We are having issues. Little guy is 5.5 months old now. He won't take solids at all. He purses his lips and turns away. To add to it, he will wake up hungry all night long. Last night, there was never more than an hour between wakings. But when he nurses, he dribbles the milk out of the other side of his mouth. Have you ever experienced this? So he is not filling up but rather using me as a pacifier. Or something like that. But he won't calm down without it. But, I ended up all wet, or the bed, or whatever the underside of him when I nurse him. Needless to say, I am tired. Suggestions?
At this age kids often have sleeping troubles, whether it's developmental milestones, or dealing with changing nutritional needs . . .they seem to sleep less between 5 and 7 months. Now is the time to start working on a sleep plan. For nursing, it can help to offer more during the day, so that he needs less at night. Make sure you encourage good napping (it really does help nighttime sleep), and a good bedtime routine. These things sound like they don't address the nighttime problem, but they really do help. You may need to work on the night time issue directly. "the baby whisperer" has a good plan for decreasing night nursing. Her "pick up/put down" method helped us, but I don't like all of her advice, and she can come across very judgmental of other styles. My favourite author on this issue is Elizabeth Pantley "no cry sleep solution". I usually pick up the books at the library, because I only need them for a few weeks while I deal with an issue. It sounds like baby isn't really hungry, but just needing comfort, if he dribbles the milk out the side. It's hard to find other ways to sooth them though, when they look to nurse as soon as you pick them up! There are lots of ideas to help - introducing a "lovee" - having spouse do night wakings and sooth by patting, shushing, or rocking. you take over when baby is used to not nursing every time. - nurse but as soon as baby is not swallowing, slip him off. Repeat. It takes many repetitions, but usually they give up and go to sleep. Should teach them to fall asleep with out nursing (Elizabeth pantley method) - pickup/ put down method with shushing (baby whisperer) LLL.org has some great info on these issues too. We are struggling with sleep issues with our 1 yr old. So I've been doing a lot of reading. That's my quick summary of things I thought were useful. I think we are making progress. I hope it helps you make progress too!
Co-sleeping? It's not an option for us, we don't believe in it, know someone first hand who killed their 3 month old that way.. but to each their own. Being tired is simply part of having a baby. Some day the kid will be grown and you won't be tired anymore.
have you talked to the pediatrition, I think if your baby is not liking the solids you are trying try something sweeter like apple sauce or pears?? maybe its just time to let him cry it out
I will probably go against the flow here, but babies get little to no nutritional value out of solids for about the first year, so introducing those would serve no purpose, other than to take up space that should be filled with breastmilk. I would imagine that your baby is just about to hit a developmental milestone or a growth spurt. Maybe separation anxiety. That can cause sleep issues for a few nights up to a few weeks. However, the idea that all babies sleep through the night this young is a bit over idealized. All three of mine were 11 months or older before they slept through. Again against the flow but I would suggest co-sleeping (I am very sorry for your friends loss crazymomma). Co-sleeping is a very safe practice when certain guidelines are followed. Of course there is always risk but there is a risk in a crib too. I would research and make an informed decision. Anyways, we co-slept with all three of ours and it was the ONLY way we got sleep. It was great when DD# wanted to nurse for comfort I would roll over pop her on and we would just go back to sleep. I am not a CIO fan at all at that age. Your child has one way to communicate and that is to cry. I know I wouldn't like to be put into a bed I cant get out of, left in the dark, and told tough luck if I needed a bit of comfort! Babes are only Babes for so long. This too shall pass!
All my kids were "dribblers" They sucked for comfort and gave me back the unnecessary milk :lol: I slept with a cloth diaper under his head so at least my sheets stayed dry (we co-sleep here too) Solids aren't really necesarry at that age and not sleeping has nothing to do with hunger especially if he's dribbling milk out. He seems at the right age for separation anxiety so he might just keep waking to make sure you are there. If you don't believe in cosleeping you could try him next to your bed Sometimes just laying a hand on them before they fully waken will settle them down. Try to nap during the day if at all possible so you can still be semi functioning the next day. And if it makes you feel better I have a 3 month old now so I'm sleep deprived too :roll:
Wow I am going to be really unpopular here (but that is nothing new). It really surprises me how many people co-sleep and don't feed solids at that age. At 5 months both my kids were eating solids twice a day plus cereal for breakfast and were off the bottle by their first birthday. Both of my girls also slept through the night completely at the age of 6 weeks and the only time I would allow them to sleep in my bed was if they were sick. I think that a baby is perfectly capable of sleeping through the night at 5 months but if everytime they cry you pick them up and feed them they are going to continue to get up all night. If you set a routine for feeding and sleeping they will follow it. If at 5 months my child cried I would not pick them up but calmly sooth them and pat their backs until they calmed down. I also never put my kids in the crib asleep. They were always still awake so that they learned to go to sleep on their own. Many people are going to disagree with me but hey my kids slept thorugh the night at 6 weeks and ate just fine so I must have done something right.
you and me both,monkeymama. My mother said I was being mean,but to this day my kids (7&9) are the most independant kids I know. sure,the first couple of weeks are tough,but eventually you will notice the baby begin to self-soothe. after that,everybody rests easier and you won't stay so engorged.
