Sleeping Through the Night
This little guy is making his momma tired!
This picture was taken on our way out of Wisconsin yesterday. Doesn’t he look cute in his jester fleece hat from Nana?
Elias has not been sleeping through the night. He was for a little while, but that ended seemingly months ago. Lately he has been getting up every three-four hours (go to sleep about 8, get up at 11, 2:30, 5:30/6). He always nurses when he wakes up.
My pediatrician said we cam start trying to give him a little cereal at night. She said we can give it to him right on a spoon (so I can still nurse and not have to pump another darn bottle). AND that it will probably help him sleep the night, since he is obviously hungry. But, I am dragging my feet on it, even though I know it would mean I would get a full nights sleep too. He isn’t quite five months yet (he will be on Dec. 12) and it just seems a little early to me.
When did you start your kids on cereal? Did it help them sleep through the night? Do you wish you would have waited?
Very cute picture!
All of our boys started cereal at 4 months and fruits and veggies by 4 1/2 months…that was our pediatrician’s rule and it worked great!
My son started with rice cereal in his bottle at 6 weeks old. I was only able to nurse him for 5 weeks. He had a severe milk protein allergy. The rice cereal helped thicken up his “special” formula ($30 a can stuff, prescription only). We started my daughter on cereal at 4 1/2 months. She was an all-breast baby and it did help her sleep better, only getting up 2 times a night at that point. Our youngest daughter started cereal at the same time, but it didn’t help her one bit, she still woke up every 2 hours like clock-work. Still does and she’s 2 now. I just weaned her a month ago though, so maybe she’s getting adjusted.
Hey there Jess…since you asked I am gonna tell ya : ) Back in the day which I'm sure the Grandmas will attest to we started you little ones 4-6 wks on cereal!!! Didn't take long & they all slept through the night. Maybe would get up once. I think it is better for you all! Esp with you & your schedule! You need your rest & so does he! Love ya!
I LOVE the jester hat. How adorable! We have 4 kids- the youngest is 9 months. The pediatrician told me that she would sleep through the night if she got LOTS to eat during the day. I am nursing- and I let her nurse as much as she wanted to during the day (on demand)- and she rarely would wake at night. If she did happen to wake at night- I would bring her to bed with us and let her nurse while I slept- not as soundly as usual- but sleep none-the-less! When I woke up I would take her back to her crib. She was sleeping through by 4 months. I waited until closer to 6 months to introduce any “solids” because I didn’t want to take a chance on reducing my supply- and I wanted her to have THE very best (in my opinion) by nursing. When I did start cereal- I would nurse her first- and then offer cereal to fill her up. We did this every time we nursed to make sure that she was very full and happy to sleep soundly all night! I think adding some cereal to his diet is fine… Mommy does need her sleep!
Best wishes!
-Jenni
Both of ours were breast fed and we started cereal with a spoon closer to 5 mo…about where you are now.
Feeding with a spoon is so fun for baby and Mom…just be ready for the cleanup!!!
I waited until 6 months to start both of mine (now 7 & 8) on cereal. Our doctor said that with the increase of food allergies in children – waiting would be best. Our kids have not had any food related allergies. Our doctor attributes that to introducing them to solids at a later date. I know many moms who start them out in the first few months to help them sleep at night. Sometimes it works – sometimes it doesn't. You need to decide what works best for you. The cereal could improve you rest time. We all know that a rested momma is a much better momma (actually I always felt I did a great job with the kiddos and was a royal b to my husband). Matthew might decide to try the cereal.. :o)
I began feeding my child cereal in her bottle two weeks before I came back to work (I took off a full 3 months). And she did WONDERFUL and immediately slept through the night. We started spoon feeding her when she turned four months old. I would say little Elias will do great! Trust me….sleep is a must for any mother, especially one who is also working a full-time job in addition to her full-time job as a mom! Good luck on whatever you decide!
