Solids and sleep issues

[spencersmommy]

Hello all! We started DS on rice cereal last Friday. The first night he loved it. The other nights he has not been as enthusiastic. Anyway, the problem I am noticing now is that he is not sleeping through the night anymore, He has been an 8-9 PM until 7 AM baby for over a month now. But since he's had solids, he wakes up quite often in the night. Not necessarily to eat, but just wakes up. Is that a sign of an allergy or something OR is it just a coincidence?? I'm not sure if I should stop the cereal for a few nights and see what happens. Thanks for your advice!!!
Amy
Mommy to Spencer 6-4-03

[Momof3Labs]

Personally, I'd stop it for a few nights and see what happens. Rice cereal can make babies quite gassy, so he could be waking up to a sore tummy. If stopping rice cereal helps him sleep through the night, then you might want to try oatmeal instead, or hold off on solids for another few weeks. Some babies' digestive systems just aren't ready for solids when we think that they are!

[sunny2003]

Are you trying to feed him new stuff at night - it helps to try new food in the morning so they have all day to work out any issues (we had a bad experience with barley!) Also, oatmeal is easier for them to digest and they seem to like it more too. HTH!

Viv
Mommy to Kayley born on 4/28/03

[lizajane]

my very blunt suggestion is STOP SOLIDS. we tried solids twice and we have stopped twice. ds is 7.5 months and exclusively breastfed. he is FINE. he started waking up as soon as i fed him solids and he stopped waking up as soon as i stopped.

mylicon drops will help with the painful gas. but at 5 months, he probably just isn't ready. many babies are ready at 5 months, but mine certainly wasn't ready at 6 months. since it is not a nutritional requirement, i would say stop entirely and give it a try again in a month or two.

also, when you try again, try smaller quantities. try a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon. and try pears instead of cereal. 1 tsp of pears was the ONLY thing he could tolerate. oatmeal was MUCH worse than rice cereal for us.

let us know what happens after stopping for a few days!

[doubleL]

Amy, I just had to reply because DD is one day younger than your DS and we also tried rice cereal for the first time last Friday. DD has had green diarrhea ever since. She has also been getting up a bit more during the night. So needless to say we haven't fed her any more solids. The pediatrician said is was probably the formula (dairy-based) rather than the rice since she has been exclusively BF thus far. Anyway, we will probably try again around 6 months. If we start with rice cereal again, I will mix it with breast milk, water, or a soy-based formula.

But enough about me. If I were you, I would stop for now. It may take him many days to get the solids out of his system. So give it at least a week to see if he goes back to sleeping through the night. Remember to consider what you are mixing the cereal with also.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Lou
~DS 5.01
~DD 6.05.03