Hang in there. Each family is different and each child also. What worked for my baby #1 failed miserably with baby #4. Don't worry about the solids. My best nursers didn't eat much solids till 9-10 months. And it didn't affect sleeping for better or worse with any of my kids. The ones that were wakeful were wakeful regardless of what was in their tummies. You will have to decide whether to co-sleep, cry it out or find a happy medium somewhere in the middle. You will survive this! I do agree with the put down for bed while they are awake folks though. Seemed to me that my babies who needed to be nursed to go to sleep wanted it more through the night. Just my 2 cents.
It seems like I have been out of this stage for so long! I can't really remember much of what we did. I do remember that we always tried to put our babies in bed while they were still awake and if they woke when I laid them down I would pat them back to sleep but not pick them back up. I can remember being in there so long that I fell asleep sitting on the floor with my hand still in the crib. It worked, though. My younger three all learned to fall asleep and sleep through the night while they were very young. Something else that I learned to do was as soon as I had the baby in bed, I would go to bed. With my first and second, I can remember using the time after I put the baby down to get to the dishes, laundry, etc that I didn't get to during the day. It never failed that I would finally get into bed and a half hour later, the baby would be up. I was so tired. Keep the baby awake until you are ready to go to bed. Then, as soon as baby is asleep, go to bed yourself so you can at least get a couple of hours straight. It also helped mine to sleep in their own room. My first one slept in a cradle in my room for the first few months. I am a very light sleeper and every little peep or movement from the baby woke me up and I would go to her even before she would cry. If I had waited a few minutes, she probably would have settled on her own. Once I moved her into her own room (with a monitor of course), we both slept much better. I feel for you. Those new baby days are tough. Good news is that they really don't last that long-even though it seems like forever at the time. Hope you find a way to get some rest soon!
While I do agree with this, I don't do it..lol. Ok, I don't cosleep and my kids were all well on solids by 5 months.. Cameron was just starting solids then.. but they all were on them at that point. Cameron took some coaxing to get to take solids.. switching from mixing his cereal to apple juice instead of breastmilk was the key there. He still isnt' fond of it or jarred babyfood.. but if I doctor things up he will eat them. He prefers things like cheerios and kix and what ever we are eating for lunch and dinner, but if it's too spicey for him he will eat what ever he is given. I guess I have been lucky, my kids have all slept through the night from pretty early on.. like 2 or 3 weeks. Well Garrett may not have, but I worked nights and he lived on my schedule for the most part. Cameron will get up once in a great while at night, hubby will go get him and bring him to me in bed, I will sit up and watch some tv while he nurses himself back to sleep and then hubby returns him to his crib. It also helps when you have a partner who is actually a partner in raising the kid I guess. I couldn't live without all the things my hubby does for me or the babies.
Most(in fact I have never known one) babies are not physically ready to stop eating through the night at 6 weeks. Especially breastfed babies. They digest their food much faster and more efficiently so are hungry more often. It can also mess with a mother's milk supply to quit night feeding that early. It just generally shouldnt be done. I tended my babies until they were physically and mentally ready to start soothing themselves. Now they are GREAT sleepers and I barely remember what it was like getting up with them. And quite honestly there was nothing as wonderful as waking up to my sweet baby cuddled in my arms! Sometimes one on each side of me! How I miss those days! Also, I couldnt imagine having to wake up, walk to another room, soothe my child, then go back to my room and try to fall asleep again only to have to do it a few hours later. We all definitely got more sleep by having our babies in our bed. Like everything there are exceptions to this rule as far as the night sleeping go but for the vast majority of our babes they still need to be eating 1-2 times, maybe more, a night at 6 weeks. I was actually advised by my ped and my LC to wake my babes to eat. I dont say this to say what you do/did is wrong but I have had so many conversations with moms freaked out because their 6 week old still wakes every 2 hours or freaked out because they brought baby to bed with them and now feel guilty or like they are going to spoil the baby, when really this is quite normal. Sleeping through the night at a young age is something society has deemed as important without thinking about the physiological impact it has. My biggest bet would be that at 5 months old its separation anxiety. I again suggest co-sleeping or as a PP suggested putting a playpen or something next to the bed so that you can comfort your baby. I would also suggest a night time routine. Eat, bath or baby massage, jammies, nursing in a quiet dim area, and laying him down at twilight sleep point. I just wouldn't expect my 5 month old to sort out those feelings or seperation anxiety without me. I just imagine how I would feel scared and alone in a dark room all by myself Hesitantly hitting the submit reply button....
