Night Time Feeding for Infants

Children are no robots. No switch suddenly flips at the exact moment they turn 6 months, or 4 months, or 9 months, or any of the other times that various people suggest a child should be doing XYZ by. The fact is children are human beings and as such each are different. While one child may be more than ready to sleep through the night at 6 months another may not. It doesn't make either more or less right. Is your child happy? Growing? Responding well? Then forget about the checklist and go by your child's individual time table. That matters far more than what any one else, even a doctor, thinks your child should be doing. If still worried imagine if it were you. What if you woke in the middle of the night for a glass of water or a midnight snack and your husband forced you back in bed because he feels you should be sleeping through the night? Except your child is unable to protest in the ways that you would and in unable to understand time in the way that you can. What to an adult means a few more hours of sleep until eating, in the mind of someone only 6 months old is a lifetime of starvation. They just can't grasp the concept of a few more hours until food. Here's a link for you. 8 INFANT SLEEP FACTS EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070200.asp

i gave my daughter 6 oz when she was 6 mos old. she dont really wake up twice a night. she always sound asleep.

at this point he should be getting enough food during the day to not need to feed at night, so this will just be comfort feeding. you should start teaching him to sleep throughout the night. if you're worried about him getting hungry then just feed him a lot before he goes to sleep. try a night without taking out the formula and just rocking him back to sleep. its a hard process but for some kids, it can be easy.

It is true that each child is different, your doctor's concerns should be taken in account but that you are still the parent. I have a few things that I noticed. First four ounces of formula might be the problem. By six months your baby can take more then four ounces and will get hungry faster if you feed him smaller amounts. I would try increasing the amount of formula you are giving him at each feeding. Don't force him to eat it, but have it available for him should he continue feeding. Babies stop eating when they are full, so don't worry about over feeding him. On the other hand, if he is waking up hungry I would never say not to feed him! Most babies can sleep through the night at six months and waking up twice is a bit unusual. However, try feeding him more at each feeding and see if that helps. Also, weening a baby off of formula at six months is a bad idea...they should be on formula till they are 12 months. Have you started feeding cereal yet? This could also help by providing more nutrients to your growing boy. If you are uncomfortable with his pediatrician you may want to consider switching.

I have 3 kids and they all started sleeping through the night at one to two months old. What I started to do was at night I started to give pablum and fruit. I would not give them rice pablum until they were about a year old because it is harder for them to digest. I would give him the formula until he is one years old though because it has certain things in it that you can't get from normal milk. Good luck in finding the way to get your son to sleep through the night.

my daughter is 2 1/2 and still get up sometimes in the middle o the night cause shes thirsty,, and so do I

When my daughter was born she drank 6 oz of formula, at 6 months she was eating food and drinking 8 oz bottle befor bed. my son would only drink 2 oz at time when he was born every 2 hours. By six months old he had teeth and was still on bottle. His mouth hurt from teeth so he didnt like to eat. My next son wouldnt drink milk or formula just goats milk and was eating rice cereal by two months old because he had colic. My main point is all kids are different. Ask your doc how many kids they have and how often they did what the book says to do. You have to do what works best for you and your child. I would however suggest more formula before bedtime and dont let him go to sleep till all formula is gone. By the way my youngest is 14 and oldest is 20 so they managed to make it past bottles ok.