6 Month Old No Longer Sleeping Through the Night - Why? Help!!

I would give the cereal closer to bedtime and not another bottle of milk. he could be wet in the night from all the liquid. also when he is waking in the night give him only water in the bottle. and dont' get him out of the bed to hold. at 6 months he can hold the bottle. give him the bottle of just water. he won't keep waking for that. give him the bottle of milk at the 730 - 8ish time the bath and the cereal right before bed.

Hi A.,

I agree with the other mom who said that sleep patterns change as the baby grows and changes; also with those who said he may be teething. Mine were exclusively breastfed at this age and they were still waking as often as your little guy.

One thing I would not do is to try to force him to drink more formula than he wants. Babies are very good at stopping eating when they are full. With all the obesity today, you want them to keep doing that (quitting when they are full)! That, to me, was the nice thing about breastfeeding--you watched other signs (wet diapers, the fontanelle, general growth and development) to know whether baby was getting enough to eat, rather than measuring ounces consumed.

Since the formula doesn't seem to have made any difference in him feeling full, have you considered going back to just nursing him? I don't care how good a formula is (and I'm grateful we have formula for those few moms who truly cannot or should not breastfeed), it still doesn't completely replicate good old-fashioned momma's milk. you'd save money on the formula, plus breastfeeding releases that "mothering" hormone (oxytocin? I think) that helps reduce stress in the mom.

For the tiredness part of things--have you considered co-sleeping with your baby? it might help you both get more rest, and it is so easy to nurse when baby is right there. Sometimes we had ours in bed with us, other times I nursed in a spare bed with just baby and me. I really liked it. And you DO rest when he naps, right? (Note: the housework will wait...)

Good luck and hang in there, he will go back to sleeping longer again!

K. Z.

He is simply changing.
Baby sleep, is not static.
It gets affected by:
1) growth-spurts
2) teething
3) cognitive changes and development
4) motor skills and development
5) Hitting major milestones
6) illness
7) hunger... especially at growth-spurt periods. Which, 6 months old is a growth-spurt time... AND a time in which a baby changes a lot developmentally. So, you need to feed on-demand, still. 24/7. Otherwise, his intake will not keep pace, with his growth/development and needs for more intake
8) Separation Anxiety
9) Object Permanence development

He is simply changing.
These junctures, in sleep, will occur and is normal.
Also, 'appetite' is never predictable...thus the reason for on-demand feeding, 24/7. Especially in the 1st year of life.
At times, a baby will even do what is called "Cluster feeding" in which they need to feed, even every single hour. Thus, you need to go by your baby's 'cues'..... for your baby.

ALL babies, will wake... and sleep patterns are not static. A baby, will not sleep the same as they did when a newborn, or when hitting developmental changes, or when at certain ages.... sure, there may be 'patterns' of sleep style... and it may be that way for a time... but it will change. At 1 years old, at 2 years old, and older.... then Teens and college kids change in sleep patterns too and in wakings.... even elderly go through that...

Your baby, is hungry.
He is growing.
He, if not already, will hit major milestones like crawling/sitting up/rolling over etc. And these things will affect their sleep. Temporarily. Because it is developmental based... you cannot "extinguish" it or 'make' them fall asleep... without waking.
"Sleeping through the night" for a baby... means, sleeping 5-6 hours straight. NOT all night, like an adult.

Also, if a baby is not napping and is over-tired... this only makes it more difficult for them to fall asleep and to stay asleep and to sleep well.
He should be napping, up to 3 times a day....
Also, if over stimulated before bed, a baby cannot sleep well nor fall asleep well.
**Also, he is going to bed too late.

My kids as babies that age, (I breastfed) woke up every 2-3 hours during the night. They were hungry. I knew their cues. They nursed me dry each time. I fed on demand for the 1st year. They had ginormous appetites.

For the 1st year, per our Pediatrician... breastmilk/Formula is a baby's PRIMARY source of nutrition.... not solids and not other liquids.
Also... feed him his Formula BEFORE solids... otherwise, a baby will simply be TOO full to drink... and will not get enough.

