[michsm]

Baby F was doing great sleeping through the night until we stated her on cereal last week. Now her schedule is so thrown off. She was going to bed around 9:30 and waking about 6:30. Now that she has started eating she is going to bed around 11:30/12:30 and waking at 6:30.

What am I doing wrong?

I know she definitely needed to start food because she was sucking down bottles left and right and was always hungry. Now she has 8oz when wakes, cereal & fruit w/4oz around 9, 2 more 8oz during day, ceral & fruit w/ 4oz at 7 and another 4oz around 9.

Then she thinks its playtime and stays up until whatever time. If I put her in her crib she starts crying.

Her naptime during the day is off now too. Is this something that will just take some adjustment time? I need to go to sleep before midnight. She is still happy all the time but I am exhausted with this new schedule.

Does her feeding sound right? Let me know. Thanks in advance.

[mrstkg1]

How old is she? The schedule sounds fine, but sometimes when kids go through growth spurts or other developmental stages, their sleep will be disrupted. I would maybe not do the cereal and fruit at 7pm and see what happens. Because fruit has fruit sugar, which may be giving her an energy boost too late in the evening.

[AmahMama]

Just starting foods - I give cereal only - no fruit. Baby is way to young for all of the sugars. If baby really HATES the cereal - I mix just a tiny bit of apple juice in it. Only enough for a hint of flavor.

I was encouraged by a pede a long time ago not to give fruits until baby is done trying all the other foods. His idea was that if we start baby out on sweets - baby will expect this good tasting sweet taste with each bite. and not only that, the fruits are not really easy on the tummy. The rule at our house was cereal, veggies, meats, then fruits - if they were still eating baby food when we got that far. I gave at least 4 days of each new food before going on to the next one - because we knew nothing about background allergies, illnesses, or intolerances, I went very, very slowly with foods. And if there was a radical change - I stopped that food for a time and then tried it again.

I have grandchildren with food allergies - and this is the same way we found those allergies. One GS stayed up for hours after eating rice cereal - he is now 7 and still cannot tolerate rice. No other problems - it just gives him a tummy ache. Another can drink oj but cannot eat oranges without a rash,

I fed 1st cereal 1x per day for a few days, then 2x but not right before bed - save the bottle (the whole thing) until bedtime and make that routine. We rock and have the bottle, we go to bed. She should get down to 3 -4 bottles per day. One before each nap and 1 at bedtime.

I have done this for about 20 years now and it has worked really, really well for me. GOOD LUCK!!