 8 I would fix a cereal bottle with a little but of karo in it and after a few weeks I had to put a little more karo and cereal and after a bout a month it was up to about 1-2 oz of karo and 1 table spoon of cereal and at 5 months you can start giving some baby food (the jars) for the meals along with the formula if you have any questions ask and I will give more detail hope this helps

hi C.. i am the proud parent of a 19 week old little boy who is VERY VERY active. at our last doctor appointment we were advised to begin giving him solids. our doc suggested to use a spoon for the feeding rather than putting it in a bottle. we offer a bottle between bites so loghan can get a "drink." because he burns more calories than normal feedings offer, we are feeding him solids 2-4 times a day in addition to 20-30 oz of formula. (please know that he hasn't blown up--he is weighing in at just over 14lbs.) we give him his last bottle at 5ish then his last meal of solids at 8ish. loghan falls asleep by 9 at the latest . . . we don't hear from him until 7 or 8 am and when he wakes he is jovial for the new day. talk to your pediatrician for the best advice. . . be careful trying some of the things mentioned in previous posts! good luck!!

C.,

Although I am a lactation consultant and deal with babies that are breastfed, it is still perfectly normal for your 5 month old to be waking for a feeding during the night. Their tummies are still small and 12 hours (or so) without a feeding is a very long time. Please do not add cereal to her bottle....according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, she should not even be eating solids yet.....6 monthis is the recommended age. So for right now, since you aren't giving her mom's milk, formula is all that she needs. Be patient, she will sleep through the night when her body is ready.....and that may not be for several more months or longer.

D.

I understand the hesistancy to letting her cry, it took me until about 8 months to figure out I didn't have to run everytime she whimpered. My suggestion is to postpone the "2 am" bottle by 30 minute intervals every three of four days until she is not eating at night. To start, make sure she is eating enough all day and before bed and put her to sleep. Wake her up before she wakes you up at "1:55 am" and feed her as normal so she'll depend on you to wake her. Then start moving that time up 30 min. at a time always waking her first. That may be the most pleasant if you don't want to let her just "cry it out". But in warning, to make progress there has to be consistancy for whatever you do. So if she happens to wake up still do not feed her until your decided time, of corse you could still go in her room and try and sooth her until that time so she still feels your love and attention. I might also suggest giving her 3-5 min to cry just to see if she goes back to sleep on her own. If she is whimpering wait until it becomes full crying. I hope this helps if you have questions please ask and I will dig out the book I read this from...N.

try thickening her last feeding before bed with some baby cereal. My son had acid reflux really bad when he was still on bottles. Every bottle we fixed had to have cereal in it. He started sleeping through the night very early. Hope this helps

C.,
It's a tough thing to do and you have to go with your gut instinct... I was still getting up once a night to feed until about 7 months. I was breastfeeding so my husband really couldn't help... but my saving grace was I got sick and needed to sleep... the first night I took a tylenol pm and work up when he started to cry but let him cry for close to an hour... he fell back to sleep ( keep in mind I have a video monitor so I could see he was okay but I turned the vol. off) the next night he woke again and cried for 20 minutes, the third night he woke and cried for 5 minutes. And then he did it... he slept through the night with out crying or feedings. Unfortunately, as you know, there is no magic answer but I hope this gives you hope... and I hope that you don't have to be sick to get a good night sleep!!!!
sincerely, H.

My son is 4 months old and takes cereal in his bottle at night. He sleeps most of night, but if he wakes up it's at usually 4. We put him down about 10:30. As for the crying it out process I DO NOT believe in this method. Give her a bottle when she wakes and she should go right back to sleep!!!

Your child is not old enough to sleep thru the night. When she is old enough to sleep thru the night she will and that agr varys from child to child. My oldest didn't sleep thru the night until she was almost a year old nd even then she woke up at like 4 every morning for an early morning feeding. Also sleeping thru the night as described by the AAP is 6 hours not 8 - 12. So enjoy your night-time bonding while it lasts. She will be very small for a VERY brief period of time =)

try all of the cereals to see which one she like the best - rice, oatmeal, etc. some are more filling than others. don't use the ones with fruit at night - too much sugar. also i had luck spoon feeding the cereal then giving the bottle a dinner time. my little one was 4 months and slept through the night. my ped. also said to let her cry - that it wasn't hunger is was a habbit.

