my 5 month old gets up every 3hrs to feed at night, is there a way that he can sleep longer pass the 3hr?

Question

I have tried rice cereal, gerber food - peas & fruit, he drinks about 5oz of formula every 3hrs.. but it seems like nothing work.

Thanks eveyone I really appreciate it! It's hard to just make him cry, because he shares the room with his twin sister, so we try to get him as soon as we hear him. When he wakes up, we do a diaper changed (because i know that's what bothers him) and of course he eats, he gets rock back to sleep, but when we try to put him down in his crib he starts crying, and then he is fine when we pick him up. My brother tells me that we spoil him, is that a true statement?

Answer 1

You shouldn't add things to his bottle of milk, but maybe now is the time for him to start on solids, so he full at night times. It could of course be that is just a habit he has formed. What you could do is try extending the times inbetween his feeds at night by 10 minutes each time. He might cry but you'll have to be patient.

Answer 2

I have twin boys who were born 14 weeks premature so normal self calming, eating and sleeping habits took a little work for us to accomplish. What I learned is it is all about the schedule. Babies are much happier with routine. I read the book Babywise but the basics are stick to a schedule but not too rigid that you miss out on fun moments.
At 4.5 months I started the following schedule and we are still on it with a few modifications:
Wake at 6 and feed
back to bed after for a longer nap (because I am not a morning person)
Wake at 8:30 and feed at 9
play until 11 nap until 12
Feed when they wake up (sometimes they need more or less sleep so this is where the flexibility comes in)
repeat the play and back for a nap at 2
Up at 3 to eat
repeat the play and nap time
Eat at 6 with a longer play time until the 9PM feeding
sometimes they doze off in our arms watching TV
Final feeding at 9 then immediately put to bed slightly drowsy but not sound asleep.
I will admit I cheat sometimes if they have had a fussy day or I don't feel up to continuing the fuss and let them fall asleep in my arms. I try my best to only do that at most twice a week so I don't mess up their sleeping pattern.
After you put them down the first couple of nights they will continue to wake up and cry a little at those 3 hour intervals. Unlike some moms I could not stand to leave my little miracle babies in there crying so we would rub their backs, change diapers, play music or sing to them the first few nights and they figured it out quickly and went right with the program on night 4.
Also start this type plan when you have 2 -3 nights where it is ok for you and your spouse to get the minimum amount of sleep. They will fight this but after 3 days you will be amazed at the difference.
I swear my boys were like completely different kids. Before we had that horror time between 4- 7 and now its only mild whining. I will take whining any day over both of them crying.
They just need so much more structured sleep than they were getting. The key is a well rested baby is a happy baby.
Also note I think around 6 - 7 mos they may have growth spurts because one of the boys started waking up at 3 AM for a week or so and just talking. He wasn't hungry just wet usually and so I change the diaper and put him back down with his pacifier and he learned.

Answer 3

most babies that age are still waking up during the night and require to be fed every 3-4 hours, 2-3 hours for breastfeed babies. At this age the babies stomach is very small so what can be consumed is digested within those 3-4 hours and its time to eat again. Soon within the next month or so you can give your child infant cereal which will coat the stomach and take alittle longer to digest. Also around that age they normally go through growth spurts which make them want to eat even as early as every 2 or 3 hours. My best advice is to consult with your babies Dr. I have 14 month old twins and what I did for them was schedule a daily routine, this will help regulate your child. If your child is not on a schedule it will take some adjustments to figure out what is the best for you and your baby. I suggest right before bedtime to give your baby a warm bath, massage, and read a book. After you know it your baby will be sleeping alot longer. Be patient and enjoy this time because they go up so fast. Hopes this helps

Answer 4

A few good reads on sleeping for babies. My 11 month old daughter was a difficult sleeper at 5 months so I started doing a lot of reading on sleeping for babies. The few points I deduced from my research:

1. All babies are different. All sleep methods are different. Do you what you think and feel is appropriate. I never went with cry-it-out because it never felt right.

2. Read read read - the more knowledge and tools you have, the better armed you are to make informed decisions about how to tackle this problem.

3. Children need routine (or at least some form of routine). The more difficult the sleeper, the more rigid the routine.

So my story. My daughter is now 11 months and I am still slowly working on her sleeping. She is a co-sleeper now but successfully is able to fall asleep on her own and stay asleep from 7PM - 7AM. Eventually, we will try to migrate her back to her own bed, but this seems to work best for her and my husband right now.

I've had advice from cry-it-out to just swallow it. I tried cry-it-out for 3 days (with some progress), but it never felt right.

In short, trust your instincts, you are afterall the child's parent.

