13 month old waking at 4am - UPDATE

[Robbojoey]

Hi Everyone,

My DD is 13 months old, she occasionally sleeps through the night but most nights she wakes about 4am. If I give her the a bottle, she normally will go back to sleep till 6.30-7ish.Sh e goes to bed about 7.15-7.30pm.

I'm thinking that really by now, she really shouldn't be having a night feed and thinking of going cold turkey, stopping giving her these 4am feeds. She often doesn't eat breakfast as she has filled up on milk in the night so it would help getting her to eat breakfast if I stopped the night feed. She eats well during the day also.

My worry is that if she won't go back to sleep after 4am! So if she doesn't settle back to sleep and cries for a couple of hours, I'd be rewarding her/giving in by going to get her, when in fact it's actually time to get up! It'd be different if she was waking at 2 am in the morning, I'd be more confident she'd finally fall back asleep.

She's in a room with her older sister, so I will move older sister into the spare room if I decide to go cold turkey!

I also wonder that, if she goes back to sleep after having a bottle, then mayve come 4am she needs it and it's cruel to stop it now?

Thoughts please?!
xxx

 

[ShowingPromise]

I am in no way any sort of expert on this, my lo is only 6.5 months, but first thing that Sprung to mind was trying to fill her up more in the evening? Can you try a bedtime bottle or snack? Is she pretty good at making it clear when she's hungry/thirsty etc? You can only try not giving the 4am bottle and see how she reacts?
We still give a dream feed to our lo, but when he's on 3 meals a day we plan to make it earlier and earlier each night until he no longer has it, could you try giving a similar feed in the late evening then scale that back?
Hope you find a solution that works for you

 

[Taboo917]

That's a tricky one!

Caleb is also 13 months and largely sleeps through the night (sorry!) but if he wakes up at 3am / 4am etc. my first port of call is still to give him a bottle! That's probably partly because it's not happening that often anymore and he will always eat his breakfast.

If i was in your shoes I think I possibly would give cold turkey a go - does she cry when she wakes up or just chats? How long do you leave her before she gets a bottle? Realise that it's tricky to leave her with her sister in the room. A few times (admittedly a while ago now) Caleb would just wake up, chat and play with his soft toys for like an hour to an hour and a half and then just go back to sleep! (I wasn't giving him milk at that point to see if he needed it or just quite enjoyed getting it when he woke up in the search for the sleeping through the night breakthrough!)

Sorry that probably was no use whatsoever! Hopefully someone has more experience with it!

 

[T84]

At that age I would try and make up the milk in other ways in the day time so you know for defo she's getting enough. When we had this with dd we gave her a bit more milk to drink out her water cup in the day and would give her a few spoons of weetabix/porridge just before bed. Did the trick most nights, good luck!

 

[tinselcat]

If it was me, I'd switch the bottle of milk to a bottle of water overnight, so she still gets the drink (and comfort) she expects, but it may hopefully reset her body to not expect food overnight & then stop waking up.

That's the theory anyway

 

[Loula]

Could try water but if anything like my dd she wouldn't take it. Could you gradually cut down the milk.
I think my dd was nearly 2 before she stopped waking for milk in the night. I just persevered because it will stop x

 

[Robbojoey]

Sorry everyone, first time I've been on-line since posting last week! Thanks for all your responses.

She eats really well during the day and I fill her up as much as possible before bedtime with porridge and/or yogurt and a 9oz bottle.

When she wakes in the night, it is crying not just chatting. I leave her for about 5 mins after which it starts to escalate and I worry it will wake older sister who has school in the morning.

Last night, I moved big sister out into the spare room and put baby to bed as usual after filling her up. When she woke about 3.30am, I left her for 5 mins then went and got her a bottle of water instead of milk. It instantly settled her and she had a few sips, until she realized it was only water! We had a few cries then she just played with the teat, so I put her back into her cot and decided to cry it out. I was going to do CC but knew it would set her off more and I could hear the cries were getting less and less as time went on. So after about 3/4 hour, she finally gave in and we had to wake her at 6.45 to get her ready for nursery!

So, in my opinion, it proves she doesn't need the milk in the night, if she can go back to sleep like that. So fingers crossed it improves tonight!

x

 

[Robbojoey]

Well last night, she slept right through from 7.15pm to 6.45am!! Yippee. I'm hoping for the same tonight and from now on!! x