All mine were around 4 months old. Except for my daughter, the others nursed for a year. I don’t regret starting them at 4 months. They LOVED it! It did not in any way slow down their nursing demands during the day. They all slept through the night by 6 weeks though.
I started with all three children at 5 months. My first daughter was sleeping through the night before that. But the other two took longer; 8 and 14 months. The only one who actually liked the cereal was the first one. The other two were not fond of the cereal until I mixed fruit in it at 6 months. Have fun!! This stage doesn’t last too long 🙂
Mlpinky
http://www.mlpinky.blogspot.com
Thanks for sharing your cool blog! Give him cereal and you’ll both be happy! He’s old enough and the small amount you give him should not be a concern for allergy or anything else!
We gave our son a little cereal in his bottle at around 5-6 months due to his spitting up alot. The pediatrician recommended it and it did help.
You need sleep too so you can be a happy Mama!
My boy started cereal at just over 4 months too and he did great with it. He got a little constipated the first week but it didn’t seem to bother him. My boy was one that could NEVER eat enough it seemed. He would nurse all day if I would have let him. He has always slept well at night (naps were the problem for me), but he did sleep a bit longer once we did cereal during the day. It would be worth a try…..a GOOD mom is a rested mom!!! Hope it all works out.
-Amy
i started mine both on cereal at 3 months per dr instruction then (it was 20 years ago) and it did help them to sleep thru the night. just make it really thin if giving him food is bugging you……give it a try. it may help him and you!
Both our girls started cereal by 4 1/2 months because they were clearly more hungry and needed something else. Just try a little at a time and he’ll let you know if he likes it or not. It will more than likely help him sleep better too. Our kids always stopped sleeping through the night when they were getting teeth in and they teethed early (starting at 4 1/2-5 months) so that could be what’s going on too.
I started my daughter on cereal at 4 months and my son on cereal at about 9 weeks. I fed it to them off a spoon, not in the bottle. They loved it and I am glad I did it. It took my son from being fussy and always hungry to content and actually napping.
I love the picture. He is sure getting big.
I’ve been following your blog for a while now. I’m not sure how I got to it, but I enjoy reading it because our babies are really close to the same age. My daughter was born July 7th. She has also been waking up a lot in the middle of the night. She went several weeks sleeping through the night. However, for the past 4 weeks, she wakes up every 3-4 hours. I talked to several friends about it when she first started doing it. I determined that she was going through a growth spurt and just needed to eat more. She would eat every time she woke up. However, now she doesn’t want to eat. As soon as she starts crying, I go in and pick her up and she falls right back to sleep in my arms. My family doctor told me yesterday that around her age they start to dream. She said she may be waking up from her dreams and not able to put herself back to sleep. I’m sure I need to try the “cry it out” method with her, but I just hate the thought of that. Megan is very spoiled when it comes to being rocked to sleep. She loves to cuddle. We did try the cereal too, but that didn’t seem to help. I think it gave her a belly ache more than anything. Good luck and I’ll keep an eye on your blog to see if you come up with the cure since I can’t figure it out!! I’ll be praying for you.
Adorable picture 🙂 Your son is so precious! I’m sorry he’s been keepin’ you up. I don’t have any answers, but I’ll definitely be praying for yall. Good luck!
With my first we started cereal right at 4 mos. I don’t think it helped her sleep through the night. With our 3rd we waited until 6 months to feed him anything but mommy’s milk and it also did not sleep through the night. I am very glad I waited longer with my 2nd and 3rd.
Hope this helps!
Tonia
I started giving all my kids rice cereal around 12 weeks old. I would put it in their bottles and cut the nipple a little to help itcome out. I never had a sleeping thru the night issue with any of my 4 kids but they were always hungry much earlier than normal for food. By 4 months they would be eating cereal with some fruit in a bowl. They loved it. I was blessed by babies that would start sleeping thru the night at 4 weeks old. I know- don’t hate me. 🙂
Hang in there. He could be starting to teethe too. Is he cranky or just darn hungry.
