Night Time Feeding

You may have heard of babies sleeping through the night from three months onwards,  without having to wake up to feed. When we assume that all babies should do this, many parents get discouraged when their babies are still waking up at least twice at night for feeding.

Many experts and sleep specialists who preach the toughest "Cry It Out" method, couldn't agree more that some children, up to twelve months of age, are truely hungry after sleeping for four hours. So, go up to your children promptly and feed them. There are also children up to eighteen months of age still waking up once or twice for feeds to set aside hunger for the next morning, and that is perfectly okay.

"I was so obsessed with training my baby to sleep when she was 4-5 months old back then, as her night wakings were so frequent that it has become very disruptive to both me and my husband. We became so sleep deprived. Upon 6 month old, my baby's sleep pattern became more settled in, though with once or twice wakings at night. We then realise night feedings are still necessary as we could hear baby's tummy growling when we fed her."                                                                                --- Author of Blog of 7 month old Levanne

Babies and children thrives for growth and development during their first year, particularly during growth spurt where milk intake would increase tremendously. To all mummies and daddies reading this blog, please please do not worry that your little ones would continue to have night wakings forever. As their body's biological clock matures, their sleep spans would be consolidated and lengthened, and would not wake up during the night to feed. It is just a matter of time.

Some parents commented that their babies sleep better with lesser night wakings after their babies' started solids. However, there is actually not much co-relation to longer sleep hours. Moreover, babies who start too early on solids before 4 months tend to develop allergies.

In a nutshell, it stands to reason that a baby that wakes up after sleeping for four hours straight would wake up for a feed as they do appear hungry. Then, they would fall back to sleep for another four hours before waking up, and by the time you realise, it is already morning and wake time.

The author hopes the above article would encourage all parents who are disturbed by night feedings to gradually accept the fact that night wakings are indeed, all right.

Do you have any comments? Share your opinions with us and other readers!