Feeding FAQ: 6-9 months – Weaning/Solids

My 8 month daughter still wakes at night for a feed. Is she really hungry?

My daughter who is just 8 months is still waking for a feed in the night. Can she really still be hungry at this age? We started the CLB routines from week 1, but she has never consistently slept through the night. However we dropped the 10/10.30pm feed at 4 months, as she was still waking up again for another feed before 7am. We found that if we let her sleep, she would only wake up once in the night before 7am. We felt that this was acceptable to us, and we honestly thought that once we started her on solids, she would eventually sleep through the night.

Her weight gain has always been slow, (6th percentile), but she is currently in the 70th percentile for her height. She has also been hitting all the developmental milestones, so the doctor’s have not been too concerned.

We started her on solids at 6 1/2 months, which my daughter has taken to quite happily. We have been following Gina’s weaning plan, although I have been trying to introduce new foods every 2 days. We have not introduced any protein as yet, as I wanted to get through all the first stage weaning foods first. My daughter has slept through the night a couple of times since we started her on solids, but it has never been consistent. When she wakes up in the night, we always leave her for 10-15mins to see if she will resettle on her own. Sometimes she does resettle, but if she is persistent, she will only go back to sleep if she is fully breastfed. I have also been reducing the time of this night feed.

I’m also worried that this night waking is now so much a habit, that we’ll have to do some controlled crying if its not hunger. I would like to get a decent night’s sleep!

My daughter is totally breast fed. She has full feeds at 7.30am, 2.30pm, and 11.45pm. At 11am she has half a feed before her solids of 10-15 minutes, and 5 minutes afterwards. She takes a half feed of 5 minutes at 5pm and another 20 minutes at 6.15pm.
She takes 1-1.5tablespoons oatmeal cereal mixed with 1oz expressed milk and 2 cubes of pear or peach puree at breakfast.
At 11am she takes 6-7 cubes of vegetable purees, finger food such as cooked carrots and beans are offered. Water is offered in a cup.
After her small feed at 5pm she is given 1-2 tablespoons rice cereal mixed with 1oz expressed breast milk and 2 cubes of pear or apple puree.
My daughter weighed 14lbs 10ozs at 7.5 months.
She naps at 9-9.50am and 12.15-2.15pm. She settles at 7pm.

Now that your daughter is 8 months she needs to be given protein in her meals. Although she will be receiving a small amount of protein from the vegetables she is eating, the supplies laid down at birth began to run low at six months. Also, breast milk does not have adequate amounts of iron to meet her needs now. When weaning has been delayed until six months it is very important to move quickly through the food groups so that meat or vegetarian alternatives are introduced quickly, for their iron content. As the Weaning Guide was written before the guidelines were changed it was possible to introduce all the fruit and vegetable groups before six months was reached, when the baby’s iron supplies were beginning to run low and they needed protein in their diet. Now, if weaning commences at six months it is better to introduce some iron-rich sources fairly soon, alongside the vegetables and fruits.

Your daughter’s night time waking is most likely to be due to hunger as she is not getting enough of the right kind of solid food in the day to meet her needs. If she began to be less interested in feeding at 7am you would know that her waking and needing a feed was more habit than hunger. Take a look at Gina’s article on the subject: Weaning Guidelines, How Many Months?

Make some chicken casserole with the recipe in the weaning book, page 75. The vegetables it contains are all ones she is already familiar with, as they are some of the earliest introduced. Replace two of the vegetable cubes given at her 11am feed with this chicken casserole. Increase the amount of protein cubes given each day, whilst decreasing the vegetable ones, until the 11am solid meal consists entirely of a protein based dish. It is a good idea to stay with one dish, such as the chicken casserole, for three days in a row before introducing another dish, such as Red Lentil Savoury on page 79 in the weaning guide. As the amount of protein offered increases at this meal so the milk given before and after will decrease. Milk can hinder the absorption of protein by up to 50% so this feed is replaced by water. When this happens you may find that the 2.30pm feed increases a little.

As soon as protein has been introduced and accepted at 11am then begin to replace the rice and fruit given at 5pm/6pm with other savoury foods. The Weaning Guide gives menu plans to help you do this.

Whilst you are introducing protein to your daughter you may still need to feed her at 11pm, but this feed should begin to decrease as her nutritional needs are being met in the day. Once your daughter is receiving the correct balance of solid foods she will probably cut back this feed on her own. Continue to offer it to her until you have eliminated the middle of the night feed.

The way to get your daughter to settle back to sleep on her own without the need for a feed can be done by implementing the “core night “ method. There is a description of this on p148 of the Contented Little Baby Book, and also in The Complete Sleep Guide, p42. After you have left her 10-15 minutes, to see if she will resettle herself, go in and offer her cool boiled water to try to settle her. Even if she sleeps on for another hour or so you are beginning to stretch out her night and teach her how to settle without the need for a feed. Once she has slept a longer stretch in the night don’t go back to feeding her at an earlier time if she wakes. Use water or a cuddle to get her to settle back to sleep again. It will take time as she may have begun to associate settling in the night with being fed but, as long as you remain consistent in the way you deal with the night waking, she should be able to sleep through unaided within a few weeks. The Complete Sleep Guide does deal with this kind of problem in detail and would be worth a read.