My seven month old still gets up 3-4 times a nite to eat..... help?

Question

We feed him lots of solids and cereal right before
bed but he still gets up after 3-4 hours then it's every 2 hours after that. He gets enough sleep during the day but not too uch we have tried everything. We have a routine before bed, eat, bath, read, book, bottle, bed. The first 2 times he gets up he goes right back to bed but then the time he is up is 1-2 hours. We both work. Help....He is a very big baby already weighs 23 lbs 4 oz. Dr told me he is fat and don't feed him at nite tried but I CAN"T let him "cry it out" that is cruel. If my baby can't count on us then what can he count on.

Answer 1

You're right to not let your son "cry it out". It's cruel and accomplishes nothing but teaching your son that his cries and attempts at communicating with you don't work. He needs you and would not understand why you kept leaving him to suffer alone. Eventually he would stop crying but not because he was OK. It would be because his needs had fallen on deaf ears so many times he would just stop trying to tell you what they were. My son is 7 months old as well and I have recently been through the exact same thing. I can completely empathize with what you and your husband are going through. Here is what turned my 3-4 times a night waker into a once a night boy.
We have a little bedtime routine with our son as well. Waking 3-4 times a night to eat or just rock with Mommy became part of his routine too. I was beyond exhuasted, beyond frustrated and was beginning to dread what "tonight would bring". He takes a nap around 4-5 in the afternoon, 30 minutes to an hour. He is not allowed (nor does he want) to nap after that. It's party time in our home from 5-ish to 9:00. We play games that exercise his body and mind like:
Practice standing and walking
Go out in the backyard and let him explore
Go for walks in his stroller if the weather is nice
Sit on the floor and play with toys
Roll a ball back and forth with Mommy and Daddy
Give him a crayon and paper and help him "color"
Give him tupperware and a wooden spoon and let him go nuts
Give him a large piece of wax paper to crumple
Help him jump on your bed to excercise his legs
Lay on the floor with your husband and let him roll back and forth between the two of you while you all giggle at each other. I have had to come up with a million things to do with my son. We have the greatest adventures each night!
At 9:00 it's time for his dinner. He eats 3-4 tablespoons of infant oatmeal mixed with half a banana that has been mushed up with a fork...add a little water to get it soft enough. The jared baby food is not filling enough, use a fresh banana. Use the soft part of the banana only, the middle where the seeds are is undigestable and will upset his tummy. He gets his bananas, a nice warm bath, then a 6 oz. bottle with 3-4 tablespoons of rice cereal in it (get Y-cut cereal nipples for his bottles). Also, I stopped changing his diaper in the middle of the night, I keep all the lights off save for the night light and he only gets smiles and kisses from Momma during his night waking, no talking. I also kept a 4oz. bottle of juice (3 oz. water mixed with 1oz. of Tropicana Apple juice) on the table by the rocking chair for the other night waking times until they stopped. I took about 2 weeks to adjust him to the big boy routine but the transition was gentle and pleasant for our family. He still wakes up to eat once a night and I give him a 6 oz. bottle with rice cereal again but the days of 3-4 times a night are long gone.
A great book to read is "The Fussy Baby Book" by Dr. William Sears. It has so many stories about babies like ours from Mom's that have lived through it. I know this phase is rough but it won't last forever. Neither will the days that your son needs you to be with him and love him the way he does now, try to cherish them. God Bless

Answer 2

If the dr said not to feed him at night then don't. I understand you feel bad about letting him cry it out... all parents do.

When he gets up let him cry for 5 minutes. If he doesn't go back to sleep on his own the go in his room. Don't pick him up and don't turn on the lights!!! Leave him in his bed and rub his back or tummy and talk to him in soothing tones. Reassure him that he's ok and then tell him goodnight and go back to bed. Give him another 10 minutes or so before you go back and repeat that action. Then give him 15 then 20 between trips. If he's still crying after the 20 minute break then pick him up and give him a small bottle.

It will be exhausting for you and you'll probably cry as much as he does at first but if you want him to start sleeping through the night in his own bed that's what you have to do. You've taught him that when he's lonely he can cry and you'll come get him and stuff a bottle in his mouth. It'll only take a few times and it'll be done.

That's what we did with our daughter and she's been sleeping through the night well since she was an infant.