Have a wonderful Christmas with your new baby. I remember my first fiorst Christmas- he will be 20 in May 2009. Man where does the time go? Can I be added for a Christmas Card- you said you do 200- can you do 201?
Michele Stewart
Mstewart222@yahoo.com (I do not want to put my address for all to see!)
I started cereal at 4 months. No, it didn’t help him sleep through the night though. I started letting him cry it out around 6 months. That worked like a charm. He’s been sleeping through the night now for 2 years. Not waking once (unless he is sick). Hang in there, and know you aren’t alone. I can remember being a zombie for the first 6 months of my son’s life. I eventually became myself again.
Elias is getting so big!
As far as the cereal, we started Ellis on cereal (in his bottle)at 4or 5 weeks. Our Dr. suggested it b/c Ellis had acid reflux and could not keep formula down. It was wonderful! He began sleeping through the night right away. He has not had any problems and he has been a wonderful eater!
Good Luck!
My 8 year old son was told to start cereal at 3-4 months old. He was a hungry little guy (and I mean little – only about 11 1/2 pounds at 4 months)and ended up eating 4-6 4oz. jars of food per meal at 6 months. He did great w/ the cereal and ovbiously needed it. He struggled to sleep through the night consistently until about 7-8 months old (and once I let him cry himself to sleep and learn to pacify himself if he woke up). I was new at all of this stuff, so I let him continue to get me up. Eventually I just held him with his binky. If that worked and he went back to sleep, it was obviously not a hunger issue. That’s when I got more serious about “helping” him learn to sleep on his own. My almost 3 year old daughter started cereal at 6 months old per pediatricians recommendations to now wait. She was 2 pounds heavier at birth and slept through the night from 3 weeks on. My 7 month old son started cereal at 6 months (new pediatrician, no real comments on eating or when to start things, possibly because I had “done this” all before). He really didn’t care about it much, so waited another week before trying again. Now he likes it and practically convulses when he sees it coming. Not a HUGE part of his feeding (cut back on solids a while back because of a nursing strike), but becoming more necessary. He is SOOO attached to me, so we’re just beginning to have him cry himeslf to sleep, which has worked for several days now. He’s getting better about sleeping, especially with the solids and learning to pacify himself (thumb sucker) upon waking). He now nurses in the a.m. and then eats cereal/fruit about an hour later. Sometimes he gets fruit/veggies at lunch, and sometimes it’s only after nursing at dinnertime that he gets more solids – veggies/fruit/meat. I’m ready, though, to consistently add the lunch meal.
Nursing is still the most vital part of his nutrition, so keep that in mind as you introduce solids. As long as your dr. says it’s fine, I’d at least try. It might take a week or so before he actually accepts it and really eats enough to make a difference. Once the cereal is a “hit,” then you can add other foods (a fruit might make the cereal more palatable for him). Just remember every baby is different. Your’s might love cereal from the start, or it might take some time for him to adjust to it. Also, a reclining seat makes it much easier at this stage when they aren’t sitting well on their own but are too active for the bouncy seat. Mine loves his seat and will sit there (with toys attached) while I do dishes or work around the room with him.
Good luck.
WARNING: This comment contains MY PERSONAL (and the opinion of my PEDI) opinion and every child is different..I just want you to have all the facts!)
I have always been told by our Pedi that adding cereal is not the answer. Here is what my experience was: I gave cereal in a bottle at night ONE time. It made things worse.(which could totally be just my kid and maybe wouldnt happen to Elias) He was up screaming with his belly hurting. My doctor said that it was habit that had him waking up and that when they double their birthweight they can and should sleep thru the night. That they shouldnt be hungry-it is a habit..so..he suggested that I do sleep training..which..no thanks. That is totally not me..but the mom at http://texastriple.blogspot.com
does it..and knows how, if you want help! I just continued waking and feeding..no matter what you do you wont scar him and hopefully you get it worked out.
I started my daughter on cereal around 4 months. She had stopped sleeping through the night, had doubled her birth weight and seemed hungry. If your ped says to try it, I would – you need some sleep!
