How do you know if a baby is waking out of habit or hunger

[aliss]

He wakes at least 2x a night for a bottle, usually 6oz but sometimes 8oz. He is 20lbs. Does this mean he is waking out of hunger and NOT habit? He does wake at the exact same time each night:
asleep at 6pm
feed- 1am,4am - or 12am, 3am
awake at 5am

But they are exact intervals which leads me to believe that he is genuinely hungry. We are approaching 6 months and beginning to evaluate helping him sleep better but need to know if this is just hunger or something else.

(Well, last night he woke TWELVE times but I think his top teeth are cutting, eek)

 

[Seity]

He eats for 30 minutes every time he wakes. If it was habit, I'd be able to quickly soothe him back to sleep.

 

[dizzymeg]

yea if u cant sooth him then its hunger, try other things if u want b4 offer milk? with olly he seems to have a certain cry when he hungry. sorry this written strangely 1 handed typing!

 

[aliss]

Thanks!

Yeah nothing will soothe him but milk (and lots of it), so it must be hunger. He's such a little piggy, lol.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Is he going back off without a bottle sometimes, and needing a bottle other times? If so, I would say he is genuinely hungry when DOES need a bottle to settle.

 

[aliss]

Is he going back off without a bottle sometimes, and needing a bottle other times? If so, I would say he is genuinely hungry when DOES need a bottle to settle.

Yep, def needs the bottle, he chugs the whole thing.

 

[kirstylm]

sounds like hunger to me. maybe its time to introduce weaning onto semi solids?? i dunno though as its a completely personal decision that only u can make but thats a lot of wakings at his age. xx

 

[aliss]

sounds like hunger to me. maybe its time to introduce weaning onto semi solids?? i dunno though as its a completely personal decision that only u can make but thats a lot of wakings at his age. xx

Yes he's already on 3 "meals" a day (1 tbsp food), plus 32oz milk during the day, and then the two 6-8oz bottles at night. He's just a massive baby, not even very fat or anything, lol.

 

[kirstylm]

wow he is a hungry man bless him. Will he take more at his meal times or maybe a little more at his last meal of the day?

 

[aliss]

wow he is a hungry man bless him. Will he take more at his meal times or maybe a little more at his last meal of the day?

We've been trying slowly. He used to have reflux (weaning has stopped the reflux) so he was only taking 1-2oz at a time (as you can imagine I spent all day long doing bottles and when I exclusively expressed I was going insane), so hopefully in due time, LOL

 

[lanaross]

doesn't seem like a habit to me. When Isabella was waking up out of habit, she'd only take a couple oz if even or when she was on the breast just suck herself to sleep for maybe a minute or two and that was it. Your LO seems to be hungry, no way he'd take 6-8 oz every time he wakes, if he wasn't hungry.

 

[ouchwithNo.2]

I am with you on this.
My 22 week old is waking at 4am and it seems to be a mixture of hunger / cold ish perhaps.
I guess if they get a bit chilly they get hungry.
She drowns 8oz's and straight back to sleep, if she didn't want it then her mouth wouldn't open.
We too have a reflux baby and have just started feeding her rice, it is going slowly but ok.
Difficult, some say it is habit but I don't think it is as she is wanting that feed

 

[aliss]

I am with you on this.
My 22 week old is waking at 4am and it seems to be a mixture of hunger / cold ish perhaps.
I guess if they get a bit chilly they get hungry.
She drowns 8oz's and straight back to sleep, if she didn't want it then her mouth wouldn't open.
We too have a reflux baby and have just started feeding her rice, it is going slowly but ok.
Difficult, some say it is habit but I don't think it is as she is wanting that feed

I actually found that banana puree held the reflux down better than the rice cereal!!

 

[littleone2010]

It doesnt sound like habit if he is guzzling it all, Like others have said. I think its after 6 months (and started on weaning) that nutritionallly, they do not NEED a bottle during the night (if they are getting enough calories during the day)
Up until 5 months, my lo was guzzling 4 or 5 8oz hungry baby milk bottles. If she happened to wake up (sometimes she did around 4am) I would give them to her because I knew she was probably waking out of hunger. Since 6 months and now pretty much on 3 meals and 24oz milk a day im confident that she wont be hungry or wake up.. and she doesnt. Every baby is different though im sure you will do what you feel is best xxx

 

[louandivy]

My LO is the same, my HV suggested getting my OH to pick her up at night because she won't expect milk from him. I have yet to try it out though!

 

[jaybee]

Hi Aliss, not sure how it works for Ff, but with Tobi he would take a full 15 minute every time he woke up (Even when it was every 45 mins!). Have you tried getting OH to go in and settle? Even now, Hubby can settle Tobi easier than I can because he doesn't smell of milk!
The rule I work on now is that we try and settle Tobi for 15 minutes. If he doesn't sleep, then I feed. If he goes off and stays asleep great. If he wakes up after the sleep cycle then I go and feed as I take it to mean he is hungry.
HTH

 

[Zeri]

My LO used to wake up the same time every night too - 2:30 am. She never seemed THAT hungry reallly. She would just eat for a few minutes and then fall back to sleep, so that made me feel she was waking more for comfort than food. There would be a few nights too that she would sleep straight through till 5:00 am. When she started doing that I figured she could sleep all through the night, so I stopped feeding her at 2:30 am.

If your LO is 20 lbs, he should definitely be able to go all night without a feeding.

 

[littleh]

I was speaking to another mum today with a very similar situation. Rather than having a 6pm bed-time, she has added a late afternoon/early evening short nap (e.g 5.30-6) and moved bed-time later, to 8pm. That way, her LO wakes for a feed 7 hrs after bed-time bottle (bit like yours, by the sounds of things) at around 3am, then up, ready for the day and next feed at 6/7 am. Early days, but she's pleased that it's down to one feed in the night and an easier wake-up time. May not work with your LO but thought i'd share

 

[JayeD]

I asked this question to my HV a couple weeks ago and she told me to start introducing pablum before bed when LO reaches 4 months and LO is still waking a few times a night. This way, LO's tummy is more full when he goes to bed. I have a few weeks left before I can start introducing pablum and I am really, really looking forward to a full night's sleep if I can!

When you feed your LO these "meals", is one of those meals right before bed, or around dinner time?

 

[modo]

The book I am reading says that some baby's will wake from hunger up until 9 months. The author advises that they should be fed up until that age.

This def sounds like hunger. During a growth spurt Bobby will some tines wake up hungry at around 3am and I can tell from cry that it is hunger.