Feeding FAQ: 4-6 months – Weaning

My of almost 6 months daughter has started to wake at night since starting solids

I have been following the CLB weaning guidelines to the letter, and all was going great till about a week ago, when my daughter started to wake up in the night with a dirty nappy and what sounded like wind. I have been trying not go to her and letting her get herself back to sleep. She was really quite good at getting herself to sleep but now she seems to be really struggling and cries for about an hour which makes me think it might be wind. I started weaning her quite late (5 months), as we were travelling in the UK (we are currently living in the US), and I did not want to change her routine too much while we were away, so I waited till we got back. I am concerned about why she has suddenly started to wake in the night normally around midnight. She is going to bed at 7/7.30, she has her solids at 5.30/5.45 and her milk after her bath, and sometimes she wakes with a dirty nappy.

I am wondering if the two cubes of fruit she has at tea time is too much for her and I am thinking of cutting it out to see if that helps her. If I did not give it to her at teatime could I change her meals around and give her the veg at tea time instead and fruit earlier on in the day? I am also worried she might actually be hungry, which is why she is waking up and crying so hard. She has also started to wake at 6am, rather than 7am which was her normal wake-up time.

At present she takes 7ozs at 7.30am, 7ozs 10.45am, 6ozs at 2/2.30pm, 2ozs at 5.30pm and 7ozs at 7pm. Her solids are 1-2tps baby cereal at breakfast, 2 cubes carrot and 2 cubes of potato at lunch, 4-5 tsp baby rice and 2 cubes apple or pear at tea. She currently weighs 18lbs.

When a baby is first taking solids it may well take a week or so for their digestive system to get used to the variety in food. Were you aware of any problems when you first began to wean your daughter in the middle of the day? If she was windy in the afternoon when first given fruit it could be causing the problem. Try her with pear rather than apple, as it is more digestible and decrease the quantity to one cube. As her digestive system matures, she will be able to tolerate more fruit. It is added to the baby rice to make it more palatable and also to prevent constipation which can happen when a baby is first weaned. Giving her a smaller amount of fruit with the rice should make her more comfortable.

It appears that your daughter does not have a fifth feed at 10pm. Some babies who are later in being weaned do need this feed until they are taking more solid food by day. At your daughter’s weight, it would be sensible to re-introduce this feed at 10/10.30pm and offer her 4-5 ozs of milk until she has increased her solid intake by day. This will help her settle better in the night and also probably get to nearer 7am before waking. Once she is taking more solids by day and is established on protein, gradually cut this back to 2ozs and then stop it altogether.

Once your daughter is six-months-old you can begin to introduce protein to her at lunchtime. You may have to speed up her weaning process a little, introducing new foods every two or three days so she is accepting a wide range or vegetables and fruit.