hi, my baby is just four months old and has been sleeping through from 7pm to 5am for a few weeks, but this last week he has started waking up at around midnight and then again at 4am-5am then at 7am. A few people have said it is because he is hungry and i should try him on some baby porridge. Is this right and has anyone else experience this? Also i wanted to try blw when he is six months, so if i was to start on the baby porridge now, would that affect blw in the future?
thanks ladies xxxx

sorry but if your baby is waking for milk then its milk it needs.

giving porridge to force a baby to sleep through is wrong IMO.

Babies have a big growth spurt around now and need more milk. It will pass

as the above have said. There is a big growth spurt/sleep regression. Its a popular misconception that babys need weaning to help them sleep through. Its milk they need and it will pass.

sorry but i wasnt going to give him porridge to FORCE him to sleep through, i just wondered if it might help him.

"helping" a baby sleep through by using porridge is forcing them

if babies are waking for milk they need milk not to sleep through. its the parents to need to sleep through

i dont agree that it is forcing them at all and it is most definitely not my need to sleep through - i am absolutely fine to get up in the night as many times as my baby needs me but thanks for your thoughts anyway

my LO was born 22nd June and she slept 10pm until 7am since 6wks.
Only 'blip' was 2wks ago when she woke 4 or 5 nights running (just once) between 2 and 4am.
She didnt self settle for longer than 30mins, she was starving!
Drowned 6oz and out like a light.
After that back to normal.
Since then she has changed so much, learnt new things and def filled out.
I would stick with milk.
It will pass..x

What is blw?

BLW - Baby-led Weaning

To the OP...many babies begin waking in the night more around 4mos for many reasons. Lots of parents assume it's for hunger, but consider at 4 mos they may have started teething, they may be going through a growth spurt, they may be about to reach a new milestone or perhaps just reached one. Four months is just a more wakeful period and although I waited until just after 5 mos to start BLW (as DS was ready then), starting solids/porridge made NO difference to sleep. Even other people I know who started something like porridge at that age were hoping to improve sleep and it didn't.

In my opinion, if you're after fixing waking issues, you must first find the real reason they are waking. Without getting into semantics, if a baby is waking out of hunger, then you should meet that need by giving them more milk. Maybe up the milk feeds during the day and see if that helps. Also, if your baby is trying to be more active and starting to be more aware...make sure you're doing plenty of physical activity with them during the day to that they will physically tire.

It's ultimately up to you what you do, but that is just what I think.

That's very standard 4 month old stuff. I would just keep giving milk as and when he demands it. There is a lot of growing and developing going on at this stage and they need calorie rich milk for this, not bulk like cereal.