5month old baby doesnt sleep good. will solids help?

April - posted on 01/10/2012

Personally, I would wait at your little guy is at least 6 months before even offering solids. If his dirty diapers are frequent (6-8 wet/poopy) and his weight is in the average/above avg range, then he is existing just fine off of your milk. Does he show signs of being ready to be fed solids? His he sitting up unassisted? Has he stopped thrusting his toungue when you feed him solids? Can he pick up food with his pincher fingers? If the answer is no to all 3 of these questions, then he is not ready. I personally don't think solids will help him sleep, but if it did, is that really a good thing? Infants receive approximately 30 percent of their nutrition at night. If you gave solids to him for dinner in the hopes that he would STTN, you would be sacrificing his overall health. Breastmilk has more fat and calories than baby food, ounce for ounce.

Amy - posted on 01/10/2012

My son is 5 months too and is already eating solids. I give him cereal or a veggie at dinner time and formula the rest of the day. He was breastfed for the first 3.5 months. Starting him on solids did not help in sleep longer. I try to keep him up most of the day with a nap in mid morning and nap in the afternoon. I usually let him sleep til he wakes, about 2-3 hours. When he wakes after his afternoon nap, about 4-5, I keep him up the rest of the night til its time for bed. Sometimes my son will sleep all night, like 8+ hours and other nights he may only sleep for 5 hours. Every baby is different. You could also ask his doctor

Anna - posted on 01/03/2012

Even though the body digests breastmilk much faster than formula or solids, hunger is not the only reason your baby is waking up at night. My son is 20 months, still breastfed but eating plenty of solids, and he still wakes up many times a night. A baby's sleep cycle is different from that of an adult so it's normal for babies not to sleep through the night. Additionally, it's much better to wait to start solids until your baby is 6 months. Here's some reading info http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/sleep-p...

Mia - posted on 01/01/2012

It all sounds very normal Justine! Some bubs just don't need much sleep, as long as he's happy then I wouldn't be too worried. Sometimes solids can help bubs sleep through, it did with my bub who is 5 1/2 months but I guess I got lucky! He is bf also & I chose to introduce solids as opposed so supplement as I found he was needing more bf in the afternoon & wondered if it was my supply so I tried intoducing solids instead of supplementing with formula. Whereas I know other bubs who are bf, on solids & wake 1 to 2 times a night & that is all very normal.

Kelly - posted on 01/01/2012

LOL... you and I have identical sons'!! As a matter of fact I was VERY close to posting up the exact same thing.. From what I've read we may as well start a support group rather than try to fix our babies.. LOL

Teresa - posted on 01/01/2012

You get mixed answers cuz there ARE mixed answers. All babies are different and what works for one will not necessarily work for another.

My experiences w/ solids and sleeping: My girls were only waking once in a 12 hour night at 3 months old... and started solids at 3.5 months. My friend's son started solids at 4 months (filled him up w/ oatmeal right before bed).... and started sleeping through the night at the same time. My son started solids at 6 months, but wasn't eating them on a regular basis til around a year... and didn't sleep through the night consistently until he turned 2.

My girls took regular and long naps. My son was a catnapper until he was only napping once a day. Then he'd nap anywhere from 5 minute to 3.5 hours!

Sally - posted on 12/31/2011

Solids may actually make it worse. Forcing him to eat them before he's ready is likely to cause tummyaches and no one sleeps well when they're in pain.
Besides doctors describe a baby "sleeping through the night" as a 5 hour stretch and precious few babies are physically capable of it before 6 months. Many of them take 2-3 years to pull it off. If he's still exclusively nursed, you're likely to get a lot more rest if he sleeps with you. With a little practice you can roll over and stick a nipple into his mouth without ever waking up.

Callie - posted on 12/31/2011

My daughter has never been a good sleeper. We're just now starting to sleep through the night and she turned 2 on Nov. 2nd. some kids just take longer to sleep through the night. And she hasn't nursed during the night in a quite a while. She's just a bad sleeper.

Terra - posted on 12/30/2011

Waking up twice a night at 5 months old is actually very normal. They still need to eat at night. As for only taking cat naps during the day I would say that as long as your son is happy and content then those are probably normal for him as well. My son was a cat napper and it drove me nuts. His sister on the other hand was an amazing napper but was far, far worse at night wakings. It is an old wives tale that solids will help them sleep through the night and as other have mentioned it could actually make his sleep worse as his body isn't quite ready to digest them properly. Do you have a carrier you could wear him in during the day? The extra closeness to you may help him take longer naps.

Lise - posted on 12/29/2011

That's definitely more sleep than my dd got at that age! Solids have not been shown to increase sleep; for my dd, it made her sleep worse. :(

Celeste - posted on 12/29/2011

No, it's not correlated to being breastfed. Most of my family and friends formula feed and many of their babies didn't sleep through the night, many of them after 1.



Solids might not help. I thought the same thing with my twin boys but it didn't make any difference.



Twice a night is pretty good! My boys were waking up MUCH more than that.

Justine - posted on 12/29/2011

He only sleeps about an hour thruout the day broken up into 20 mins at a time. Is this normal? So about 11 hours total in a 24 hr period. I've tried everything to get him to sleep longer