Nothing like asking baby advice to get the comments coming! 🙂 We all love to talk about our babies and what we did with them.
My girls both started cereal at 4 months, and a few weeks after that started baby food. Girl, give that boy some cereal and then you can work your way to baby food. e is obviously hungry if he is waking up to eat. 🙂
Add cereal in with the breastmilk bottle. It did the trick for both of my kids. We started with adding it to the bottle around 3 months, and feeding it with a spoon about a month later! Good luck 🙂
our pediatrician had us start our son on rice cereal at 6 weeks old because he was eating so much. and then around 3-4 months he started baby food. It worked well for him because he was drinking so much and just wanted more food.
Shena (=
Well, my first was a champion sleeper from the start…we were very lucky! Our second (who is 8 weeks) has not been so great. He likes to get up a lot. I don’t really have an opinion on whether or not rice cereal will help since we skipped rice cereal with our first (we started her on solids around 4.5-5 months…I don’t remember exactly). My 2 cents is that I will wait longer this time because solids are a pain. It’s just one more thing to deal with. Mixing up the cereal, feeding it to them in addition to still nursing (our little girl still nursed the same amount), having to pack food, spoons, bowls everywhere you go, etc. Granted it is fun to see them eat “real” food, but after the initial excitement wears off then it’s just a pain. Breastfeeding is so easy, there is no mixing, preparation, or washing of bottles.
My daughter started at 14 weeks with cereal in her bottle and it made a WORLD of difference. We all got more sleep and it was certainly what we needed. By 4 months she was eating cereal off a spoon and she has not stopped eating ever since (she is 3 now)! I did drag my feet with my first…he was about 5 months before I gave it to him but I did not have any side effects (other than a longer time between meals)!
Use your mommy instinct…yo uhave it for a reason! 🙂
We started solids at 6 months but never gave our little guy “cereal”. We couldnt find the nurtional value in cereal. We always let him self feed, even at 6 months and it took a while for him to get the food to his mouth but he did learn. We started with table foods, cut or mashed with a fork.
HEre are a few of the ideams we started with:banana, avocado, black beans, refried beans, tofu, pear, sweet potato.
Thats what we did, hes a great eater and sleeper now, he nursed for 31 months. I cant wait to hear what works
we got the go ahead for cereal between 4 and 5 months for both of our big kids (Sweet Baby is not yet three months, so he’s not onto solids yet). There’s absolutely nothing wring with the cereal, you can even make it with pumped breast milk, but my kids just never liked it because there’s pretty much no flavor. They didn’t hate it, but more like, meh, it’s cereal. 😉
Good luck!
I’ve talked about the subject with my mother and my hubby’s mom and they both started us on vereal at 2 weeks!!! YIKES!!! I guess it was diferent back then… I am a General Practitioner (MD) and here in Dominican Republic we advice ONLY breast milk until 6 month old, not because it would hurt them, just because they DONT need anything else, so I spoonfull before bedtime wont hurt and will help you sleep better 😉
It’s hard to say what’s best since every baby is so different. My first was very colicky with bad reflux and didn’t sleep through the night until he was 9 months old and BF till he was 14 months old. We introduced rice cereal at 4 months in hopes that it would help him sleep, but it made zero difference. My my second (now 8 months old) we started her cereal at 5.5 months and she was already sleeping pretty well (only gets up once during the night). It’s also different fore BF babies I believe.
I started my son on cereal at 4 months. He started sleeping through the night (for the most part) at 2 months. He is now 17 months old and will occasionally wake up. One trick you might try is to give him water. Nursing him that much might have gotten him into a pattern of eating, and so he expects it. Hope something works… sleep is good and NEEDED!
The rule of thumb around my house was if the bottle wasn’t satisfying them, add cereal. I know people that started doing that as early as 6 weeks. My kids were around 2 months.
I LOVE that picture! We started ours on rice cereal on Christmas eve last year. He was 4 months almost to the day. It made our holidays alot easier and nicer. We moved to baby foods about 2 weeks after. He started sleeping much better after that.
