Sleeping FAQ: 9-12 Months – Night Waking

My 10 1/2 month old son is waking early since he started crawling

My son who is now 10 ½ months old has started to wake up early since he began crawling, which was about 8 weeks ago. He wakes at 5:10am and starts chatting to himself, but then becomes very noisy. I have to give him his bottle by 6.30am. I don’t think he is waking through hunger since he eats well in the day.

I have tried to follow the advice given to parents with similar problems of early morning waking however the situation has not improved. I don’t really know what else I can do. I have tried to change his routines slightly over the last couple of weeks just to see what works best for my son. He still keeps waking up too early.

Feeding details:
6.30am 200 ml formula

8.00am baby cereal with banana or mango, Redbush tea

10.00am oat biscuit

12.00 7 cubes protein lunch e.g. chicken, lentils or fish with carrots and potatoes. Yoghurt and cheese stick. Water or orange juice

3.00pm Fruit mixture; apple, banana, pear or some toast, water

5.00pm 5 cubes of carbohydrate tea such pasta bolognaise, sultana bread, cheese stick, oat biscuit. Redbush tea

6.15pm 200mls formula

My son naps at 9-10am and 1-3pm. He is settled at 6.50pm

The amount of sleep that your son is having during the day could be the reason for his early morning waking. To encourage your son to sleep until 7am, you need to push forward the times of the daytime naps and to reduce the length of the morning nap.

In order to do this I would suggest that for a short period that you feed him the minute he wakes at 5am. I am aware that he is probably not hungry at this time, but the aim of the feed is to get him back to sleep until 7am. He may not go back to sleep when you first start feeding him at 5am, but I would continue to feed him until he does. On that first day when he does go back to sleep until 7am, it is very important that you use this window of opportunity to push his morning nap on to nearer 9.30am. Allow a nap of no longer than 30 minutes.

As he has slept better in the night, your son will hopefully still be able to wait until 1pm for his lunchtime sleep. But if he shows signs of getting too tired and you are worried that he may be unable to eat a proper lunch. Bring his lunch and his nap back by twenty minutes or so hours. This nap can be pushed forward again once he shows he is able to stay up longer.

Whilst you put these changes into place you will have to accept that your son may be irritable for a few days but it is worth persevering. Babies of this age go through a stage where they can not survive on one nap a day, but two naps can be too much sleep, which can be the cause of early morning waking. Once he is back to sleeping to nearer 7am, it is important that you keep an eye for signs that he is needing to cut back further on his daytime sleep. If he wakes even slightly earlier for two days in a row I would suggest that you cut his morning nap back to 15 – 20 minutes. You will eventually reach a stage where you do not put him down for a nap in the cot, but just allow him a cat-nap of 10-15 minutes in his buggy. When he is only having a 10 minute cat-nap in the buggy, keep an eye on how long he takes to settle at lunchtime, and how long he sleeps. If you notice any changes with the lunchtime nap I would advise that you cut out the morning nap altogether, although you may have to bring his lunch and lunchtime nap back slightly until he gets used to getting through the morning without a nap.

Can I also suggest that you look at the advice for third stage weaning in The Weaning Guide. Now that your son is ten and half months old you need to encourage him to eat most of his food finely diced and sliced rather than blended together. He needs to be allowed to feed himself as much as possible. Giving him a spoon while you feed him will help him to learn how to do this. Meal times may take a little longer but you can allow for this by starting them earlier.