4Mo Not Sleeping at Night

This seems to be typical at 4 months or so. Please do not give her cereal or let her cry it out. This too shall pass.

at four months old babies go through a growth spurt. which will trigger more feedings and can also cause them to wake up in the middle of the night. give it time and this will pass. good luck!

I would say to give it another week or so. She is probably going through another growth spurt. I know both my kids would get up throughout the night for about a week when they were going through growth spurts as infants and would eat like there was no tomorrow.

She could also be teething, even if you don't see any evidence of it in her mouth yet. My DD will get up crying a few times a night for about week before you see her teeth pop through. No gum swelling or anything beforehand, just fussiness and wanting a bottle several times at night for about a week and then boom! The next day you see a tooth or two or three or four popping through.

So give it another week and see if she goes back to her normal sleep schedule. After that, if she is just crying to have attention at night, I would let her cry it out for a few minutes then go to her. But I doubt that she just wants attention. She's a bit too young for that. At 4 months she is probably just hungry from growing so much.

This is totally a normal growth spurt...you completely answered your own question!

Good Job, Mommy.

To be honest, just keep doing what you're doing and you guys will be great. Starting solids is not recommended at this age/stage, due to the infant digestive system not being ready yet. My son's feedings at this point went up as well, and maintained for about the following four months until after he was on solids from just 5.5 to about 8 months.

Be patient, and enjoy your little one!

http://www.babycenter.com/303_week-1_###-###-####.bc

Oh, and the link above is to Baby Center...great info for feeding and development!

Cheers,

D.

OH, I feel your pain. I'll throw my vote in the growth spurt hat. I know there are many that believe in the cry it out but I just want to post this link as now there is scientific data showing it is unhealthy for the little ones: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article###-###-#...
You're doing great!
Good luck.

N.,

When my son hit 4 months he did the same thing. Fortunately this is the same time when our pedi decided to add cereal to his diet. So, we began to give him a bowl by spoon in the AM, and then put a little bit in his bottle at night. He is primarily breast fed, but by bottle since I work and have to pump to feed him. Anyway, by adding the cereal he began to sleep like normal again. Another thing you can do is try to nurse more often during the day so she fills up and doesn't need any additional calories at night. That's pretty much what we do, although he still occasionally wants to eat (and we NEVER deny him).

I am not a fan of any method of sleep training before 6-8 months, although each child is different and some are ready earlier. I would not use any kind of sleep training for this situation, since it seems like your baby may actually need nighttime nutrition.

Check with your pedi and see if you can start cereal. Maybe that will help. Also, try nursing more often in the day and see if she can tank up some before bedtime. Good luck!

Babies need food more than they need continuous sleep. Their brains and bodies are developing at such incredible rates. Waking and eating in the night are normal and healthy. Sorry to tell you, but that is the truth. Night nursing is normal and necessary.

This site has good tips for night weaning, but I think it is for babies much older than yours is now.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/weaning-night.html

When my little ones did this I gave them a bottle of warm water. If they were thirsty then that did the trick... but it also prevented them from getting back in the habit of feeding at night! They first couple of nights they might not be that pleased about it but then they just slept through again. Just make sure the last feed of the night (before she goes down) is a good long one.

Good luck.

I would guess it's a growth spurt. My son did the same around 4 months.

Like most have said previously she is probably going through a growth spurt and she might just start sleeping through the night again on her own shortly... My daughter was also breastfed and she started sleeping through the night at 3 months. Then a month later at 4 months, she started waking 2 times per night and she didn't just start sleeping through the night again. My pedi said at 4 months I could start her on rice cereal so we tried that since she was NOT soothed by us just comforting her. She acted hungry. She absolutely LOVED it after about 2 days (she wasn't too fond of it's texture at first). She ate rice cereal with breastmilk for breakfast, lunch and dinner (not in the bottle but in a bowl, a tad thicker than it would be in a bottle, from a spoon) with breastfeedings in between as she wanted. She started sleeping from 8pm until 2am, waking to breastfeed at 2am and then she would sleep until 8am. So just waking once instead of twice. She then started sleeping through the night again soon after. The rice cereal helped her also stay full longer during the day (she was a chow hound and wanted to feed constantly!!) and we slowly progressed into Gerber stage 1 foods (fruits mostly at first she loved it with the rice cereal) at 6 months. Goodluck!

Hi N., I'm sorry to disagree with everyone but it is not a growth spurt and it will not just pass on it's own. I am a Sleep Specialist and Parenting Coach and I see this all the time. Although it is not caused by a growth spurt it is caused by a developmental milestone. Babies this age are just starting to realize that they are a seperate person from you. This is an exciting time but can also cause sleep disturbance and possibly the beginning of seperation anxiety. The only way to stop the night wakings is to not reward this behavior by nursing her. At her age she is more than capable of sleeping 11-12 hours without eating. When she wakes up you can go in to reassure her but do not pick her up and do not nurse. Tell her in a loving but firm way that it is still nighttime and she needs to go back to sleep. She will cry, it's ok. After one or two nights she will understand that you mean what you say and she will stop. If you do not take care of this now it will progress to waking more frequently and disrupting her naps as well. If you need help with this transition please visit my website at www.theindependentchild.com
best wishes,
K. Smith

I know exactly how you feel. I also breastfed "only" until six months with my first child before adding foods. There are two reasons I believe that babies start waking up like that: 1) growth spurt {hungry} and 2) temporary change in sleep cycles. My son had both of these. My suggestion is to either try some cereal before bedtime or cereal mixed with breast milk OR go in at night and try to sooth her, but not feed her (and don't take her out of the crib), as if it is a temporary sleep cycle change. If it's the latter, she needs to learn how to fall back to sleep. She is waking up and doesn't know how to fall asleep again. It's a difficult few nights, but it should only be a few nights. If it lasts longer, I would try the food option.

