How did adding solids to your older baby (6mth +) effect their sleep?

Question

I have a 5 month old and were starting solids in about a month. Her sleep is horrible. She nurses alot during the night (about 3 real nursing sessions and then she will use me sometimes as a pacifier) and Im wondering how solids might impact her. I know research says that adding solids doesnt help baby sleep throught the night especially young babies but wondering about older babies.

Answer 1

My daughter is nearly 6 months old and we have started giving her rice cereal mixed with a stage 1 fruit by spoon. She does eat a fair amount in the morning and I try again in the evening hoping she would sleep longer. It doesn't affect how long she sleeps at all. Some nights she'll eat almost a whole bowl and nurse for just a minute, fall asleep then wake up 4 hours later to nurse again. I have had nights (rare) where she slept for 7 hours uninterrupted and it had nothing to do with what she ate because sometimes it was formula mixed with rice cereal in a bottle, sometimes it was from nursing it's not consistent. (The pediatrician told me to give the rice cereal in the bottle because of her colic/reflux) I keep hope alive thinking this will be the night she sleeps but I am usually wrong.

Answer 2

I think solids are more of a routine builder or practice type of thing than they are a nutritional thing solids are not as nutritious as you're milk and really many babies get more on them than they actually get down them...just my out look I plan to delay solids past 6 months due to allergies Good for you on the breast feeding and the comfort nursing ie pacifier momma is normal and very healthy for baby!!

Answer 3

Adding solids definitely helped our children. We started rice cereal around 4 months (per our pedi). We noticed a difference right away in the length of their sleeping. They would sleep longer, and more sound as well.

Answer 4

I saw no change at all. Still woke up 4-5 times a night to nurse.

Answer 5

I have read the same things about cereal and solids dont make them sleep through the night. BUT, it did with mine. Giving her some cereal and veggies around 6pm makes her sleep all night long. And my inlaws say it made theirs sleep all night.

Answer 6

Weening her away from you will be a challenge. Fortunate after a good feeding of solids to my two little girls, they went right to sleep after a bottle. I assume you're breast feeding? My wife did with our two but also pumped. Soon you'll find what your baby likes and will take to them sooner than you know. Just steer clear from foods that have tendencies to give your baby more gas before bedtime/nap time. Good luck.

Father of two children (4 years old and 22 months old).

Answer 7

She is at the right age where she doesn't need to be nursing at night. It's time to start weaning her off of the night time nursing. Then she will sleep through the night. Feeding her solids has nothing to do with this. Talk to your pediatrician they can probably reccomend some reading material for getting your child to sleep through the night.

Answer 8

Solids worked good for our baby, we opted not to wait until 6 months. We introduced her to cereal around 10 weeks, we mixed it very thin with formula and we give it to her in a feeder. She tolerated it very well and it seems to make her rest better. We started giving her small bites of stage one foods now that she is 13 weeks.. She sleeps almost all night. She usually sleeps between 10pm and 6am.
This may not be good for your baby, but it did, however, work for our little girl.

Answer 9

Mine slept better. She was eating well before but I guess solids keep them fuller longer. My baby's sleep was much better after I introduced solids. Good luck.

Answer 10

I have raised two children and I didn`t notice a remarkable difference in their sleep time when I started to add solids. It had been horrible and it continued to be horrible.