What Age Is It Appropriate to Give Your Baby Rice Cereal Before Bed?

It is usually between 4-6 months. However, you probably want to check with your doctor. If there are allergies in the family, doctors tend to want you to wait a little longer as it seems to make a difference in whether or not they develop food allergies.

In the meantime, try to increase the amount you give your son at each feeding. If you have been giving 4 ounces try to up it to 6. If 6, then up it to 8. This may help him go longer between feedings. That is what my doctor suggested for us. My son (almost 4 months) now sleeps through the night.

Good luck and hang in there.

Hi, D.! I have read books on babies that say sleeping through the night is not about making the baby fuller. It is about a biological mechanism that may start to kick in once your baby is over 12 pounds. Keep in mind that "sleeping through the night" may not mean 8 hours for a long time. Or, it may. Every baby is different. I have two children, ages 4 and 15 months. I tried the rice in my older child's bottle when she was an infant and it did not seem to help. I didn't even bother with my son. My suggestion is to train your baby to go right back to sleep after the late night bottle. Keep the room very, very dim. Don't stimulate the baby with talking or noises. Feed, him, burp him, change pamper if you have to and put him right back in his bed. He will learn that it is still sleep time and to go back to sleep. Then you can get back to sleep. If you are already doing this, keep doing it and just hang in there. It's rough, I know. I have been there. But it won't be forever. Good luck and take care! Sweet dreams.

Hi D.

You sound so tired, I am sorry for that. I agree with the waiting on the cereal, I tried my first guy a little too soon with the cereal and wound up with a gassy, constipated, fussy baby who slept less rather than more.

I am a Mom who also works FT but even before I went back to work my husband shared night time duties. I really suggest if your husband doesn't already share them you have a sit down and explain that you need help. You can't go all day and night without some decent sleep. Just because you are "home" doesn't mean you don't have a strenuous job taking care of home and baby. Lack of sleep is so hard to contend with. Talk to his Daddy and hopefully you can get a good nights sleep into you. Best wishes for a sleeping baby!

never add anything to the bottle, your baby's digestive system is not ready. that could only make things worse.
every baby is different on when they sleep through the night. my oldest son was over a year & still occasionally wakes up (mostly to use the bathroom now) he's 2.5.
i have a 7 week old & he sometimes sleeps through the night or at least 4-5 hour stretches. i attribute that to the swaddle me & also a memory foam inclined sleep positioner.
good luck, the night wakings will end soon enough- then it's time for another!!! :)

- we also use white noise, either a sound machine (has nature sounds, sounds of the womb, etc., the cool mist humidifer we use is loud, classical music- things like that

You should never give a three month old rice cereal or any type of grain until at least six months. If your baby can sit up with little or no assistence then go right ahead. According to my pediatrician and the multitude of research I've done on this subject children will manifest their digestive abilites physically, ie: sitting up tells you that the acids to digest semi solids are now present, teeth indicate being able to digest soilds. You also need to be careful with grains as well as any food, if given too early the child can develop an allergy to that food. Just look at all these children who are gluten, wheat, etc. allergic, and not just kind of allergic, deathly allergic. Have you tried feeding the child a larger bottle at the feeding before the three am one, that helped for my boy: His last feeding was at 12am then at 6am, I would try to give him 5-6 ounces at the 12am feeding. Also, you might not like this idea but some children have a higher suck reflex then others and could use binkies. I did this with my boy and as long as I restricted it to night time only use he never really got hooked and quit the bink by age one. Girl you are in my prayers, good luck and God bless.

Your baby should be eating during the day. It isn't good for anyones health to eat at night, or before going to sleep. Most babies start cereal at 4 months, however if your baby is showing signs of being overly hungry (by consuming more then the recommended amount of formula during the day and night), then maybe you should discuss starting him on cereal a little sooner then 4 months. All babies are not the same, and some grow and mature faster then others.

Hi D.,
You know... I was reading in my baby book the things my Mother gave me at 2 weeks and I was shocked! However I turned out just fine. I had a baby that would not sleep, had colic and acid reflux. I did the rice cereal in the bottle however be warned, that may or may not work. They have their own ways sometimes! Do what you feel is right, It is ok, some PEd's agree and some don't. Be careful though cause rice can bind and his system is a little immature yet for oatmeal cereal. Just try (I know it is hard) to be patient because sleep is just around the corner! My lil guy finally started sleeping thru the night at 6 months! But I know that may change too with growing. Establish a routine too. Example: Cody knows after Elmo at 6:50 he goes up for a bath! He gets very excited when I tell him it is time for a bath! Then after his bath and lotion and jammies on, he gets his nuk, goes on my lap for a bedtime story EVERY NIGHT (ok, maybe a few times we were away and it didn't happen but we did the closest we could). Then it's lights out a final bottle as we rock then I lay him in his crib while he is very sleepy but yet a tad awake and he is off to sleep. I can't stress enough how the routine, every night has truly worked. The cry it out thing I only tried when he was 6 months old and it worked like a charm and is is loving and thriving! Hope this helped as I have been in your shoes! He also stopped taking any feedings at night due to a nice healthy full dinner and his last bottle. But I forget what age that stopped... sorry :0(
Good luck and let us know what happened!
Christina

Our twins weren't sleeping thorugh the night at 2 months, so the doctor suggested swaddeling and it worked like a charm! Maybe that will work for him. I guess a lot of babies will startle themselves awake because of their arms moving, swaddeling cuts down on this and also makes them feel nice and snug like they were in the womb. It really worked well for us. Good luck!