Answer 5

This is a loaded one and here is my opinion. First, I think he isnt eating enough. My daughter who is 3 months used to do the sme thing. After consulting her pediatrician who said she was probably just too hungry, I started giving her more frmula and she slept longer. She eats about 6 ounces every 3-4 hours and is 2 months younger than your baby and is by no means a large girl. Also, have u considered trying a nighttime routine? Sticking to a strict nighttime routine is a big part of it too. And when getting him to actually go to sleep I would like to suggest lying him down before he falls asleep. When he about to fall asleep while holding him lay him down in his crib and make sure its the last thing he sees before goingt o sleep. I wish you luck and if you need any help feel free to e-mail me.

Answer 6

It's not about the food.

It's about structuring the sleep. Does your baby have a routine during the day? Do you limit naps and keep him or her on a pretty steady routine? That would be the first step.

The following is taken from Gina Ford's Contented Little baby book, which I think is a tremendous resource for getting babies to sleep through the night, without making them cry and with little stress on the baby. She has researched and figured out bio rhythms and understands a baby's cycle. If your baby is waking up every three hours, it's not a matter of being hungry - he is waking up because he is coming into his light sleep (which cycles around every three hours or so.) IF the conditions in the room have changed from when he fell asleep (does he fall asleep on the bottle?) then he will want those same conditions to fall asleep again.

Alternatively if he falls asleep quietly, on his own in the crib, even if he does come into light sleep he will be able to settle himself back down on his own.

Here is the recommended routine for your child at his age from Gina Ford's Contented little baby book.

7:00-7:30 wake up - diaper change, feed - no more feeds after 8:00 AM (no more milk - you can feed up to that time.)
8:00 dress wash play with baby
9:00 first nap - settle her in, drowsy, but don't rock her. Lay her down
9:45 - open curtains, wake her up with the light and some noise.
10:00 play with her
10-45 -11:30ish - another milk feed - if she needs a break in between breasts okay
12:10 - settle down for nap
12:15-2:15 - one long nap. This is the hard nap because most babies can't figure out how to stay asleep the full two hours, but they should learn this sooner than later, because eventually you'll want them to have one long nap in the afternoon - vs. three of the smaller naps when they get older (close to 9 months but working towards it helps.) if Katie wakes up in the middle of the nap, let her cry to see if she will settle back to sleep, and if not, go in, quietly and tap her back to sleep - the point is to work on this nap to get it longer. It will take maybe a week of effort...tap her to sleep, rock her back to sleep, but you want to train her to take this longer nap.
2:15 - wake up no matter how long they actually sleep. change Diaper, and feed from both breasts. Don't feed after 3:15
play and have fun - and then 4:00 - you can offer some cool boiled water if you like (I just started offering it, but Bella and Emily both only ever took the tiniest sips) and then settle for a nap at 4:15. Don't LET HER SLEEP MORE THAN TWENTY MINUTES!!! (I think this long late afternoon nap is killing your nighttime.)
5:30- bath, massage, change and dresseed
6:00 ready for bedtime, darkened room, a nice story, cuddle time and then breastfeed
7:00 down for the night night and out.

Answer 7

My son was doing this too. I asked my Dr. He said that he is getting up because of habit not because he is hungry. Do you rock him to sleep? If this is the case, then this is what I did...I put my son down for the night awake but sleepy. He cried for about 25 minutes and then went to sleep. He slept all night long and has continued to do so every night since for a month and a half. Your son needs more sleep during the night & I know you do to.

Answer 8

I started my 3months boy on food because he was very hungry all the time... He now sleeps through the night and eats very well during the day (four weet bix for breaky) he is now 10 mths

Answer 9

Wait another month or two.

At 5 months, they are usually still eating in the middle of the night.

Hang in there! Not too much longer! Yes, you still have to get up with them.

Answer 10

My baby is a breast fed 8mo old and I remember feeling like every time he woke up he had to eat. This isn't true especially at 5mo. You baby wakes up many times a night as part of a normal sleep cycle, but we have to teach babies how to soothe themselves back to sleep. If you're putting your baby to bed asleep in the evening, try to stop and put him down awake or drowsy. If you're nursing or rocking him to sleep then that is how he knows to fall asleep, so when he wakes in the night, that's what he expects. It may be a matter of going in his room and putting his pacifier back in, or just gently rubbing his back. Try to keep the room dark and quiet. We are always tempted to talk to our babies, but we shouldn't at night, they need to learn that it's sleep time. At 5mo he should be able to sleep about 5-6 hours. I hate to say it but mine was sleeping 11hrs at that point (on breast milk!!) so it is possible. Try to reset your mind and at that 3 hour point try to fight the temptation to feed him. (you may need to change his diaper if he is sensitive to that...it might be what's waking him) If you can get him back to sleep great. If after soothing him for quite awhile, you may have to feed him. A bed routine at night is great....a warm bath, a feeding, then putting them to bed awake really seems to work.

I've heard that its not true that starting solids helps babies to sleep. Please wait till 6mo if you can before going to cereal