baby nighttime feedings?

Question

is my 6 month old baby suppose to not have nighttime feedings any more? she still wakes up every other hour to nurse...

Answer 1

Congratulations to having a normal baby! I read in so many places tha between 3 and 6 months babies start sleeping through the night. Don't listen too much to that! Children are different, parents are different and babies go throuh stages of growth, separation anxiety, teething, nightmares and more that will make them sleep bad. 6 monthsis a growth period which might be why your baby wakes up so much.

But if you are very tired, you should of course try to improve the situation.

Feeding as well as evening routines, where the baby sleeps and more can help your baby sleep better.

On my web site, I've gathered tips to help both your baby and you sleep better. Good luck!!

http://www.easybabylife.com/baby-sleep.html

Answer 2

She may still need feeding at night but only once or twice, certainly not every 2 hours. The baby likes the closeness of you and wakes up more for the comfort, not for hunger. For all nursing's upsides, that's one of the downsides!

Answer 3

oh wow, that's a lot of night feedings! If I were you, I would try to feed her more often during the day, see if that will cut back on some night feedings. Also- make sure she doesn't fall asleep while you are nursing her. She might not finish her feeding if she does and then she will be hungry a lot sooner!! Try to keep her awake until she is totally finished, then hopefully you can get a longer stretch of sleep!!

Also- if you have recently started her on solids, make sure she is still getting her daily caloric requirement! Baby food has significantly less calories in it then breast milk and it fills their tummies so fast they aren't able to eat enough solids to equal a feeding of breast milk! Make sure she is still recieving the same amount of breast milk during the day and is having her solid foods as a "dessert"

Answer 4

while some babies settle into a nighttime routine and sleep through for several hours, other babies are very light sleepers and require some comforting during the night.

perhaps at 6 months, she should have a few spoonfuls of baby cereal before bedtime in addition to nursing. she may simply be running on empty as she is growing so fast.

try some baby rice cereal with her bedtime nursing and consider using a pacifier as well.

good luck!

Answer 5

breastfed babies arent 'full' as long as formula fed babies are.
try feeding her more during the day--she will probably sleep more at night.
babies need 50 calories for every pound they weigh, 1 oz of breast milk and formula contain approx. 20 calories--so just add/multiply it all up to see what your baby needs for the day & try to get most of that into her before her last night time feeding.
I did it with my baby and it worked

Answer 6

Its normal... my 14 month old still wakes up a few times to nurse.

She should outgrow it by about 2 years.

You can try to get her to nurse more durring the day, but some babies just need to extra mom time and food... are you co-sleeping?

Answer 7

if you want her to sleep through the night, you have to train her to not wake up. as long as you keep feeding her when she wakes up, she's going to continue to wake up expecting to eat. she has an internal alarm clock waking her up because she's used to eating. when she wakes up, you could just rock her back to sleep. just don't feed her. i did that with my son and he's 3 months old now and sleeps from 9 to 5 with no problem. they're just like adults. you don't think adults don't get hungry throughout the night. but it doesn't bother us because we're sleep through it all.

Answer 8

She seems a bit old to be awaking up that much, but if she is hungry she is hungry. Try giving her some rice cereal before, that might help her sleep a little longer.

Answer 9

I had the same problem. I know it's hard but try leaving her for a while.