Expert: ruth kraft - 2/27/2009

Question
I'm a breastfeeding mom of a healthy baby boy, my son is 4 months old and weighs 17 lbs 4 oz's, Hes in the 95%, but I have A LOT of trouble getting him to sleep at night. We have a routine everyday, Bath @ 6 Rice cereal @ 6:30 and a last Breastfeeding around 7:30 8, and then its bed time. I have a hard time getting him to go to bed even if hes tired and then he only sleeps for about 2 hrs and then he's up and its that way all night long sometimes even and hour and half and then hes up. He has a lot of gas throughout the night, I have tried gas drops but no luck. My question is, is this normal. I have tried swaddling him, but he Hates it, and kicks his way out, We have a routine and i don't know what I'm doing wrong for him not to sleep at night. I'm up for anything and will try anything to gain back some sleep and sanity so I can function the next day at work. Please help me!  By the way he will only feed off one breast each feeding and refuses to take the second one when he pulls off the first one, but hes done this since birth.

Answer
Well, my first suggestion would be to take out the rice cereal. For a couple reasons, one, if your feeding it to him in a bottle, it can later cause severe speech impediments, and secondly its VERY hard for him to digest. he really should get only breastmilk until at least 6 months . if he were formula fed it would be different, but breastmilk has all he needs. it might be too much on his gut for that late at night. Rice cereal can cause allergies as well. its a common "fix" for many things but in actuality it doesnt do a whole lot.

He is a little old for swaddling as well so that is likely why that doesnt work.  
Feeding on one breast each time is perfectly fine. the only reason we go back and fourth between breasts is so one doesnt get much larger than the other.

You can try "rescue remedy" from a whole foods or nutritional store. its herbal and has no bad side effects. that might help settle him if hes fussy or give it to him 15 minutes before he is suppose to go to bed. .  Making sure there is no playing at night, no talking. Night is night, when its time for rest, theres no interaction. even while you are feeding him, close your eyes once hes latched so you dont get his brain interactive with yours. If he is just wet, dont change his diaper until the following time. if he is dirty , obviously change it. but when he sleeps through the night, you arent going to be waking him up to change his wet diaper anyway... i know this is hard sometimes, but it can be very effective as often times it is what wakes them up even more.   dont flip the lights on, when he needs to get up, nurse him back to sleep in the dark . if you have to have a low light like a night light in the hall so you can see some that might be helpful to you.  try to start nursing him before he wakes up fully so he will go abck to sleep earlier. if he is crying for food, hes been giving signals for quite a few minutes that hes been hungry..

try some of those and if you need more then let me know.
Ruth Kraft
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