Even night time wakings... may still occur, but change.
It is never static..... it is per their many changes internally and cognitively... all at the same time, many times. Never really one thing exclusively...

all the best,
Susan

I believe he might have had a growth spurt 6 weeks ago and after that got into the habit of waking up at night for feeding (as my pediatrician told me once, if we wake up once at 1am and find 20 dollars in the kitchen during 2 or 3 days, we would certainly continue waking up at 1am!)
As he is growing fine, I would assume that he gets the right amount of calories per 24 hours. And we know from before that he can sleep through the night. The trick now is to find a way to move these 2 night feedings (so 8oz) to day feedings. There may be several ways to do this:
- give him less and less at 5am (maybe diluting with water, so he feels full but in fact didn't get his calories and will take more at 8 am) until he doesn't wake up at 5 am and then do the same at 1 am.
- try to give him more of his milk during the day, for example try to push one extra oz per bottle or to have feedings closer to each other and so squeeze an extra feeding during the day
- depending to his solid food schedule, try maybe to add a solid meal/snack to what he is already taking, for example a yogurt.

At this age, it could also be teething, or just a habit to sooth himself back to sleep. You can try a pacifier (so, you will see if this is hunger or not) and/or teething medicine. When my daughter is teething, I spread teething relief gel on a pacifier with a toothbrush and this helps her as well as breastfeeding.

Good luck!

My kids both went through this at about 6 months too. At first, it was a growth spurt, but after a couple of weeks, it just became habit. They weren't really hungry in the middle of the night, but they had gotten used to me coming and soothing them back to sleep. You can feed him at his first wake-up if you think he's really hungry, but then there's no reason to feed him four hours later. When he gets up, you can rock him and soothe him as best you can without feeding. A few nights and he'll be back to his normal sleeping. Or you can send in your husband when you aren't feeding him if that would signal to him that he won't be eating. He just needs to get out of the habit of waking up then! Good luck!

I would say it is probably teething or a growth spurt. My first did this and in a week or so things straightened out again. I just got my six month old on cereal as well but I can see that the teething is really starting to amp up. Hasn't effected his sleep though, thank goodness!!!! But I remember it well with my first. My first didn't actually take a paci either but I would hold one in his mouth while he dropped off to sleep and that seemed to help a lot, not too long after, he sprouted a tooth! It will pass, they go through a lot around the six month mark, plus he is probably gaining some new skills and that might be causing him to move more in the crib and wake himself up. I would say give him a bit to calm himself and if he doesn't chill then maybe go and pat him gently and leave. Going in was always totally counter productive with my first, but I have heard people say it helps! I would try to avoid night time feeding if you can help it bc if can become a habit. Just try breastfeeding right before bed and see if he can calm himself back to sleep. Six months is a bit rough sometimes and is bewildering as to why. I think it will pass, hang in there!!!

he might be teething...I would try giving him either teething tablets of I LOVED Gentle Naturals Teething Drops they worked amazing for my daughter.

Good luck, I"m sure it's a phase! Not that that makes it any easier on a tired mommy.

I know this is counterintuative, but try putting him to bed earlier. Both of my kids were up late until 5ish months, and then were ready to start transitioning to an earlier bed time. If he's overtired when he goes to bed, he's going to have a hard time settling in to a good sleep. Also, I agree with the teething idea. Try motrin.

Good luck. It will pass, I promise.

Cereal only has a fraction of the nutrition milk or formula does (think about 5%). The only reason it works for *some* is that they can't digest it yet, so it just sits in their stomachs making them feel full. Formula (wonderful lifesaving stuff) doesn't have the variable nutrition breast milk does (your milk consistency changes as they age, sometimes being more caloric, other times being more mineral rich, other times vitamin rich, other time protein, etc).

Growth spurts also happen right around 6 months. So 1 will get you 50 that your baby is waking up because they're hungry. Strictly nursing won't fix this. When they grow, the GROW, but if you're able to... it will probably help a great deal.

Yah, it could totally be new teeth pushing through. I have these little teething strips that work pretty well - they melt in baby's mouth.