My 5 month old is feeding every 3hrs through the night

Aleks - posted on 08/19/2009

Hi, my little girl will be 6 months next week and still feeds about every 3 hours at night, and every 4 -5 hours during the day!!! I feed on demand! I can say that my baby has only once slept through the night ( ie, slept for 6 hours straight ). So, this is not that unusual. Most babies change their sleeping and feeding patterns. I am assuming you are breasfeeding.
She may be starting teething - and feeds help sooth the discomfort. Also, she may be going through a growth spurt, hence extra feedings are required to boost supply.
Also, some babies are a lot more restless just before they reach new developmental milestones.
Don't fret, before you have it figured out and how to deal with it, she may just go and change her feeding and sleeping patterns again. Babies go through changes very quickly as they grow and develop very quickly.

Tara - posted on 08/18/2009

I can relate. Maybe she is teething.....or growing. They do that. Just when you think you have a pattern...they throw you for a loop.

Joy - posted on 08/18/2009

Tina! GREAT advice...my son was sleeping for up to 9 hours at a time and the past 2 weeks has been up religiously at 2:30 and 5:30am. I am going to try your idea and see what happens :)

Teresa - posted on 08/18/2009

My 8-m/o still feed 3 hourly in the night too! He used to feed less frequently, i think it's teething for both yours and my baby...

Nicole - posted on 08/18/2009

like the others said, growth spurt. my ten month old is a ziggy piggy and nurses like that too, but it has always been that way. co-sleeping is a big help though so I get sleep thus keeping my sanity :)

Nicole - posted on 08/17/2009

My son is a month old and what has worked for me is that I feed every 3 to4 hours during the day and then I pump for a bottle at night around 10pm so I know he is getting a hardy amount to keep his tummy full and he usually sleeps between 5 and 7 hours thru the night. It has worked so that I even have to set an alarm to change his diaper. Good luck

Renee - posted on 08/17/2009

Thanks everyone all excellent advice fingers crossed :)

Renee - posted on 08/17/2009

Thanks Tina that is great advice

Sarah - posted on 08/17/2009

I am also having this problem and have been for awhile. My son is 5 months and I think he started waking up again at night around 4 months. He's already got 2 teeth and I think he maybe cutting a couple of others. He seems to want to eat constantly. When I try to nurse him in the morning, he normally only eats for 5-10 minutes and would rather look around or see what his sister is doing. Then about an hour later he will eat again. I've tried holding him off and getting him to eat all at once because 5-10 minutes here or there is getting ridiculous for me! I found that if I pump he will eat a lot more faster and then won't need to be nursed for another 3 hours. Good luck, sounds like we are all in the same boat.

Tina - posted on 08/17/2009

2 things ...



1st - is she eating enough during the day? Make sure she gets enough to eat during the day so she's not hungry at night You may have to use a little chart to write down when and how long she's nursing. At 5 months I nursed on demand approximately every 2 - 3 hours.



It took a couple of weeks for my son to sleep through the night, and I find when he hasn't had enough to eat during the day, he always wakes during the night.



2nd - the weaning part ... time your longest nurse period during the day ie: 25 minutes then at night when she wakes, nurse her for that amount of time and decrease by 2 minutes each night until she sleeps through example: mon - 25 min, tue - 23 min, wed - 21 min, etc.



One other thing, is she teething - I noticed when my son was teething really bad, he woke up every hour on the hour no matter what I did



Hope this helped

Minnie - posted on 08/17/2009

That's great!! Every three hours!!

Seriously. My ten month old nurses every two to three hours.

Tip? Cosleep. Baby wakes, latch baby on, go back to sleep. How mothers have done it for millennia.

Rachel - posted on 08/16/2009

5-6 months is a typical time for a growth spurt so it may just be that and once the spurt is over, she'll go back to her normal eating patterns :)

Tegan - posted on 08/16/2009

Hi, I am just going through this myself with my 5 1/2 month old. For me starting my daughter on solids (Farx, baby rice) seems to be working. I started her off on one meal a day around 5:30pm, she is now up to 3 meals a day plus breastfeeds every 4 hours during the day. She is now getting back to sleeping longer stretches at night, I also think she may be teething. Hope this helps, as I know what it is like to wake up throughout the night!