Answer 3

My baby is 9 months and does the same thing. My 2 year old did it until he was 11 months. It stops, eventually and you are right, the cry it out thing is ridiculous!! He isn't waking for food, he's waking for comfort, to make sure you are there and you are right, to be sure he can count on you...that is something you have 'taught' him and you accept that. Besides exhaustion there is NOTHING wrong with it!!
Oh and 23lbs is NOT FAT at 7 months! As a matter of fact 23lbs is still on the chart, the curved chart where height/weight/head circumference is measured and until he begins to crawl everywhere and walk around he will gain weight with little way to burn it off, so what??

If you really want to stop the night feeds then you can try water instead of formula/breast milk (whatever you are using) and be a little less attentive, don't speak to him, just pick him up give him a bottle of water, snuggle but no interaction.

Answer 4

Does your baby know how to put himself to sleep--you did not say whether or not he is put to bed awake. It is very important--every child needs to know how to put themselves to sleep (once they are old enough and 7 months is old enough) or there could end up being long-term sleep problems. And babies that put themselves to sleep at bedtime can usually go back to sleep if they wake in the middle of the night. Crying out does not have to be a cruel tactic. When we did sleep training we only let our daughter cry for 5-10 minutes at a time before we would check on her. You need to figure something out, though, because your baby will most likely keep crying out in the middle of the night if every time he does so he gets food and cuddling. He needs to know that nighttime is for sleeping. My baby is very demanding and I know that she would still be crying at night (at almost 10 months old) if she had not learned that. I hope this does not sound like a lecture--I just remember how frustrating it was to have so many night wakings. By the way, my baby became much more calm and happy when she started sleeping through the night.

Answer 5

I had the same problem with my baby, although he is just now only 4 months, but when he was a newborn he slept fine on his side but after he was about a month and a half i had to put him to bed on his stomach! If i lay him on his back he wakes after only 20 or 40 minutes! At first i was very reluctant to let him sleep on his stomach because of all the SIDS prevention they went over with us at the hospital, but my baby has been sleeping through the night since just before he was 3 months old! In fact, even when he is awake he absolutely hates being on his back. My 11 yr old has always been a stomach sleeper as well (and back then that was encouraged!) and both my mother and mother-in-law say that that is how my husband and i slept best when we were babies --on our tummies!

Answer 6

Well, DS did this once a night until he was ten months. Then around 1, I'd put him down and rub his back or something and then leave. Once I turned out the light or left, it was a nightmare. Sometimes it took 4 hours to get him to sleep. Finally, at 15 months, we tried partial Ferberization where we let him cry for 5 minutes, then go in, then he cried for 8 minutes and we go in, etc. That was torture for him because each time we went in he thought he was getting out. It lasted an hour and a half. The next night, we finally let him cry. It was hard, but we'd tried everything else. He cried for 20 minutes. The next night, he cried for 5 minutes and after that he's been sleeping wonderfully for almost 2 years now. It sounds cruel, I thought so too, but it works and sometimes you just have to let them cry.

Answer 7

Are you positive that he's hungry? Maybe he's crying for another reason. Does he sleep in your room? If not, maybe he gets scared at night. I wish I could give you advice from my own experience, but both of my children sleep through the night, and have since they were 3 weeks old. My daughters wouldn't sleep on their backs, only on their stomachs. Our pediatrician says that is fine, so don't listen to all the hype about stomach sleeping causing SIDS! My 7 month old was a big baby too. She was born at 10lbs 6oz. She's at 17lbs 11oz now, so she's thinning out! Just be careful, because your son may become used to eating that late at night. I know it's torture hearing your own children cry... It's heartbreaking! But if you keep feeding him at night, it becomes a routine, and it will be hard to break him of that. Good luck, I feel for you!

Answer 8

I have raised two healthy boys, and I used to feed them a bit of cereal before bed. Enough to fill them up. They slept all night long. I don't know what your child is eating but, I recommend trying a bit of baby cereal. It seems to stick to the ribs a bit longer than just a bottle. I hope this helps, and good luck!

Answer 9

My baby is ten months and still gets up several times a night to nurse. It is more for comfort than anything so it doesn't matter how much you fill them up before bed. Just enjoy this special time with your baby, one day you will wish that you could get up with him all night.

Answer 10

When you get up, turn on no lights and do not speak. Keep everyting still, dark and quiet. Maybe a bottle with water in it. What ever you do NEVER play at this time. You'll regret it. Don't remove him from the crib, just stick the bottle in his mouth, let him drink it then take it with you.