EARLY Morning Bottle! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pat]

My son is 13 months now. He eats well (2 bottles and 3 meals) and sleeps well. In fact he does not like fruit but I manage to put fruit in his breakfast. The major problem we have is he gets up at around 4:30-5am for a bottle. Although he goes back to sleep straight after the bottle, we believe this is more a habbit than need. Therefore we want to use the control cry for this situation. But is it possible that he is hungry and needs this bottle? I was told he should not wake up for hunger until 7am (he goes to bed at 7pm). Help!!!!!!!!!

My email address is: patfoskett@hotmail.com

Thanks!

[pegasus]

Hi Pat

To be honest - my son was doing this as a breast fed baby when he was about 12 - 16months. This was the last feed I dropped for him.

It came to a head for me one morning as I would sleepily feed him then keep him in bed with me, but sometimes he wouldn't settle back to sleep properly (he'd jump on and off the breast), he'd kick and scream and keep his father and I up, he'd end up overtired and grumpy until after his morning sleep (he was having two sleeps a day at this time).

I figured if it wasn't working everytime (to put him back to sleep), then it needed another solution. I didn't do the controlled crying, but instead spent about a week of continuing to settle him in his own bed when he woke up - rather than taking him to my bed, waking up hubby and waking up my son more than he was. Initially he was very upset, and would need me to stroke him until he fell asleep (and a bit more), but then he started settling himself with me just being there and the time of him crying decreased. The first morning he slept through to 6.30am I felt like a new woman! BTW - I don't know if bubba's are different if they cosleep, but my son has never been a good cosleeper - he kicks and struggles, and wakes everyone up in the bed, so we usually reserve cosleeping for really bad nights (when he's sick etc) as he seems to sleep better in his own bed.

[Baby Girl]

I would assume that he is waking because he is hungry. Maybe try giving him a bottle in his sleep before you go to bed, might keep him fuller for longer or putting him to bed later and he might get up later for that first bottle. Or maybe leave a bottle of water beside his bed so he can drink that himself, after a few days he might stop waking for it as it is just boring water. But, I think if he is waking up and wanting a bottle then he is hungry and that is what he needs. I have never heard that babies should sleep for 12 hours at night between feeds - I wish!!

Good Luck, hope you get a 'sleep in' soon!!

[Rell]

Sounds like he is waking hungery to me. My DS is 16mths and he still wakes from about 4am onwards, he has a sipper cup of milk then talks until 6am when he gets up. I could only wish he would go back to sleep after his milk. I would just keep feeding him, if he wasn't hungery he wouldn't wake that early.
Good luck

[draught]

Both my girls wake around 5am every morning and both still want milk when they wake - and one is 3 years old (granted hers is probably more habit than hunger, but by 6am she is demanding breakfast as is the 17 month old so hunger before 7am IS possible!!).

If he sleeps well the rest of the time then controlled crying is probably not your answer. If he goes back to sleep after his drink then I would say keep it up - if you try to stop him having the bottle what you might find is that he doesn't go back to sleep - and as a mother whose days start at 5am or earlier I can tell you that the longer you can get them to sleep, the better!!

I love the way experts tell us whether our child is hungry based on the time of day, not the child itself!

[ButterflyKisses]

Both my girls wake around 5am every morning and both still want milk when they wake - and one is 3 years old (granted hers is probably more habit than hunger, but by 6am she is demanding breakfast as is the 17 month old so hunger before 7am IS possible!!). My DS is 3 in June and does the same as your 3 yr old so hopefully we both don't feel so bad about it now we know someone elses does it.

My DS wakes anywhere between 5-6.30am having gone to bed at 8.30pm. He usually only sleeps 8-9hrs and 10 if I'm lucky. All babies/toddlers sleeping habits are not the same some need more sleep others need less - unfortunately mine is in the less category.

I'd say your DS is waking hungry. If it were me (which is what I did and still do with my DS) I'd be giving him 5 little meals a day instead of 3 main meals. They only have little stomachs so you'll probably find over the day with 5 little meals he's eating more than the 3 main meals. I'd also see if he wants more than 2 bottles of milk a day. What else does he drink??

My DS is still drinking at least 600-700ml milk a day plus he has water and watered down OJ in between. Below is what I plan to give my DS for today:

he's already had 2 lots of milk about 1-1 1/2 hours apart totally 300mls
brekkie 2 weetbix with more milk.
morning tea a banana or yogurt with either water or watered down OJ,
lunch cheese and turkey sandwich and he'll want more milk which is usually about another 150ml,
afternoon tea of maybe crackers with vegemite and some grapes and bit of apple and he'll have water
dinner tonight I'll make him his favourite spag bol and he'll have water again
before bed he'll have about another 150-180mls

he's only 16kgs 94cms tall & will be 3 in June so he's certainly not overweight. I don't feed him on a daily basis any rubbish ie. lollies, potato chips, fizzy drinks etc if he does have any it is on a rare occasion and those occasions are few and far in between.

Even when my DS was your DS's age I still did 5 little meals. Try the 5 little meals and more milk and see how you go.

[pat]

Thanks for all your advice! I did try to give him 5 meals instead of three. Therefore snacks between meals and small meals a time. But it did not work. The snacks (even just a bit of orange) can make him to refuse any food at the main meals. I gave him 3 cooked pasta and effected his dinner last night.

But I started the control cry this morning. He woke up at 4, he had a bit of water and went back to sleep. Then he woke up at 4:45 again. He was very cross and I had to pick him up. It took me sometimes. But he went back to sleep after 10-15 minutes. He woke up at 6 and we read a few books as usual. I gave him the first bottle at 7:30 and now he is in asleep! I will keep trying to see if I can move the first bottle to 7:30! Wish me luck!

[jarrahsmumma]

If you can move the bottle to around 7.30 you may be able to go straight to breakfast.

[natasha]

My 14 month old DD wakes sometimes round 4.30am, I just give her a bottle of milk and go back to bed. She lies there and drinks her milk and then goes back to sleep.

Is this a bad thing to do?? It's the only time I leave her alone drinking her bottle.:confused:

[jarrahsmumma]

Natasha it may be a bad thing for a couple of reasons. One is that it is really bad for teeth to go to sleep sucking on milk. It can lead to caries and $$ in dental work. The others are, possible choicking risk, bad habit to break when the child is older and you want to stop them relying on a bottle to get to sleep.

[pat]

Why drinking from bottles are bad for teeth? I heard about this but don't understand why!

[jarrahsmumma]

Pat it is not the drinkng as such, but when children are put in their cot with a bottle and then they go to sleep while sucking the bottle milk pools in the mouth. Milk contains sugar and it will damage teeth. Ideally teeth should be brushed prior to going to bed (ok, not with really small babies, lol!) and bottles not be given to the child in their cot. Breastmilk has antibacterial properties, so the issue is not as great, but formula and cows milk (or choc milk, as I have been shocked to see) can lead to decay.

[Goosie22]

Hi pat,
Its not really the bottle, but the bottle at bed time/ in bed/bottle to go to sleep. Its the pooling of the milk causing tooth decay like if you dont clean your teeth and go to bed over and over.


This is about how to prevent tooth decay in babies
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Dental_care_preventing_infant_tooth_decay?open


sorry nel09:o great minds think alike?

[ETsMum]

Is it possible that his room is too light? In summer at that time of the day it is pretty light outside. What about blockout curtains? I know my DS will sleep until 7- 7:30am on overcast days because it is darker for longer (and then DP is late for work because he uses DS as his alarm clock.)