Sleeping FAQ: 9-12 Months – Early Morning Waking

My 10mth son is waking early in the morning and will only go back to sleep if I offer him a feed

My son is now just over 10 months old. We introduced the CLB routine when he was 3 months and it worked beautifully for us, and has done until recently. Since he was 8 or 9 months old, he’s been waking early, and it seems to be getting earlier and earlier. He was consistently sleeping until 7am until that point. I have ruled out every possible cause of the early waking – his room is blacked out completely, he gets plenty to eat and eats according to the weaning program laid out by the book (has his protein at lunchtime, fruit in the mornings, vegetarian dinners etc). He never refuses his food and he eats a lot of it. I still breastfeed three times a day – upon waking, after the lunchtime nap, and after his bath, before bedtime. He’s not a large or small baby – basically right on the 50% mark in terms of size and weight.

When he wakes in the morning, I’ve been leaving him for 30 minutes or so (he doesn’t cry, just grizzles, but will work himself up to crying if I leave him longer than that). He doesn’t go back to sleep. I usually end up giving him one breast’s worth of a feed, and put him back to bed, treating it as a ‘night’ feed like I did when he was much younger. He’ll usually go back to sleep, though some days he won’t do that either, just lies there grizzling again. If he goes back to sleep, I let him sleep until 7.10, then get him up and give him the other breast, then breakfast, then we continue the day as usual. At the moment he’s waking at 5.30/6am. I’d really like to know how to stretch him out until 7! He sleeps for 30 minutes at his morning nap, and 2 hours at lunchtime. Both of these nap’s are pretty consistent and no trouble. We put him down to bed between 6.45 and 7pm – we tried earlier so that he wouldn’t go to bed exhausted and end up in a deep sleep early. Nothing is working though. I’d love any suggestions! I don’t want him to become one of these toddlers that is awake at 4am every morning, and I feel like that’s what I’m looking at if I don’t fix this. He’s a very active baby – crawling, pulling self to stand, constantly on the go and loves to go out and look at everything (overtiredness and over stimulation were our main problems early on!).

My son feeds at 5.30am 1 breast for 15minutes, 7.10am one breast, 10 minutes. Breakfast at 7.30am 3 tablespoons baby muesli with apple, half a small banana mashed with formula, 10.30am two fingers of toast, butter and jam, water from a cup. 11.50am, 4-5 tablespoons of vegetables and meat, homemade, always including a carbohydrate such as potato, small baby yoghurt or custard, water from a cup. 2.45pm, breast feed, both sides for 20 minutes. 4.15pm water from a cup, 5.00pm 4-5 tablespoons mashed mixed vegetables, sometimes with an egg yolk always containing carbohydrate such as potato, rice and pasta. Small baby yoghurt or custard. 6.15pm breast feed, both sides.

My son weighs 9kg [19lbs 13ozs].

My son naps at 9-9.30am, 12.30-2.30pm.

Since this problem has been gradually increasing over the past few months it may be that aspects of his daytime sleep are causing the difficulty. But you also need to look at your son’s diet to see if changing this a little will help him as well.

The daytime sleep needs of a baby change during the second part of the first year. As your baby gets older, he is more able to stay awake for longer stretches of time and so his naps need to be moved forward to allow for this. Early morning waking is often the result of this not happening. Once a baby has started to wake early in the morning it may seem difficult to alter his daytime sleep as he is tired and will want to nap from 9am. Therefore the lunchtime nap comes too early as well, leaving a baby going to bed in the evening, very tired and falling into an exhausted sleep.

Begin to move your son’s morning nap on to 9.30am. Do this by moving it slowly forward, putting him down five minutes later every few days so he adjusts to the new time without becoming tired and irritable. Allow him to nap for 20-30minutes. The effect of having a nap at this later time should be to push on the lunchtime nap towards 1pm. Your son may still need a full two hours for this nap so will begin to wake nearer to 3pm. This then allows him to go to bed at his usual time but possibly less exhausted. He will fall to sleep after a spell of chatting in his cot.

Have a look at page 186 of The Contented Little Baby Book and page 117 of The Complete Sleep Guide where structuring daytime sleep is explained.

You are dealing with your son’s early morning waking in the right way. Feed him from the first breast as soon as he wakes and get him settled back to sleep as quickly as you can. As this feed should be counted as his morning feed, offer him breakfast when he wakes after 7am. Once he has finished his solids, offer the second breast.

Once your son is waking nearer to 7am you can offer him a feed when he wakes but it might also be a good idea to begin to give him some expressed milk or formula from his cup at breakfast time so he gets used to having milk in another way as well as from the breast.

To help increase the amount of solids your son is eating at both lunch and tea try the following plan.

Replace the toast fingers offered at 10.30am with a piece of fruit and a drink from a beaker. This should help your son be hungry for his lunch and take nearer to 6-8 tablespoons.

For several days cut out the breast feed at 2.30pm to help him have a good appetite for tea. You can offer him a drink of water and a piece of fruit when he wakes from his lunchtime nap. If your son shows signs of being hungry move his tea to the earlier time of 4.30/45pm. Once he has dropped the afternoon feed he should be happy to take nearer to 6-8 tablespoons of his vegetarian meal, filling him up for the night.

Have a look in the Weaning guide for some ideas of what to offer him. Good choices would be jacket potato with baked beans or grated cheese, thick vegetable soups which include lentils or potatoes and pasta dishes with cheese or vegetable sauce. Offer your son some finger food at this time as well. This may be mini sandwiches, rice cakes or sticks of cheese.

Once your son has increased the amount of tea he is eating you may like to put back a small breast feed at 2.30pm, if it does not knock the edge of his appetite again. Many babies of this age no longer need this afternoon feed and it is replaced with a small snack and a drink if needed.