We waited until 6 months and it didn’t help my son sleep longer at all! It’s different for every kid. I say wait if you’re hesitant. Maybe you’ll feel differently after a few more weeks!
we started at 5 months, but it didn’t help AT ALL. in fact, the first few weeks, she slept worse. not sure if her tummy was just getting used to it or not, but i’ve read countless places that there’s no connection between solids and STTN.
Jessica, I just kind of scanned through all of the comments taking a glance at what they all said. I only read one that said to hold off, which is a little alarming to me! You should definitely look into the research about starting solids too early and the link to food allergies. Almost all of the kids I have heard about with allergies, started solid foods too soon. I waited, just as my pediatrician recommended, and thankfully we have no issues with food allergies. One of the suggestions my pediatrician gave me, to help him sleep through the night, was to start swaddling him again. IT WORKED! It seems that he was startling himself awake at night and once I started swaddling him back up (tightly) he started sleeping like a dream! I continued to swaddle him until he was 18 months or so, and let me tell you, it was quite a challenge to get him wrapped tight enough so that he couldn’t “kick out of it”. I would definitely try this before you start feeding him solid foods. What do you have to lose? You have to do what you feel is right and your gut is telling you not to do it, otherwise you wouldn’t have asked for everyone’s opinion.
My kids all were on cereal before ped said to and YES it helped expand their sleep times.
I always say go with the mamma gut – and if baby is hungry, I fed ’em!
Good luck! Oh and LOVE the hat!!! Where is it from? Isn’t winter fun with babies?!?!?
TRY IT!!! I remember a few months back when I posted about Brandon not sleeping through the night. It was the same thing that you are going through now. We were giving him cereal at 4 months to keep him hungry at night. I would start with Oatmeal- it is the most gentle on the tummy. I had to stop nursing because I didn’t make enough. Brandon still wakes once during the night to have a quick few ounces but the food right before bed helps a lot.
i started my daughter on cereal at 2 – 3 months via a bottle. i did this against my pediatricians advice. everything worked out fine.
oh wow! there are a ton ‘o comments! HA!
Munchkin started sleeping through the night right around Christmas, which was 51/2 months or so. Oh and we started him on cereal at 9 months! yeah we were weird! LOL
now V on the other hand, I started supplementing with a bottle around 6 months because nursing wasn’t enough. You could try that first, not pumping but giving him some formula? That may be enough to help him sleep through the night. V started sleeping through the night around 3 months, I learned later I should’ve woken her because she wasn’t nursing enough to keep my milk supply up.
trial and error 🙂 good luck and keep us posted 🙂
My son started cereal when he was 3 months..he was a hearty eater and was drinking 8 ounce bottles and it wasn’t enough
oh another reason Elias could be not sleeping through the night is that he may be starting to teeth…
I’m not lying when I say this: my mom was putting a little cereal in our milk bottles at 2 weeks old. Yes, I said weeks, not months.
We were big babies (9 pounders) and she said we were hungry. And apparently good sleepers. I say go for it… he’ll be happy and you’ll be rested 🙂
START THE CEREAL!! We started my son on cereal around 3 1/2 months because he was on zantac for acid reflux and that way we could cut out the meds. The minute we started cereal, he slept better, stopped spitting up, and was MUCH happier!!! Enjoy the new phase in your sons life!!!!
Jessica,
My daughter is almost 6 months (Dec. 10). I wanted to wait until 6 months to start cereal but the same thing happened to me. I ended up giving her cereal right before she turned 5 months (just like you). She seemed to take it well. I think that it did help her sleep a bit better. I also made sure I was a little more structured on naps at the same time AND I also let her fuss through a couple of the feedings until she went back to sleep. She would wake up and “seem” hungry but it was just a way to get her to sleep. I was happy I waited until 5 months because she seemed much better at eating. I know many who do the cereal in bottle thing, but for me I was happy to just do it with a spoon (I nurse). Hope this helps!