Three months old is entirely too young for you to expect your baby to sleep through the night! I believe solid foods can be started at around 4 months of age for bottle fed babies and 6 months for breastfed babies. Even after starting solids, don't expect any miracles! I've been back at work since my daughter was 6 weeks old. She's now 15 months old and only sleeps through the night 3 or 4 times a week, if I'm lucky.....

Hi D.,

I'm sorry to tell you this, but my son didn't sleep through the night until he was 10 mos old. The "rice cereal" thing did NOT work, and I worried about the "empty calories".

One of the best pieces of advice I got was from an ob/gyn nurse. I was exhausted, and I was complaiing about it about it, and she said, "oh, you'll never get 8 hrs of sleep again, you've got a child. Mine's a teenager, and I get less sleep now, waiting for him to come home".

That really helped me--once I got used to the idea that I was just going to have to function on no sleep, I was able to do it. After all, it's such a short period in your life, and such a crucial time in their lives.

Oh, one other note, the neural sleep center in most babies doesn't mature until ca. 10 mos, which coincidentally is when my son started sleeping through the night.

I know this isn't the advice you wanted, and I hope you find something that works. R.

Most babies do not sleep through the night at only three months. Adjusting your expectations is the first step.

It's not too soon to try adding some rice cereal, but be prepared - that doesn't always work.

i think it's wise to wait

Hi D.,
I had the same problem with my son. He is now 3 and 1/2 and is still a big eater. I started him on rice cereal around this time and it seemed to help. I also started working when he was 4 months and know how exhausting it is. My son woke up every 2 hours all night long until he was 2 but wasn't hungry every time. Sometimes it helps to just rub their backs or rock them and put them back to sleep. Hope this helps!

I would encourage you to let your boy sleep in your bedroom--in a cosleeper or a pack-n-play, or even his crib if it fits--so that you don't have to be so disrupted by getting up to give him a bottle at night. This was a life saver for me as a working-outside-of-the-home mom with 4 kids! Of course I was nursing too, so I had the added bonus of being able to just lay down in bed to feed...but I would encourage you, if you are bottle feeding, to keep lights as low as possible (no lights at all if you can manage it), and move as little as possible to do feedings. That will help you to stay semi-comatose as you feed.

Also, if you aren't already doing this, I would strongly encourage you to time one of your son's feeds so that it occurs right as you are ready to go to bed. Kind of a nice cuddle & wind down for you as well as tanking up your son so that he may sleep a long stretch there and allow you to get a good initial stretch of sleep in. You don't need to totally wake him for this feed--some moms call it "dream feeding."

It's also helpful sometimes to have a realistic understanding of infant sleep habits. A study was published in Pediatrics where video cameras were placed in bedrooms of infants and taped between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. ALL infants in the study who were less than 6 months old woke up at least once during that time period, the average was twice. So your son waking up every 3 hours is hardly abnormal. There was NO difference in the number of wakings between babies who had been "sleep trained" and those whose parents chose to respond. The only difference was that the "sleep trained" babies just didn't cry when the woke up--but they were still awake the same number of times and for the same average amount of time. For an infant 4 months old, "sleeping through the night" is considered a 6 hour stretch of continuous sleep.

Looking at older babies in the same period, over half of the babies between 6-12 months old woke during that time period of filming--the average was one waking. Again, no difference between "sleep trained" and "responding parents" when it came to waking. But the number of wakings did drop, so there is hope for improvement!

Hugs & good luck!

Hi D.-
My daughter is 4 months old and I started her on rice cereal about two weeks ago in the hopes of helping her stay full to sleep through the night (at leasts until 4 or 5 am...), but it didn't really work. I am also going back to work soon and still waking up 2-3 times a night to feed her/get her back to sleep. We've been doing a bedtime routine since she was born, so as for the 'establish a routine' mantra-I don't know what is going on, but I feel your pain. I have read that it can take up to 9 months for a baby to physically be able to sleep through the night. I am weaning to formula so that when I go back to work my husband can be on call so I can get some sleep too. I don't know, but you're not the only one going through this, and I wish you luck and sleepful nights soon!

You should never put cereal in a babies bottle. You didn't mention weather or not you are nursing or using formula. I noticed with my two older girls (both were on formula) that they slept better and longer than my youngest (I nursed her). Maybe if you tried giving him formula before bedtime it might help. Have your husband give him the bottle. You might also want to look at how much (oz if bottle feeding) or how long he is nursing. Don't be afraid of offering him more oz of formula than you think he will take. Sometimes they just need more. I hope this helps and you get over those 3am feeds soon. I was blessed with my first two, they slept from midnight to 5am almost from the start. My youngest was an every two hour feeder until I put her on formula. Good luck and Best wishes.

Getting a baby to sleep longer by giving them rice cereal is an old wives tale - it doesn't really work! Please don't give your baby any solids until he is 6 months old. The American Academy of Pediatrics changed their recommendations from 4-6 months to 6 months. Babies who are fed solid foods too early have higher rates of allergies and digestive problems. And food isn't a large part of your babies nutrition until he is 12 months old. Prior to that he should be getting the majority of his nutrition from your breastmilk.

J.

A Mother's Boutique
www.mothersboutique.com

Hi D.,
every baby is different and I to be honest as years go by the ages when you are suppoed to start foods or things changes so often.. have you talked to your dr? I have a couple nieces who have babies. I was horrified to find out that one was feeding her daughter mashed potatoes and ham gravy by 5 months old.... but it seems that my sister in law (mother of a different niece with baby) says that now that is how they do it. I fed my sons cereal at thier night feeding so go ahead and try it...

good luck

ps: I read a few of the other responses and I have to be honest as say that my sons... all four were good sleepers and ALL of them were sleeping thru the night by the time they were 6 - 8 wks old. None of them have food allergies or digestive problems either