Sleeping FAQ: 4-6 months – Night Waking

Can her recent start on evening solids be causing my 4 mth daughters night waking?

Having started my 4 mth daughter on solids last week everything seemed to be going really well, she has caught on quickly and is very eager to eat, however the last two nights she has awakened at 4.30am and 3.00am when previously sleeping through to between 6.30 and 7.00am. Both times she has appeared to be awake and wanting to play with her cot spiral, she does not appear to be hungry or in pain as on awakening is just talking to herself. Last night I removed the cot spiral, gave her a cuddle and put her back to bed, she proceeded to cry for 1 hour and eventually would only be soothed by feeding (something I really don’t want to do!) The two night awakenings appear to coincide with increasing the baby rice in the evening to 2 teaspoons and giving pear in the day, not sure if this would be responsible though?
She is totally breast fed. At 7am takes one breast for 5-10 mins, 10.45am 1 breast 5-10 mins, followed by solids, 2 tsps pear puree, 2.30pm usually both breasts 10-15 mins, but since starting solids can sometimes refuse one breast, 5.30pm if second breast refused at 2.30pm then very hungry so given 1 breast, 5.45pm 2tsp baby rice mixed with formula, given second breast after the bath, 10.00pm both breasts about 25 mins in total.
My daughter does not always sleep well at lunchtime so her daily total is 2-3 hrs at approx the following times:
9-9.45am 12-1pm, 2.45-3.20pm, 4.30-5pm, settled by 6.30pm.

If you are aware that your daughter is awake in the night, but she is not crying for you, then leave her to see if she will settle back alone. Some babies do go through a spell of waking without a reason and if left alone will chat themselves back to sleep. As she is not in any way upset it may not be due to the solids being introduced, possibly just a coincidence. If she does begin to cry and you go into her, try to settle her with water as she may quickly begin to associate feeding with settling back to sleep, which you already seem aware of.

As your daughter is in the very early days of weaning it is important to watch for reactions. Continue with the pear at lunchtime for at least two more days and see if she still is waking in the night. By the second week of weaning, once carrot is introduced the pear is added to the evening rice to help prevent any possible problems which may occur with plain baby rice causing constipation.

Getting your daughter to sleep one longer stretch in the day may help. Offer her a top up feed before settling her at 12 for her lunchtime nap. This could well be her reason for not sleeping for a longer stretch and being very hungry at 2.30pm. A better sleep in the middle of the day would help her get through the afternoon, with probably only one short nap of around 15-20 minutes taken around 4.30pm. This in turn would help her to get nearer to 7pm before settling and not being quite so tired when she goes down. Continue to give her one breast at 5.30pm followed by her solids, but try to get her to wait until nearer 6.30pm for her bath. Bathing a baby straight after a feed and/or solids can cause them some indigestion and tummy pain. The bath should keep her going to nearer 6.45pm when she can take the second breast.

See p. 33 of the Complete Weaning Guide for a question and answer about how to carry on with the split feed at 5/6pm once solids are introduced.