Sleeping FAQ: 6-9 Months – Early Morning Waking

My baby boy, who is just over six and a half months, used to sleep through from 7.30pm to 7am, with naps at 9am, noon, and a short nap at 4.30pm. During the last couple of weeks he has started waking up earlier, and despite the introduction of solids at lunch and teatime, he is waking regularly at 5.45am. We tried reintroducing a small feed at 10pm, but he is in such a deep sleep he took only an ounce or so. We have also tried leaving him to see if he will settle back to sleep, but he just cries on and off until we eventually go to him. Should his bedtime be later, or should I be looking to reduce his daytime naps? He weighs just over 18lbs, and he is drinking four 7/8oz feeds a day.

Previously, when weaning guidelines advised introducing solids at around 4 months, by the time the baby had reached six months he would be taking a reasonable amount of solids and could sleep right through the night from 7pm. However now that the recommended age for weaning is six months, it is important that you work through the different food groups more quickly. The way to do this is to introduce new foods and increase the amounts you offer every couple of days, as opposed to previous recommendations of every three to four days. I suggest that you only offer your baby a couple of ounces of milk at 11am before offering him solids, then a couple of ounces after the solids. This will encourage him to take more solids at this time, and allow you to decrease the milk feed so that protein can be introduced. Once he is eating nearer six cubes of different vegetables, you should gradually introduce protein. This is very important for babies of six months and older, as by this age they will have used up all their natural resources of iron. Further details of why protein is essential at this age and how to introduce it, is explained in detail in the Weaning Guide.

As your baby is waking up and crying until you go and feed him I suspect that the main reason for the earlier waking is hunger. Because you have just started weaning two weeks ago, it is probable that he is not getting enough solids to eat for his weight. I suspect that the two cubes of vegetables at lunch and three teaspoonfuls of baby rice he is having at tea is not quite enough. Many babies of his age and weight can need two of three times more than the amounts you are giving him.
To avoid the problem of a long-term early morning waking becoming established, it is important that at this stage you get your baby back to sleep as quickly as possible when he wakes early. I suggest that until you have increased his solids and adjusted his nap times, you give him his milk the minute he wakes, treating it like a night feed, and settling him back to sleep until 7/7.15am. Then, when he gets up, rather than give him another milk feed, offer him a small amount of solids, followed by a small top up of milk. Once he is eating more solids during the day and in the evening I am sure you will find that he starts to sleep later than 6am again.

However, to ensure that there are no other causes for the early morning waking, I also suggest that you gradually move on his daytime times naps. I have noticed a link between early morning waking and babies over six months who are still going down at 9am for their morning nap. If you push back his morning nap by a few minutes every second or third day until he is going down at 9.30am in the morning, and sleeping until nearer 10am. This will allow you to put him down for his lunchtime nap nearer 12.30pm. Once he is sleeping 12.30pm to 2.30pm, he should manage to get through the afternoon without a short nap late afternoon, although you may have to bring his bedtime forward slightly to 7/7.15pm. Too late a bedtime can also be the cause of early morning waking. With babies of this age there is such a fine line between getting too much sleep during the day, and too little. Even fifteen minutes too much can have a knock-on effect and cause them to wake early. On the other hand over-tiredness can also cause babies of this age to wake up early. If they have too late a bedtime they can often fall into a deep sleep the minute they are put to bed, and that can cause early morning waking.

Although it seems like a lot of changes to make in a short space of time, tweaking the routine by a few minutes each day, and increasing the solids over the next week to ten days until he is taking double the amount should help get him back to sleeping to nearer 7am.