Feed in middle of night?

[awestlund]

I have a 7 month old who is normally a very good sleeper. My question is this: how long can they sleep without needing to eat ? I put my daughter down around 8p, and she usually sleeps until 3 or 4a when she wakes up. I've tried to let her go 10-15 minutes to see if she'll go back to sleep before I go in, but she doesn't - so I feed her. I figure it's a good chunk of time - 7 or 8 hours, so she probably is hungry. I just wasn't sure if she could go until 7a (11 hours) without eating. Has anyone heard how long babies can go without eating - that is, while they are sleeping?

[sshoghi1]

My pediatrician told me 10-12 hours, however, i have a 7 month old who slept 6 hours at most a night and my two year old usually sleeps 9 hours a night plus 2-3hr nap during the day. I think all kids are different. I do know a 7 month old who sleeps from 7pm to 7am, but my kids never did that.

[KellieNVIC]

Are you breast or formula-feeding?

Have you tried gently waking her before you go to sleep and offering her milk? Might help her get through the night if she eats at 10 or 11.

[ra11en]

Is she doing okay on solid food? That should be helping her sleep longer during the night by keeping her full longer. By 7 months my daughter was sleeping 7:30p-7a, so it is possible. However, I was very consistent on when she ate during the day (breakfast, snack, lunch, nap, snack, snack, dinner) and also did a lot of reading on what foods for such a youngster would be healthiest and last longest in her tummy.

Every little one is different! Have you introduced juice? I love the V8 Fusion juice. I cut it with water - more water than juice - even though it doesn't contain any sugar. It is made from veggies and fruit so I feel better about giving it to my daughter. I started giving this to my daughter any time she woke up in the middle of the night. Even though she is great about sleeping through the night, she still has random nights where she wakes up for no reason and needs me to help her fall back asleep. The juice instead of formula during those times kept her from getting into the habit of eating in the middle of the night. Even as adults, our stomachs will rumble and growl and tell us we are hungry during a time of day we normally eat, especially if we fail to eat during that normal time. At 7 months, your little one should be getting started on solids and her tummy should be feeling fuller than normal. Good luck!!

[fuzzy]

My son did 8 hours nights at 3 months and I did what kellienvic did and it worked!

[alpayana]

hi,this is my 1'st baby,she is 6 months.i have started her cereal at 41/2 month,she likes it but the problem is i feed her twice in a day(2 tbsp) ,her dinner i give her at round 9 pm,then she goes 2 sleep at 11....she wakes up at 2,6 for feedin is this normal....coz i don't know....is it k 2 skip her dinner,and she doens't stick 2 her time....and can any 1 help by any extra tip wat 2 feed her.....she doesn't like gerber food alone, i have 2 mix it with cereal.

[krisnrodman]

my 7-month-old has been sleeping 12-13 hours at night for about 2 months now. she also takes 2 good naps during the day, so she may just be more of a sleeper than your little one. i know for us, after she "accidentally" slept until morning, i started just giving her a pacifier when she would wake up because i knew she could make it. if she continued to fuss, i would feed her, but most nights the pacifier got her right back to sleep.

it's so difficult because every baby is so different. good luck!

[MommaC]

My 8-mo-old has been sleeping from 6:30 pm to 6:00 am for many months now, so it is possible (as you've already heard many times over). If your baby was preemie or very little, she may be needing food more often than larger babies. I typically make a 7oz bottle...use 2 oz to mix with rice/oatmeal...let her drink 5 oz...and give her some Gerber vegetables. And even when she gets up in the morning, she's not screaming to eat (she's eager to eat, but not starving out of her mind). If there are no other factors, it may just be a habit that needs to be broken. If it's okay with your doctor, you can quit cold turkey...I lean more toward feeding her a bit less and a bit less until you're giving her nothing at that early morning wake-up. Once you get down to nothing, don't let her get up. When my baby wakes up for whatever reason, I just go in and tuck her back in and restart the lullaby CD and walk out. She usually gets the picture. Good luck to you!

[MommaC]

ALPAYANA: You may have wanted to post this on a separate thread, because your questions might get lost in the mix of replies here. If I understood everything in your message correctly, I'm thinking you might be having sleep issues rather than feeding issues. If you can get your hands on a copy of "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" (by Dr. Weissbluth), you'll have a nice map of a schedule and some ideas of how to get your baby to sleep longer. That book has been such a life-saver for me and for several of my friends.
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but if my memory serves me correctly, I think a 6-month-old should be taking about four 7-oz bottles a day with 2 servings of cereal and at least one fruit/vegetable. Here's what our feeding schedule was: (1)6oz formula to drink, 1oz formula mixed with cereal to the consistency of applesauce, 1/2 jar fruit at 6:00am...(2)7oz bottle at 10:00am...(3)7oz bottle at 2:00pm...(4)5oz formula to drink, 2oz formula mixed with cereal to the consistency of applesauce, 1/2 jar of vegetable at 5:00pm.
As far as getting her to eat other foods, my daughter preferred her foods to be mixed with cereal at first, too. What I do is mix up the cereal then dump 1/2 a jar of food on top. I give her a bite of cereal then a bite of cereal with a little bit of food. I keep putting just a little bit more food on eat bite (a little bit less cereal each time) until she's taking a bite of just food. Don't worry--she'll come around. I think it's just that they're so used to bland stuff that the foods have too much flavor for them at first. Good luck to you!

[sixzilliondots]

I haven't read the other replies so forgive me if I'm repeating myself but if you are breastfeeding she may actually need to eat since breastmilk is digested more quickly but at this point solids right before bed shoudl help.

If formula feeding, she is just waking up out of habit.