Sorry to be so repetitive, but I'd guess it's a growth spurt, too. Or maybe she's just starting to be more aware and doesn't want to miss anything by sleeping the night away. Hang in there, it's likely to pass. Keep on doing the great job of breastfeeding her on demand. She's really too young for crying-it-out and if she's latching on and actually eating when you go to her, then it's my understanding that she's likely hungry. Our pediatrician and things I've read myself recommend exclusively breastfeeding without any solids for six months. This helps with food allergies amoung other things. Good luck!

i would say growth spurt since she is not teething.

Hi N.,

When our son turned four months old, our pediatrician told us that babies that age can alter their sleep habits to their ultimate disadvantage--they can reverse previous progress on sleeping, eating, and playing at this age. She said that most babies 4 months old and older can sleep about 5 hours straight (i.e. "through the night") without eating or playing, so if our son woke up before that time, to just pat him back to sleep soothingly. We only had to pat him back to sleep a couple of times and from then on, he gradually slept longer through the night.

I'm sure there are many theories on this, but all I can say is that our son slept through the night from two months old on (granted, "through the night" was midnight-five a.m. for a while). Our son was a big baby, too, so this might have had something to do with it, or it just could have been him, who knows? I have friends who have older kids with sleeping issues--and those kids were fed and/or played with in the middle of the night through toddlerhood--but again, it may just be the personalities of their children, and not what they did during the night... I just remember our doctor saying that it's our job to help our babies adapt to the concept that nighttime is for sleeping and mealtimes are for eating, and even though it sounds weird, that yes that adaptation starts happening when they are infants.

We didn't give our son solid food until the pediatrician gave us the go-ahead--I don't know if waking early is a sign that your daughter is ready for solid food--somehow, I doubt it. I do know that if you introduce solids too early, you can actually stretch babies' stomachs which can lead to later obesity and cause sleeping problems (that whole rice-cereal in the bottle idea). Yet, I'm sure that there are rice-cereal-bottle-fed babies who aren't obese adults, too...

If you like your pediatrician, ask him/her. If you don't like your pediatrician, perhaps find a new one.

Good luck!
:-) D.

Growth spurt.
YES, you can continue to breastfeed her for as long as you want.. growth spurts have nothing to do with having to stop breastfeeding.

KEEP in mind, that for the first year of life, a baby's PRIMARY source of nutrition is from breastmilk/formula. NOT SOLIDS, AND NOT WATER. For the first year, and per my Pediatrician, a baby should be fed on demand.

A baby's sleep is NOT static, it changes, and they wake for various "needs" or for teething or illness, or hunger, or separation anxiety, or night terrors etc. ALL NORMAL developmental phases and changes.

Sleep patterns will change throughout ALL childhood... it will never stay the same. It changes, per their development and changes.

all the best,
Susan

Neirda,

A saying that always helped me and it seemed that I used it constantly is, this too shall pass.

Your baby is going through stages and awareness. There could also be problems with foods that you are eating that are causing discomfort for her. Remove ALL dairy for a week or two and see if that changes. Best to breast feed as long as possible and a growth spurt is highly likely:o) You were lucky to have those first weeks/months of a long sleep pattern so you got use to it!

Four months is too soon for solids. The digestive system usually is not ready yet.

On another note, please make sure YOU have done the research on vaccinations for YOUR child. The AAP recommended schedule of shots for children is too many, too soon. Here are sites and books that I always recommend for people to start their research:

www.909shot.org
www.tacanow.org
www.generationrescue.com

The Vaccine Book, by Dr. Robert Sears
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Childhood Vaccinations, by Dr. Stephanie Cave
Evidence of Harm, by David Kirby

I had the same problem with my daughter who is not 2 years old and I was at my wits end and was tired so I researched it a bunch on the internet. I was not one to just let her cry it out cause her crying about killed me and then I found the Ferber methon and the book Ferber wrote "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" . Here's a little about it: (copy and paste this in the browser)

http://www.babycenter.com/0_the-ferber-method-demystified...

I was skeptical at first but then I went down and bought the book and read the whole thing and then the night after I read the WHOLE thing (with the help and support) of my hubby I made it through and the second night already it was like magic. She slept longer and longer and never had the issue again. I highly reccomend this and also the book explains why she is doing it and everything. Good luck. In my experience the book was worth it's weight in gold.

My 5mo old still does this. She will sleep up to 10 hours at night, but has a few days every month or so where she is up 3+ times and wants to nurse. I think this is very common, but I am not certain. I just feed her and within a few days, she is back to 10 hour nights. Good luck.

It would be smart to try and get your daughter to sleep through the night again, because if you keep the night feedings from here on out, she will come to expect them and have trouble getting to sleep on her own. We had the same problem with our son, now 10 months. We are down to one feeding at night and we are so thankful! (I am at least.)
I think cereal might be worth a shot. It is so easily digestible, and it's the first baby food anyway. You could try a bit around dinner time, and see how she does.
It might also be teething, even if you don't see any teeth coming in yet. My son got six teeth pretty much one after the other, and that got us in the night nursing dilemma. Just check her temperature if she is really fussy, or see if biting down on something cool makes her feel better. Also, have you tried a pacifier? She might just want to suckle to get back to sleep. In a few months she won't need to eat so much, so you just want to be careful not to get in a bad habit.