Lots of problems rolled into one!

[Natnee]

Belle has recently changed from being a really good night sleeper, she was doing approx 7 - 5/6 from about 12 weeks. We wouldn't hear a peep all night... now she's just gone into reverse. And is also wanting feeding during the night again. So what is the problem? These are my thoughts...

1 - From thumb to dummy.
She used to be put to bed with a dummy but within minutes dummy was out and thumb went in. Over past couple of months she seems to have forgotten about her thumb and will only use her dummy. This results in as many as 10 visits to her in the night to retrieve her dummy for her, sometimes only 1 or 2 trips. She isn't waking fully but once it's re-inserted she's straight back to sleep again.
Do I try and wean her off the dummy?

2 - Teething.
Self explanatory really - this is bothering her and wakes her up. She gets gel and powders but I suppose if this is the problem there's not much I can do about this, until it passes.

3 - Weaning/Milk/Teats
Started weaning at 21 weeks. Have done this very slowly and only in the past couple of weeks has she started 3 meals a day. At the same time she dropped from 5 bottles to 4 bottles a day.

Over the past week however, she's being very fussy with drinking her milk. The first one of the day she will gulp down, but as the day progresses she will just not be interested and can take an hour to drink it. She will push the bottle away, and even appear to be gagging on it. She is getting enough (as recommended daily intake) but it has decreased for her, so is this waking her up, because she's hungry? We've been resorting to giving her a bottle at 3 am several times over the past week as she just won't settle at night, and after a couple of hours of 'dummy re-inserting' to no avail, it's the only thing that settles her.

The other thing which I have been considering is changing her to follow on milk, will this do anything?

Another point to add is teat size. She is still on size 2 teats (avent) We keep trying to up to size 3, but it just seem too much for her. She has such a strong suck, with a size 3, most of it seems to end up running down her chin and soaking through her bib and clothes. Yet size 2 seems too small. Do we keep trying size 3 - will she learn how to suck on them?

4 - Type of food eaten.
Maybe she needs more? Someone suggested she needs more substance for her tea to see her through the night?
This is a typical menu - breakfast - porridge, lunchtime - 4 cubes of veg puree, tea - 3 cubes fruit puree and a yogurt. (purees are homemade)
She's not had any other meat/pasta etc yet, might start introducing that in the next week or so. I've invested in a good weaning book so will start to try and follow this a bit more.

Well I hope this all makes sense. I have tried to keep it as short as possible, but hope I haven't missed anything, and it all makes sense! I don't know whether the answer lies in one of these issues, or it's a combination of a couple, but any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Any more details I will try to add.

Thanks and well done for reading!

 

[cabaretmum2b]

It could be teething or food. A lot of people I've spoken to swear there's a sleep regression around 6 months, though, so it could be that!

 

[OmarsMum]

Hi hun. We went through several phases of going off milk feeds & it started at around 5 months. This is how it got better:

1. Leaving a gap of 1-2 hrs between solids & milk feeds
2. Adding extra scoops of formula to his solids & porridge
2. Offering solids before milk without offering water during solid feeds
3. Offering milk feeds close to naptime/bedtime & feeding him in a dark room with no distractions
4. Switching to follow on at 7 months & it really made a difference.

U can also try offering milk from a sippy cup & see how it goes. She needs 18-21 oz with her solids at this age. If u can maintain at least 18 oz it would be great. Omar used to go for 12-15 oz at around 6.5-7 months when we started weaning. U can also offer her more yoghurt & cheese to make up for the dropped ozs. We also feed him on a pillow on our bed to control the milk flow. & to move the bottle around when he's moving while feeding.

Keep in mind that there is a major growth spurt at 6 months & it's very developmental, this why she might be waking up again at night for more feeds. She's occupied in learning new skills which is keeping her awake & restless at night. It usually lasts for few days to 2-3 weeks.

As for type of food, offering her cereals (wheat or oat) & banana 1 hr before her bedtime bottle helps in calming her & helps her to sleep much better.

At 6.5 months we were offering Omar from what we'r eating fork mashed at 1st, & at 7 months without mashing.

They'r growing up & their routines keep changing hun, it's just a phase. Hope this helps.