How Long To Allow 6 Mo Old To Cry?

[MNMum]

I'm getting my 6 mo old on a schedule. This is week #2. So far things have gone pretty well.

He arrives at 8am. I feed him at 8:45, nap from 9:30-10:30. Feed about 12:00, nap again at 1pm (if he lasts that long, sometimes he seems to need to go down a little before 1pm).

My hope is that he would sleep 2 hours in the afternoon. What do you do if they wake up after 45 minutes? After 1.5 hrs? He's in a dark room, sleep sack, noise machine. He has a nuk, but often it falls out if he cries as I leave the room, and he goes to sleep fine without it. I've tried going in and patting him, giving him the nuk back, he just gets more infuriated when I leave.

Would you ever offer a bottle, or am I setting myself up. I've been cutting him off at 5 oz of breastmilk - he would chug 8 oz if I let him. So, he's getting 5 oz every three hours. He turned 6 mos today. I haven't started solids with him yet.

Thoughts?

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

I would make it 6 ounces. I also wouldn't allow more than 5 minutes of actual crying.

[Heidi]

For the food, I would let him have as much as he wants. If he's burping occasionally and not spitting it back up, he is telling you he needs that much.

You're trying to get him to sleep longer in one stretch in the afternoon?

I would not go in anymore and try to soothe him, but I'd let him fuss for maybe 5-10 minutes to see if he goes back to sleep. I don't know if you are allowed to give him anything to play with (we are, as long as it's not soft). A book maybe, to look at, if he wakes early?

As for the binky...try to give it to him in his hands for a few days when it's not nap time. Maybe he'll learn how to grab it and put it in his own mouth. My oldest son could do that at 4 months. We'd put several in his bed, and if he needed it, he'd find one.

[Rachel]

Does he wake up happy or grouchy needing more sleep? He just might be a short napper. I also agree if he needs more milk give him more.

[AfterSchoolMom]

I'd let him eat more if more is available - my son just turned 7 months and is having 7 ounce bottles every 3 hours.

Is he fussing, or is he hysterically crying? If the former, I'd let that go up to ten minutes or so. If the latter, not as long. If he CAN fall asleep without the pacifier, I'd leave that out of the equation altogether - that may be why he's waking early. Also, something may be disturbing him during the lighter portion of his sleep cycle. Do you have white noise on for him? If not, I'd try that.

[preschoolteacher]

I don't see why you wouldn't feed him more. At 6 months, most of his nutrients will come from breast milk or formula. You might get better sleep out of him, too, if he's not waking because he's hungry, but I have to say that his sleep habits seem really normal for a baby of his age. I have an 8 month old, and his schedule is VERY similar! I am also in several groups with moms of babies my son's age, and all those little guy are still taking 2-3 short naps (no longer than an hour at most). I think the long 2-3 hour afternoon nap doesn't come until some babies are older, like 1-1.5 years old. Other little babies who love to sleep nap that way earlier on, but from what I hear, it is less common.

So from what I know, a normal sleep cycle is 45 minutes long for a baby. At 45 minutes, my son usually stirs and cries a bit, but he's not fully awake--he is coming out of his sleep cycle. If I go in there and soothe him by rocking, rubbing his back, or feeding him--before he is fully awake--I can get him to fall back asleep for another hour. If I don't go in on time, he wakes up and won't fall back asleep. Letting him cry would just wake him up. I started soothing him like this with milk at first, and then just rocking, and now just rubbing his back. But if he is hungry, I feed him. But my goal is to slowly teach him to sleep through this sleep cycle on his own. The next step is going to be saying soothing words from beside his crib. Once that works, I'll try saying the soothing words from his doorway. By the time we get to this point, I think he'll be old enough to sleep for a 2-3 hour nap. So we are doing the nap time teaching slowly, but as he develops and matures, it will help his sleep as well--know what I mean?

In my opinion, the 3 minutes of soothing him in order for him to nap an hour longer is worth it--for him and me.

Maybe this would work for the baby you are caring for? If you don't want to rock him, you could rub his back or say comfort phrases like "shhh, shhh" or whatever you want to teach him to get used to in order to fall asleep.

[youretooloud]

Obviously, it depends on the child, some kids eat a lot, some kids won't eat anything.

But, I don't think i'd cut him off at 5 oz... i'd start with 6 at least. If mom wants to supplement with formula to save pumped milk she can think about that. But, I think if he would keep eating, he probably should.

I agree with preschoolteacher. I wouldn't let him cry... go in when he's fussing and replace the nuk, then shake him gently for a few minutes. He might just need a little more help to fall back asleep.

[My3cents]

Obviously, it depends on the child, some kids eat a lot, some kids won't eat anything.

But, I don't think i'd cut him off at 5 oz... i'd start with 6 at least. If mom wants to supplement with formula to save pumped milk she can think about that. But, I think if he would keep eating, he probably should.

I agree with preschoolteacher. I wouldn't let him cry... go in when he's fussing and replace the nuk, then shake him gently for a few minutes. He might just need a little more help to fall back asleep.

No No NO NEVER SHAKE A BABY!!!


I don't think this is what you meant but I still had to put that out there.

NEVER SHAKE A BABY

[MNMum]

I was cutting him off at 5 oz because he will eat from the bottle endlessly, I've let him do it a time or two to see. He will slurp done 8 oz and want more in a couple hours. He always cries when the bottle is emptied. Some breastfed babies do this because they are away from mom. I'd compare it to adult emotional eating I did slightly increase his amount to 5.5-6 oz and he did better the next day, but that may have been just a fluke. Time will tell I guess. I should probably ask that mom bring back a stage 1 or 2 nipple, to make it a little harder for him to get the milk.

[youretooloud]

No No NO NEVER SHAKE A BABY!!!


I don't think this is what you meant but I still had to put that out there.

NEVER SHAKE A BABY

OMG.. seriously? I can assure you, nobody here thinks it's O.K to shake a baby in the way you are talking about. The very thought is so absurd, you didn't even need to say it.