Infant feeding at night
Q: My baby is now 11 months old and we are giving him solid food also in day time. Earlier, we used to give him food (cerelac) at night time also around 2:00 am thinking that he may be hungry that time. But recently my doctor said that do not give any food to your baby during that time because if you give any food during that time then how can he digest? So we stopped it. Actually he takes his dinner at 8:30 to 9:00 PM and after that now we are not giving him any food throughout the whole night. He wakes up at 8:00 am and then only he is taking his morning food. And as his sleep is more so he does not like to take breast milk in the night also. So is it advisable to keep the baby without food for almost 12 hours (from night 9:00 PM to morning 8:00 am) or we can give some solid or liquid food during night also? Please advise.
A:Your baby at 11 months of age has established his sleep/wake cycle well. Please do not disturb his cycle by waking him in the middle of night to feed him. Like adults, toddlers get most of their calories during the day time. As long as he is growing and developing appropriately, he does not need extra feeds at night. In fact you should consider yourself lucky that your baby sleeps through the night.