(tossing two pennies onto the table...*ching* *ching* ) Whoever posted about breastmilk processing so efficiently is spot on. Nursing at night is normal and necessary for infants. Co-sleeping is all we ever did. Didn't even set up the crib for baby #2. I can tell you, of all my friends I was the only happily rested one of the bunch! :lol: Now, to address the drooling milk question....ds nursed constantly and never dribbled a bit. He refused solids until he had his first tooth around 10 1/2 months old. However, dd drooled the "extra" milk out by the time she was a few weeks old. I hadn't even purchased a pacifier because I didn't think they were necessary at the time, but I got one for dd and she was so happy to have it. It never affected her nursing either. She would nurse great and then when she was done, she wanted the pacifier. She teethed a bit earlier than ds and I found that teething seemed to be tied to when my kids wanted/needed food. I only have two kids, but they nursed for a combined total of 50 months without any problem weaning because I paid attention to what they craved/needed and it seemed to naturally progress. And co-sleeping has produced children who, at even 1 year old, would say "I'm tired" and walk in and go to sleep on their own. (and my ds13 still enjoys coming in on a weekend morning to cuddle with his mom and dad)
I haven't read the rest of the responses. So I may be repeating here or I might sound like a total meanie. But boys are lazy. If he is still getting fed in the middle of the night, undress him and make him stay awake until he finishes eating. Also, this is about the age where you let them cry it out at night rather than running to get them up. There all kinds of theories as to the proper way to do it. I will share what I did if you are interested. But at about 6 months, they should be sleeping through the night (meaning 6-8 hours at a time). The crying only lasts a couple nights if you do it right. I'm not a professional, but I don't think solids has anything to do with it. My daughter was still gagging on solids at that age. And I don't think she was ready for them until about 7 months. If you think he isn't getting enough when he nurses and is still hungry at night, perhaps do a bottle (breast or formula) feeding right before bed and add a little flake cereal to it so it's got a little more substance.
I just read some of the other suggestions. I personally wouldn't co-sleep. It's too dangerous when they are babies. Being married to a neonatologist, I get to hear about the cases of suffocation-even if I don't want really want to. Our kids were not allowed to sleep with us in the bed that young.
Ok I swear I wont respond again after this, but co-sleeping is a very safe when done with the right precautions. In fact the risk of SIDS is greater than the risk of suffocating your child (again when done with the right precautions).Just as you have heard horror co-sleeping stories, I have heard plenty of crib horror stories. Also, while the strict definition of co-sleeping is having your baby in bed with you, you can adapt it by using a co-sleeper that just pushes up against your bed or just put the crib in your room temporarily. Way OT I know but I would be happy to provide sources for anyone interested. Here is a good article on co-sleeping. http://www.healthychild.com/co-sleeping/does-co-sleeping-lead-to-sids/ ok no more unless asked for, I promise. I am just passionate on this subject in case that wasnt obvious LOL.
I'm passionate about co-sleeping, too. I just want to add that my babies never had to scream to be fed. Just sayin'.
I just remembered something. When my babies would do this, sometimes it seemed easier to have them in the bed with me. (yes, I did occasionally put them in with me) But actually, when I would do that, they would get so warm and cuddly next to mommy, that they would nod off about as soon as they got started nursing. So I would actually do better when I would get up, change them, make sure they were wide awake and ready to eat, so they'd finish the whole feeding at one setting, instead of snacking all night. I've never been able to sleep well with a baby in next to me, or even in the same room for that matter, so I did rely on a monitor for most of the time.
I know that feeling.... I had a baby that just used me as a pacifier..... at 5 months I put her on cearel but it did not matter I was up all night feeding her, or her just scukling.... what helped me the most is my hubby started taking part of the night sift. I was tired, depressed, and most of all ... my boobs were always sore! My hubby would just pat her back, sing to her, and then if that did not help he would get me up. Most of the time it did! when I started whinning her at 12 months, He did all the night sifts... if not she thought she had to have me.... you are not alone, but I did not let her sleep with me because it just made it worse...