It is okay for her to want to eat,even that early.If she is hundry FEED HER.The only thing that you can try to do is wake her up around 11pm.If that doesn't work don't worry she will grow out of it,just give her time.

With my 3 month old to get her to sleep longer between feedings at night when she would start to wake up I would put her in bed and give her a pacifier to delay feeding. You can do this or just rock her or whatever it is you do to soothe her. The point is to make her wait, even if its just 20 minutes or so. After the first night of doing this Brittany slept for 7 hours the next night. Now at four months it's not uncommon for her to sleep from nine at night till five in the morning. And I've never had to let her cry it out to get her into this schedule.

at 5 months old its comman for babies to still be hungry at night, both of mine were. Cereal in a bottle has never actually been proven to help babies sleep through the night for some babies it works for others it dosnt. and generally peds do not recomend putting cereal in a babies milk bottle. You can try giving her more before you put her down , or getting her up when you go to bed and giving her the bottle and putting her back down.For an infant 5-6 strait hours of sleep is consitered through the night ( who are they kidding lol for most of us sleeping through the night is from the time we go to bed to the time we are up for the day not so for infants who came up with that rule??) You really shouldnt expect a baby to sleep through the night un till 9-13 months.The best advice I can give you is relax about trying to get her to sleep through the night she will prob surprise you one day and you will wake up in the am and have to think really hard if you got up or not. ok so this has gotten lots longer than I wanted but try the giving her a bottle just before you go to bed. She might be going through her 6 month growth spurt as well some go early.

hope that helps
B.

Edited to add do not give her kero syrup in her bottle it is not recommended. It has not been tested as to what it actually does to babies.

I know advice varies from ped. to ped, but our ped. is only now saying that my son should sleep through the night without waking to eat. He just turned 9 months.

WAKE HER FOR A BOTTLE 30 MIN. BEFORE YOU GO TO BED. IF YOUR DR. HAS SAID SHE CAN HAVE CEREL THEN ADD IT TO THE BOTTLE. MOST DR. SAY TO GIVE CEREL AT 4 MONTHS. I FEED MINE AROUND 10 WHEN I GO TO BED HE USUALLY SLEEPS UNTIL 5AM THEN GETS UP ONLY TO NURSE BUT GOES RIGHT BACK DOWN UNTIL 7. AND HE ISN'T ON CEREL YET.I AGREE WITH THE ONE ALSO THAT SAID WAKE HER UP BEFORE SHE WAKES YOU.. AFTER A WHILE SHE WILL EXPECT YOU TO WAKE HER BUT YOU WON'T AND SHE WON'T MIND..... GOOD LUCK

Have you tried giving her rice cereal with her formula at night before bed? It sometimes helps to keep her tummy fuller during the night. Both of my children were like this and I gave each of them a thinked mixture of formula and rice cereal before bed and they slept like little angels right through the night.
Now even my granddaughter is taking this mixture before bed.

Hey C.,
My daughter also enjoyed her once a night bottle, and even though my doctor assured me when she was around 6 months old that she could physically sleep through the night without eating, I couldn't bear to not feed her. Finally, when she was around 11 months old, I began letting her "cry it out." Four nights later she was sleeping all night... but those were four very long nights!

Good luck!
D.

We did something the Baby Whisperer calls a "dream feeding". I was breastfeeding exclusively and I would get my girl back up about 2 hours after she went down - right before I went to bed. After a few weeks - maybe 2 months, she started to take less and less. Finally, my pediatrician recommended discontinuing this feeding which we dropped immediately. She never woke up for it again. By the way, the Baby Whisperer has some great books!

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Please dont use the karo suryp that will be hard on her tummy right now that is usely done for constpation. Try a nice warm bath right before bed low lights soft music and a bottle.
My daughter is 9 months and still wakes up at night unlike her sister at that age would sleep all night I guess every baby is different just hang in there Im sure it will get better.

Ummm have you tried giving her baby food yet? Thier appettites change rapidly as they grow. Feeding her some baby food and the cereal just might do the trick unless she is teething. If she is use Hylands teething pills. you can get theese at a pharmacy.

I would give my children oatmeal before bed. You know the Quacker Oats that come in different flavors. You just had warm water. My children started sleeping through the night at an early age. I was lucky. Good Luck.

Try giving her a bottle right before you go to bed (around 10 or 11 pm). That might hold her for a few more hours.