Sleep Regression

[GabrielsMom24-7]

For the past two nights, my 5 month old angel has regressed from waking just once a night to waking three times a night. That's right, we are back to feedings every 2-3 hours!
I am attributing this to the lack of solids in his diet. At over 16 pounds, I don't think the milk is sustaining him. The problem is that I can not get him to take solids. We have tried rice cereal, oatmeal, applesauce, and a ripe banana....all diluted to varying degrees with breastmilk.
When we first started, he seem interested, but his tongue kept pushing everything out. Now, he is very interested and will start fussing or grunting when I eat in front of him....but when I try to feed him he makes a face that would lead you believe that I am feeding him lemons! I got desperate and gave him some bread to "num" on. At least he seemed to enjoy it.
Perhaps this is just part of the process, but the night wakings are making it urgent to get something in his belly. The lack of sleep is not good for either of us.

[wannabeamama25]

Mar. 10, 2009 at 2:20 PM

Elizabeth is doing the same thing. Over the past month she was sleeping though the night waking only once to be changed n fed, but now all of a sudden for the past couple of weeks she's been waking up 2-3 times a night wanting to eat again every 2-3 hrs. I tried giving her 1st foods like apple sauce and bananna's but she didn't quite take to it she was pushing it out of her mouth and turning her head away from it. I have not tried rice cereal yet because i figure she may not be ready since she won't take to apple sauce or bananna's. I hope we both can figure out what's going on with our babies and get back on track

[Anouck]

Mar. 10, 2009 at 2:25 PM

If the baby pushes the food out of his/her mouth, it just means they're not ready for solids yet... That's a reflex reaction babies have to prevent them from choking. I started feeding my son solids around 5 months, and at first he really didn't keep anything in either. Tried it again a week or 2 later, and now he's eating like a champ. However, he's STILL waking up around 430am every morning. Which means he sleeps a solid 6 1/2-7 hours, but man... 4:30am is NOT a good time for me to get out of bed, heh.

Oh, by the way, he NEVER wanted to eat rice cereal, but he loves sweet potatoes and squash, more so than any fruit...