Hungry 5 month old DD?

Over the past 2 weeks my normally very placid 5 month old has taken to waking up at night and not sleeping well through the day (with lots of screaming thrown in for good measure). She normally has fed every 3-4 hours (as in 7.30am, 11am, 2pm, 4.30pm, 7pm, dreamfeed at 10pm then awake at 4am) and has been drinking about 6 mins each side. Now however it seems that the only thing that settles her and gets her back to sleep at night is a breastfeed. After going to sleep at 7pm she will wake at 9pm then 11pm and have full feeds each time. Her feeds have increased to now 8 to 10 mins each side, and sometimes up to 20! She is also refusing the dummy that she once loved. I thought that feeds got longer but further apart. My question is- is she hungry if she is having full feeds every 2-3 hours during the day and up to midnight or is she just seeking comfort? I used to be able to settle her with patting, singing, dummy etc but now even when I pick her up she doesn't settle (ie cries and cries in my arms) but does when she gets fed. Any ideas would be helpful.
PS I don't think she is teething.

Hi there,

My DD started wanting/demanding feeds every 2-3 hrs around 5 months(She is FF though) so we made the decision to try her with solids and it worked for us. Nothing else (patting, rocking, cuddles, play time) would settle her.

If you don't want to start solids till at least the recomended 6 month mark, I hope the other ladies have some more helpful info for you, but just thought I would let you know what worked here.

i really doubt that giving solid will help, if you have a read around this is very very common behaviour for bubs at this age.
i know barb has a link some where about this so hopefully she will pop in and offer more advice.

As Ellie said, this is very common behaviour at around 4 -5 months. Many people mistake it as baby needing solids, but that isn't the case. In a few cases it helps, quite often it makes things worse (as they aren't ready to digest food, and most of the time it makes no difference. The article Elli was talking about is here: kellymom.com ::Wakeful 4 Month Olds by Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC . It's definitely worth a read. Oh and BTW, it does settle down again!

I wasn't suggesting she needed solids- more breastmilk, actually. I am not keen on solids until at least 6+ months! Will read the article, though. Thanks!

Hi Dierdre. As a fellow mum of a 5 month old I can sympathise absolutely with what you're going through! DS is waking every 2 or so hours and mostly I have to feed him to settle, or at least offer it and he sometimes only takes 2 sucks and is out again, but all this after he had been sleeping through from 6pm to midnight and then after the midnight feed until about 5:30 or 6... don't you just love the way they lull us into a false sense of security... and over the last couple of weeks he hasn't fed well at all during the day, too busy looking around and playing to feed - thank God that seems to be settling down again (touch wood)

I caved to the many suggestions of starting him on solids but should have trusted my instincts that he didn't want that - he just pulled a face and spat it back at me and it made no difference to what he was like at the time, so after the 1 teaspoon of farex we're back to the boob only. Funnily enough, rather than feeling guilty at caving to pressure I feel more 'told you so' than anything else, hehe.

The article mentioned is a good read - made me laugh as it was exactly like DS... I love thinking of the train of his thoughts since reading it.

Good luck and don't worry - there must be millions of us going through the same sort of thing.

Deidre, you could always try adding a bf or two during the day to see what happens. Most of the time this unsettled period does pass, as LM found. Good luck, I hope things are getting better for you.