how to tell if baby really needs to eat at night?

[PattiB]

Hi everyone,
My DD is 3-1/2 months old and she started sleeping through the night at about 2-1/2 months (yea!) But then she came down with the rotavirus and I had to wake her through the night to feed so she wouldn't get dehydrated. (she's bottle fed) She's been over the rotavirus for a few weeks but now she's not sleeping through the night anymore. She wakes crying about 2x during the night (she goes to sleep early - between 7:00 and 7:30, and she usually wakes again around midnight and then around 3:00 or 4:00 a.m.). I give her a bottle each time and she drinks it - around 4 oz. which is about her average bottle size during the day - and then goes back to sleep.
My question is this - should I be feeding her or waiting to see if she'll fall back to sleep without eating? Her ped. said the 3-4 month stage is an important one for getting her to fall asleep on her own and getting rid of bad habits like rocking her to sleep, having her rely on a pacifier to sleep, etc. She doesn't really have any of these habits but I'm afraid that falling asleep after eating might be turning into one of those habits he was referring to. Am I encouraging a bad habit by feeding her when she wakes? If she really needs to eat I don't want to ignore her.
If anyone has any advice/experience, I'd love to hear it!
Thx,
Patty

[DebbieJ]

Hmm...my ped told me exactly the opposite--that at 4 months there is so much neurological development going on that babies are apt to wake more often, so go ahead and feed him to get him to settle down.

In terms of "bad habits"--only you can decide if they are bad or not. Your ped is offering parenting advice here, not medical advice, IMO. If you can live with it, then it's fine. It's not a bad habit.

Although as mommies we would love some uninterrupted sleep, your baby is telling you that she needs something by waking up. Perhaps it's more food, perhaps it's some cuddling with mommy--who knows. Try different things and see what works.

~ deb
mommy to brendan 12/7/03

[Vajrastorm]

I'd think if she's eating 4 oz then she's hungry. Maybe she's going through a growth spurt? I don't have any experience with this as I breastfeed on request but my philosophy is "Only the baby knows if he or she needs food."

Good luck!

[amp]

I am absolutely not an expert, but I can tell you many a mom, including myself has had a baby start to sleep through the night and then start waking again to eat throughout that first year! They go through so many growth spurts and sometimes find they are famished at night. Also, my DS went through a period when he got very active and crawling where night was the time he seemed to make up for not sitting still long enough to eat! Not my favorite thing, but he adjusted his intake within a month or so and was sleeping through the night again. If eating is what gets him to sleep on some nights or for certain periods of time, I guess I am ok with it.

[aa2mama]

Well, since we're going through this too right now, then I think it may be a normal development at this age. My DS used to sleep from 10:30 to 6:30 each night. Now he needs an earlier bedtime and he wakes up one to two times to eat during the night. I feed him and keep it as quiet and boring as possible.

[Rachels]

This doesn't sound like medical advice to me! Parenting your child at night is not a bad habit.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[AngelaS]

It's up to you it sounds like on whether or not she needs to eat at night. If she's eating the same amount during the day as she normally does, then perhaps in the middle of the night, all she needs is a few minutes of love to go back to sleep. :D

[lizajane]

you could always try soothing her back to sleep the first time and then feeding her the second time she wakes. maybe that would cut it to one feeding/night. if she wakes up again right away, you can be pretty sure that she is hungry. if she sleeps several more hours, then maybe she isn't.

i understand what you are saying about creating habits (notice i said habits and not "bad habits.") but really, what matters is what you want to do. if you want to rock your baby to sleep until she is 5, then that is your choice. if you want her to get back to sleep with a pacifier, that is your choice. we used the pacifier to help schuyler get back to sleep when we felt he was waking from habit and not from food. (nursed for one or two minutes instead of 10 minutes.)

another thing to try is adding a feeding during the day to see if you can switch the timing of that "extra" feeding in the middle of the night.

first and foremost, feed your baby when she is hungry. but if you want to doublecheck that she is hungry, try soothing her without food once or twice to see what happens.

[Rachels]

Liza, I know it's not what you meant, but just to clarify and reassure this mama, rocking your baby to sleep at three months does NOT mean that you'll have to rock until he's five. But if you decided to because you and your little one loved it, who cares? Either way, it's none of the ped's business and it's CERTAINLY not his decision to make.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[jennifer13]

Not an expert here, but your DD's schedule sounds really common to me, particularly going to an earlier bedtime which then requires an additional night feeding. I was bfing at 31/2 months but my good friend was bottle feeding her baby of the same age, and both our babies were on virtually the same schedule, which included waking 2times per night to feed. Unfortunately I can't remember how long that lasted. 3 1/2 months is still very young (although you don't realize that until they're really old- like 6 months :)). As another poster said, you could experiment and not give her the bottle, just comfort/rock her, and see if she wakes up soon after. My 10 month old kept up one feeding per night until about a week ago, it would make sense that a 3.5 month old might need two. You could do some sleep training when she's a little older if you need/want to. Also- if you put her back down in her crib after the bottle- awake or asleep- that will facilitate her learning to fall asleep on her own. If she drinks the bottle, you put her somewhat awake in her crib, and she falls right to sleep, that sounds to me like no sleep-dependent habits are developing.

Most of all, follow your gut, do what feels best for you and your family.


Jennifer
Mom to Norah 5/23/03