Feeding FAQ: 4-6 months – Weaning

Despite being weaned my 18 week son still wants a feed in the night

From around 12 weeks, my son started to sleep from his 22:30 feed, which he still has, to somewhere between 05:00 and 07:00. Around 15 weeks, however, he started waking again in the night. I have tried to put him back to sleep or give him a dummy to suck, but to no avail because he seems extremely hungry. He now wakes between 03:45 and 04:30 as a matter of routine and consumes effortlessly, a whole 8oz bottle of formula! As I have to be up for work at 05:30, the night waking is very exhausting.

After trying hungry-baby formula (a disaster, as it did not agree with him), the health visitor gave us the go-ahead to wean at 17 weeks. We are now in week two of weaning and my son now has solids (pureed banana, baby rice, or gluten free cereal) at two feeds (14:00 and 18:00) and takes 4/5 teaspoons at a time. While we are guided by how much he wants to eat, I am concerned about giving him too much as the advice leaflets talked in terms of starting off with one spoonful of solids. There is, however, no appreciable difference to his appetite or night hunger.

Is it just a matter of time until my son’s diet gives him enough nutrition to be able to sleep through the night again or is there anything we are doing wrong or could do better (e.g. should we be feeding more solids)? By day he is receiving 5x 8oz feeds and the one in the night giving him a total of 48ozs. He weighs 18 lb 1.5oz.

Weaning your son needs to be done with his nutritional needs in mind. Milk will still be the main part of his diet until he is nearer 6 months. It would seem that your son is a bit of a milk addict though, and cutting back on the night bottle will help increase his appetite in the day, which will be met by the solids he is receiving.
The best way to do this would be to dilute the feed down. Begin by diluting a bottle by 1oz. So for 8ozs of water add 7 scoops of powder. Each night dilute the feed by 1oz more until it is only 1 scoop of formula to the rest water. He may need a slightly larger feed on waking to make up for these “lost” ozs. Make his first bottle of the day 9ozs. After a couple of nights, if he is still taking the very dilute feed, try to settle him with plain boiled water if he wakes. This may take a while but it is important to be consistent and not go back to waking him. Once the feed is eliminated you can begin to use the controlled crying method to get him to settle back to sleep should he wake, if you know that hunger is not the cause of him waking.
In order to balance his milk needs properly, so he does not begin to cut back too much, it would be better to move his solids to 11am and 6pm. Giving solids at 11am makes it easier to work towards a structure of three meals a day. Most babies wake at 6-7am and so will be given breakfast when introduced about 7.30/8am. As they begin to need more solid food, they will be unable to wait until 2.30pm for their next “meal”. They may demand more milk at 11am which will decrease their appetite for solids at 2.30pm or they will wake hungry during their lunchtime nap. Offering too much solids at 2.30pm can also have the knock-on effect of them cutting back too much at 6pm and therefore waking before 10pm. So you can increase the amount he has without this happening; just move the 2.30pm solids back to 11am.
Which foods are introduced is also important. If you are unsure what to give your son, look at The Complete Weaning Guide which will show how to structure both the amounts and the introduction of different solids to allow your son to be introduced to a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. As to the amounts that you give him, following a guide such as this will help you increase the solids in the right way.