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AandCsmum 
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 Topic: Habit or hungry.......
Posted: 28 August 2009 at 10:13am |
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How do you know if your baby is waking during the night because they are hungry or out of habit??
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Kel
A = 01.02.04 & C = 16.01.09 & G = 30.03.12
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FreeSpirit
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Posted: 28 August 2009 at 10:32am |
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Habit if they wake at the same time(s) every night, regardless when and how much they last ate.
Hunger if they wake earlier (or more) on days they didn't eat as much or as well.
That's just my opinion.
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AandCsmum
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Posted: 28 August 2009 at 11:25am |
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So if he feeds usually around 3.30ish & bed at 4.30ish & then wakes between 9.30 & 11pm for a feed & then at 2.30-3.30am & then 5.30-6.30am that could be a habit?
If so how would you break it? I presume I should start by putting him in his own room so the crying isn't right there.
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Kel
A = 01.02.04 & C = 16.01.09 & G = 30.03.12
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mumtooboys
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Posted: 28 August 2009 at 12:21pm |
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Well in my experience a baby who is NOT hungry won't feed. I had many a night where DS2 would wake just because he wanted a cuddle and if I tried to feed him he would refuse.
Personally I don't think just because a baby has reached a certain age (or weight or a certain number of solid feeds a day) can't mean that they aren't genuinely hungry. I wake up at least 3 times a week starving, I rarely get up and eat anything most nights but some there's nothing for it but getting up and having some food; why should our kids be any different?
I used to treat EVERY night on a case by case basis; if he woke up crying and a cuddle would do then that's all he got but if a cuddle didn't work then he got fed. Pain in the arse and frustrating at times but in our case if he was hungry he wouldn't sleep and even if he did he'd be up and down for hours so I just fed him because it was quicker and easier. Now, he has times where he has little or no dinner and he still sleeps 10+ hours, but if he was hungry he'd get fed and if he wakes early the next day because he didn't have alot of dinner the night before I don't make him wait for his breakfast.
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FreeSpirit
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Posted: 28 August 2009 at 12:44pm |
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Mumtooboys, I agree with trying to settle with a cuddle first, and yep, if that doesn't work I still feed my girl. Sometimes it's waking up out of habit, and they'll have a comfort suck because it's there, so see if you can settle with gentle cuddles before you offer a drink.
By same times, I mean my girl would wake at exactly 11.45 and exactly 3.55 for a while there. If it's about the same time (eg within a 2 hour timeframe) there maybe actual hunger involved.
The other thing to try is giving cooper extra food during the day - especially the dinner meal.
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QHX
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Posted: 28 August 2009 at 12:56pm |
When my dd wakes in the night I always give her the opportunity to go back to sleep with as little intervention from me as possible. First I try and reposition her (sometimes just switching which side she is sleeping on helps. I have no idea why she is yet to figure out she can do this for herself) if that fails I pick her up and cuddle her, and if, after picking up and putting down a couple of times fails I will then I feed her. It is the last option.
I figure that if feeding her was my first response then the waking could easily become habit, this way she has the chance to get back to sleep without the boob every time. This is just my theory though, it is not based on any fact or study. 
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AandCsmum
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Posted: 28 August 2009 at 4:47pm |
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He's definitely having a full drink.
Will try the dinner meal tonight & see if that makes a difference. Will have to start waking him around 7.30pm to get a dinner in, least then I only have one child awake.
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Kel
A = 01.02.04 & C = 16.01.09 & G = 30.03.12
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whitewave
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Posted: 28 August 2009 at 9:16pm |
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I figure that if he's having a full feed, then he's hungry. My son does the same, but no matter how much food I try to get into him during the day, he'll still want at least one feed over night.
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mumtooboys
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Posted: 29 August 2009 at 8:09pm |
 whitewave wrote:
I figure that if he's having a full feed, then he's hungry. My son does the same, but no matter how much food I try to get into him during the day, he'll still want at least one feed over night. |
That was me too, you'll be happy to know that it does pass eventually. DS2 was about 11 months when he stopped the night feeds. I did give him a gentle nudge over the course of a couple of months, but I did accept that he might not be nudged in that direction if he wasn't so inclined; 'luckily' for us he was....if only the waking stopped at the same time. LOL That got worse and then carried on for about another 2 months.
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Natalie_G
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Posted: 30 August 2009 at 8:11am |
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It took a few nights to realised that Arianne was just waking up from habit then we just cut out all feeds put the dummy back in her mouth and she went back to sleep. Some nights she just cried but they were hunger ones and we gave her a bottle.
We started cutting out the night feeds at 5 months when I stopped BF she is a good night sleeper so glad.
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peanut butter
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Posted: 30 August 2009 at 10:26pm |
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As you know Kel, I am having "issues" here too...but I wonder if sometimes its not hunger that wakes them but thirst!
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Habit or hungry.......