I started cereal on all mine at 4 months….the pediatrician gave me the go ahead when they were 3 mos. and 13 LBs bUT they were better with it at 4 months. It helps. I had no worries about it….why worry? It’s fine! Back in the day babies were getting cereal in their bottles at 2 weeks of age and meat at 6 weeks old! Right?
He’ll love it!
oh…and no allergies of any kind in my kids….ages 7, 5, 4 and 13 months.
it was around 4 months when we started our son on cereal. if the pediatrician has given you the go ahead i definitely would. eventually that intterupted sleep in going to take a toll on you.
Holden started at 4 months, first with cereal, then with fruits and finally veggies. He loved it and the full tummy did help him sleep better/longer! Go for it!Love the hat!
I started all 5 of my children on cereal by the time they were 6 weeks old. I started with it mixed into their bottle and then moved to a spoon by about 4 or 5 months. They did great, slept all night and I had the approval of my pediatrician.
Hello Jess! I’ve been following your blog for a little while now… I found you through Angie Smith’s blog… love you both! 🙂 First, Elias is ADORABLE!!! He looks like such a sweet little boy! I have 2 children, Maddy (3 1/2) and Bryson (8 mo.) and what’s worked for both was starting on RICE cereal at around 4 1/2 mo. old. I mixed it with formula (in your case Mommy milk!) into a fairly runny consistancy. Both LOVED it! It quite possibly is that Elias is going through a grow spurt. Bryson is 8 mo. like I said and he’s a whopping 23 lbs.!!! (Birth weight was 8 lbs. 5 oz.) I hope introducing a little bit of cereal helps. It shouldn’t affect his feedings throughout the day. Good luck and Merry CHRISTmas!!! You have a beautiful family!
Wait on the cereal until six months. My 13 month old had the same thing happen with her sleep…was sleeping through the night then suddenly stopped at 4 months. I am a Dr Sears’ fanatic and kept her exclusively breastfed until 6 months. Of course, introducing cereal created a whole host of other issues including the dreaded constipation that kept her up at night and didn’t at all solve our sleep problems. (We eventually ditched dry cereal all together). What finally worked for us was the book “The No Cry Sleep Solution”. The techniques like structuring naps and bedtime routines helped so much. It took about 3 or so months but she started sleeping longer stretches than just 3 hours. Now she is still waking up once per night but this is a huge improvement over what it was! In my opinion it wasn’t hunger as much as TEETHING (this is a big issue around this time),growth spurts, if she was constipated or had gas and separation anxiety/needing reassurance. Check out this helpful Dr Sears article…six reasons why to wait to introduce solids. Just one opinion however. Def. get the book and Good luck!
Forgot to post the article…mommy brain 🙂 http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T032000.asp
Hi Jessica, You don’t know me but I found your blog through Angie’s and have been “following” you since. I have a son who is 20 weeks old – so he and Elias are going through many of the same things and I’m often amused by how similar they are. When you said that Elias had been sleeping great and then abruptly stopped months ago it sounded identical to what I’m experiencing with my son! He was sleeping 5 or 6 or 7 hours at a time and now he’s up every 3 or 4. It’s frustrating to be going backwards, isn’t it? However, I wanted to let you know that we did try cereal with T and it hasn’t seemed to make any difference with his sleeping at all. So I keep trying to remind myself that this is a short phase in the grand scheme of things and I’m just trying to cherish our frequent middle-of-the-night bonding times. =) I hope you’ll thoroughly enjoy E’s first Christmas!
Apparently I’m a bit late on commenting but feedburner is always a day late! 🙂 Anyway – for what it’s worth, I waited to give my 1st baby cereal until she was 6 mo and it was great. i tried my son at 4 months because of the same thing you’re going through and he had major issues with constipationg, so I quit and tried again at 6 months, and he was fine. Go with your gut – it’s usually right.
I started both my boys before 6 months.
You need to do what you feel is best.
