Hungry 4 month old baby

I would say give solids ago and see if it makes a difference coz bubs is almost 4months. Just try baby rice mixed with breast milk or formula or cool boiled water. Good luck.

I would say try a formula top up first, and then if that doesn't help I would offer him some solids.

My plunket nurse was very good, she said if he is hungry feed him.

i dont agree with much of wat plunket said either...............i had the same problem and i tend to agree with them in in this case...............at 3mnths i wouldnt start on solids and i only agree with top up formular if the last resort............my boy went until about 7mtns 3hourly ..............it was more of comfort thing in the end...............i tried dummy but he laughed at it i did get some comfort in water..............hubby always went into get him when he woke anway so not an issue with us. Now i have another one on way and all of a sudden Ty is deciding only to sleep in our bed from one extreme to the other :)

same thing happened with Luke was BF him every 2 hours night and day. tried fromula and it helped. Is he taking both sides and the hind milk? at every feed?

I am going against the grain here, but DO NOT introduce solids at this stage, as his digestive system has not matured yet for that type of food to be introduced to his body. The gut normally "closes" between 4 to 6 months. You also need to make sure he is displaying certain developmental signs as well. WHO guidelines state that breastmilk is sufficient and the best nutrition for a baby for the first six months of life.

I would also advise against the use of formula top-ups, as it will affect your supply. Your breasts will end up getting less stimulation to produce milk. Your baby is at the age where milk is a supply/demand driven response rather than a hormonal driven response.

Growth spurts can go on for that period of time, especially at the 3 month mark. I would continue with the breastfeeds.

I would recommend ringing LLL and seeing if there is a peer counsellor in your area who maybe able to help. They are trained to deal with sort of situation.

My DS did this too (however not a great sleeper anyway) when he wakes in the middle of the night he takes a full BF so I know he's hungry. We started solids a week ago and he takes a breakfast and dinner feed and still doesn't sleep any better.

The reason I started solids was because he seemed to be developmentally ready. He can hold his head up really well, very strong neck. He lost the reflex of when you held something against his tongue it came out (extrusion reflex). He started being interested in what i was eating, and after a feed he seemed to be hungry and if I tried to offer him more he would just throw it up later.

I'm kinda hoping that he will start sleeping soon, but I don't think it will be because of the solids.
Is possible that your baby had a growth spurt and needed feeding through the night, and is now in a habit of waking for a feed that he really doesn't need. In which case, you will probably need to train him out of it, which can take up to a week.

good luck, whatever you decide,

We went through the same thing a couple of weeks ago..Kayla had started waking ever few hours for a feed when she had previously slept through. I was feeling like my milk wasn't enough, and because she is a big baby I was starting to think she needed solids too. However, my preference was to wait it out - so for that couple of weeks I just fed whenever she wanted it and finally over the weekend my supply has caught up with her demands and then some! She is much happier now and sleeping through again. Sure, she has signs of being ready for solids, but as she isn't quite 5 months yet I really want to wait until I know she really needs to be on solids before rushing into it.

That's just my preference, and there are definitely babies who need solids early...just don't think you have to do it at the first signs of running low as it can correct itself.

I also agree with lady-aset about not starting the formula top-ups..if you start doing that then there will be even less reason for your boobs to produce more milk. Good luck.

OK, so I've followed plunket's advice: haven't introduced formula or solids, carefully offer both breasts, DF went in to soothe him (no joy, he was HUNGRY) and he was up for 3 feeds last night.

Tired, tired! One more night of it and then I'm ringing Plunket back. As there is so much differing advice I'd like to stick with what they have to say for the time being.

I definitely see the merits in not introducing formula so to keep my breastmilk up.

My gut instinct is confused more than anything, and did I mention, tired?!

Hi,

I have found Plunket to be full of cr*p personally so I listen to them as little as possible.

DS2 had his 12 week (3 month) and 16 week (4 month) growth spurt merge together so we had about 8 weeks of hell! Never once did I contemplate solids (though DS1 started them then bc that was the recommendation at the time and I didn't know any better) though I did question my sanity for not wanting to use formula...ever. Alex was waking/feeding every 90 minutes day AND night so by the time he was fed and had a new nappy we were lucky to get an hour of sleep before it started all over again so 3-4 hourly sounds fab. At about 4.5 months he finally went back to his "normal" pattern of 3-4 hourly and it was bliss. LOL

Even when he was on 3 solid meals a day and averaging 6 bf a day he still was waking (and sometimes feeding) 3-4 hourly until he was about 13 months old.....so just because formula/solids are "supposed" to help doesn't mean they will. He did a 3 week stint of 10+ hours when he was 7 months, all on only my milk, before he stopped so just because they have done it in the past doesn't mean that they will continue to do so forever more; we did what we needed to do at the time that got us all back to sleep quickly and if that was feeding him even though a million people/books said he didn't need feeding that's what we did and voila...when he was ready he started sleeping again.

4 months is a HUUUUUUGE growth spurt and they are realising that they are in the world and there are so many more things going on that sleep becomes less of a priority, especially if they are working on something like sitting up, rolling over, etc.

It does end...they aren't robots and they don't read the books, look at clocks and understand what the "experts" have to say about what they should be doing and when...they only know that they have a need and they expect that need to be met. I rested/slept when Alex slept and that helped; though when I had DS1 it was always easier said than done to rest when he was sleeping.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I went to bed at 7.30pm last night (yes, while kids were still playing in the street) and I feel much better for it today. And only up twice which was lovely.

I had a friend around today who was feeding her 6 month old some pears. Being curious, I gave DS a taste and aside from the fright at the new taste, he was mouth open wide and NOM NOM NOM. Same with a tiny bit of baby rice.

I'm taking Blessed Thistle for my milk supply so hopefully that keeps things ok in the breast milk dept. And will offer DS a small amount of food each day and see how things go on the hunger front.