But the advise of Mom’s is better than any Doctor… LOL
My children are currently four and 21 months. I waited until they were six months old to start cereal. It’s funny the differences in what ped. doctors say. Mine told me that giving cereal to children does not help them sleep through the night, and if they wake to nurse it is usually because it becomes habit for them. Good luck and Merry Christmas!!
My LO is almost 7 months and he sometimes sleeps through the night. I started giving him cereal at 4 months, and I don’t think it really helped.
I started both my girls on cereal at 4 months. I started them early to help with GERD that they both had. I do not regret it. Though it did not help them with sleeping through the night. In fact, my youngest (now nine months old), still does not sleep through the night. I give her one formula bottle a day. My doctor sugguested giving it to her before she goes to bed and that might help her sleep. NO LUCK with that eithier. I think they will sleep through the night when they are ready!
My 4 month old has just started the same lovely schedule Elias seems to be on — she was sleeping thru the night before that, but now she’s up 3 or 4 times in the night. I am absolutely determined to wait to start any solids until she’s 6 months old, though:) I’ll just be tired if I have to be. I think breastfeeding is best for the first 6 months, so I’ll just hold off — good for you for trying to do the same! I stay home, so I can sleep during the day with her if need be — it would be much harder to be working, like you are!
I have twins who I gave cereal @ 4 months b/c of the same thing – they were not sleeping through the night and I was exhausted. It didn’t work. They still woke up to nurse! So I stopped using it and waited. I think my girls wanted to nurse during the night. I was lucky enough to be able to stay at home with them the first year so I could nap during the day. For you, I would suggest your husband trying to feed him a pumped bottle when he wakes up in the night – just to see if he is waking up due to actual hunger or if he is just wanting comfort from mommy. And as far as the waiting to introduce rice cereal b/c of food allergies, I agree – my twins have food allergies and it is not fun. Good luck!
Jessica, GIVE THAT BABY CEREAL!!! Girl, you need your rest & Elias will LOVE you for it!=) I started both of my boys at 4 months to the day…they were waking every 3 hours too to eat…start him with a teaspoon or 2 with some breast milk or formula mixed in it…not too runny, but not too thick and that baby will be sleeping like a bear!! Why do we say 'sleeping like a baby'…we all know babies are cat nappers, who wake up over any little thud in the house! ANyway, you will do great starting him on cearel, and if he doesn't like it..try, try, try again! Sometimes it will take 5 or 6 times of introducing it for the baby to like it..and then add one fruit at a time. You will never regret it!=) hope this helps~heidi
I started feeding my son around 5-51/2 months. My mom wanted me to feed him earlier, but I believe that is why we have so many over weight children plus I believe it also makes them colicy. He loves to eat veggies and prefers carrots over cookies! You will know what is best for your son!
Jess, Go ahead and give that boy cereal!! Trust me…Cj has slept through the night ever since we brought him home, we did the ceral trick because he is such an aggressive eater. It makes him so happy to have a full belly!! You will truly be happier too when you can get some sleep. Also, as far as the constipation…give 1oz of pear juice, two times daily…that will really help him go. CJ went a week at a time without poopen and than it got so bad he would sit a turn red he would push so hard. Jucie and suppositories helped.
Well, I didn’t read all the comments, but I’ll put in my two cents…
My little girl is 9 months, and still not sleeping through the night! I started her on solids just before 6 months, with a little rice cereal – and she HATED it! so I waited a little longer, and figured out that she really hated eating from a spoon. Now she is eating chunks of bread, banana, peas, carrots, all things she can pick up by herself. And now, she will eat more from a spoon, too – applesauce, cereal, etc. So I did wait a little longer before starting her on solids, becuase I don’t think she was ready for it yet. But it sure hasn’t helped her sleep through the night!! Last night she ate a HUGE dinner, and was in bed at 6:30, and then awake at 9pm and again at 3 am. She’s still sleeping at 6:15 am as I write this 🙂
http://www.xanga.com/junglewife