Episode 100: Should I Introduce Solids if Baby Isn’t Sleeping Through the Night Yet?

Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.

Welcome to the kids sleep show, where we help tired parents from around the world to get their children to fall asleep independently, sleep through the night and build healthy sleep habits for Life. I’m your host, Courtney Zentz. Now let’s sleep together. Hey, everybody, happy Tuesday. It is Courtney here, the amazing founder of tiny transitions. If I haven’t met you yet, welcome. I am so blessed to have you here. In this group, I am just fresh off of a weekend in the Bahamas, check out my braids when you think I’m gonna have to take them out soon because it’s gonna break the hell out of my hair, but they look awesome. And so I did a little cruise with my girlfriend over the weekend. And it was very nice to get away for a couple days. And enjoy some sun and fun. So I am fresh back and wanted to take some time today to talk to you in this Training Tuesday, all about introduction of solids, right? Because I think depending on when we go to a pediatrician, when we kind of decide we’re going to introduce oatmeal, or rice cereal or solids is one dependent upon when the pediatrician suggests that we do so too, is dependent upon when we as a parent want to write I know everybody says like, hey, food before one is just fun. Some people wait till six months to do anything. Some people don’t do anything for, you know, the whole first year, I think you know, it kind of depends, again, nutritionally, children get most of their nutrition from the source of milk, whether it’s formula or breast milk. And at some point, parents decide, hey, they want to add in some different things. purees. And again, oatmeal or rice cereal, the biggest question that I often get when I’m working privately with a client is, hey, what am I supposed to do with the food right? Or I look at something that they’re doing and go, Oh my gosh, like, that’s really a lot of food for a baby that’s not sleeping through the night. So what you want to first figure out is one go with what works for you. Okay, there’s no right, you know, you must start oatmeal at four months, or you should start purees at six months, like, you can start to introduce things as you’re feeling comfortable. And as you’re feeling ready to introduce food. Okay, when I have a client come to me, and I’ll give you a great example, if I have a client who is six months old, and they’re not sleeping through the night, and they’re eating three meals a day of solids and purees in between their milk, okay, but they’re still waking at night to eat. The first thing I do with that client is pull the feedings, they are not eating solids for the next couple of days. Here’s why. When you start looking at macronutrient content, right, we need to make sure that your kid is eating enough in the day to sustain them all night at six months of age, you should not be waking overnight to eat. Okay, for a you know, baby who’s optimally growing on the chart, okay, which is 99% of babies. Okay. So over six months is generally that cut off where it’s like, yeah, there’s a habit in there, right? And what you have to look at is kids need 24 to 32 ounces of milk in a 24 hour period. Okay, it doesn’t matter if it’s breast milk or formula. I know that there’s sometimes some kind of topics around that it’s a number 24 to 32 ounces, breast milk formula. That’s what they need. Okay. People also talk about for milk and hind milk with regards to breast milk. I’m a lactation counselor as well. That is not a thing. Okay, so there is for milk and hide milk there are that that is a real characterization. But people look at it as fat disbursement from a boob, your fat is equally dispersed through feeding. Okay, so you know, as a parent, if you’re watching this and you’re like one breastfeeding my baby six months old. And, you know, I’m really only offering the hind milk so they get them like stop doing that. Okay? Breast milk is breast milk, your body is a beautiful thing, and it’s actually really intelligent and it knows that fat is equally dispersed through the feeding. Okay, so the term of for milk and high milk is a real thing. What people believe it does is not accurate. Okay? So you want to look at first your intake in the day kids need 24 to 32 ounces if they’re getting that in the day. They don’t need to eat at night which is where you start to go is that feeding overnight a habit based feeding where they’re eating, or is it truly hunger based? Okay, I sometimes have nursing clients who at six months are going you know my supply sucks I pump crap. I you know, I don’t feel great. I’m like I could have always fought supply. You know, I know at daycare, they’re barely getting 24 ounces.

I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Then they still need to eat overnight. Okay, like there are going to be those like 1% of the situation where feeding a baby overnight is looked at as this like you must stop that when you sleep train. And that stuff. That’s not the case. Okay? And I promise this all comes back full circle into food, but when you have a child out who doesn’t get 24 to 32 ounces in the day, they’re hungry at night. So they should and probably still do need to eat. They do not need to eat to sleep. That’s a habit they need to eat for nutrition. That’s being hungry, right? So a baby is truly hungry, who needs to eat overnight should eat, burp and put themselves back to sleep in the middle of the night. Okay, but a baby who eats in the middle of the night three times two times one time and falls asleep on the Uber the bottle, or needs to be rocked back to sleep after said feeding or will only fall asleep with the nipple in their mouth. That’s a habit. Okay? And so maybe tonight they wake once maybe tomorrow they wake twice. Both times. You’re like God, why are you hungry? Twice, like you shouldn’t be hungry twice. You know what the hell, it’s because it’s habit. So they’re waking this time going to eat this time to eat this time. Am I gonna get a hug, pickup cuddle put down rock to sleep, bounce to sleep feed to sleep like you have habit based wakings where they’re also eating. So the first thing you want to look at right is when you’re talking about introducing food. I personally would be very careful about the amount you introduce if your child isn’t sleeping through the night, because it’s taking up space. Okay, the macronutrient content of applesauce is not as nutritionally dense as milk. Otherwise, babies would live on applesauce, which they don’t. Right. So yes, you’re getting some vitamins and stuff from that. But there’s not like a bunch of protein coming out of applesauce, right? There’s fat and protein in milk. So when you start looking at like, okay, if I’m going to try solids, but my kid is still waking at night, but I want him to get used to purees offering things like full fat plain Greek yogurt, great. Avocados, great nutrient dense food, that’s a better option. If you’re, you know, again, you’re still fighting this overnight waking, that’s probably a habit, but you’re still kind of unsure. That’s where you want to look at. Like, okay, if you’re going to offer food, then make sure it’s nutrient dense. Okay, so what I wouldn’t do is I wouldn’t offer, you know, you have to be careful because it’s volume, right? Like, if your child only has a certain amount of space in the day, you don’t want to piss away all of that space with empty calories, applesauce, and, you know, carrot puree, like, again, carrot puree, fine. Not that nutritionally dense, has some good vitamins, it doesn’t have fat, and it doesn’t have the same level of protein that you would get from the formula. So if right now you’re sitting there going to shoot like my kids eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus mil plus a week’s choice to eat overnight, cut the feedings out in the day, stop feeding them solids for like a couple days, get that milk in the day. And you need to get rid of those overnight feedings. I’m actually working with a client right now who’s six months of age. And we know it’s a habit base feeding. But I’m not a sleep consultant who’s just going to rip the feedings right now. Many sleep consultants will just be like, sorry, take the feeding way. And your kid cries for like two hours and they don’t give a shit because they’re not sitting there with you. Okay, they are actually hungry. So you have to move that milk if they were taking, like this client I just finished with was taking 21 ounces overnight, and they’re cute was eight months old. And I was like, Okay, you can’t take out almost 70% of their intake, because they were taking it all overnight, right? They’re eating the Vegas buffet at three in the morning. So what you have to do is you say okay, tonight, we’re only going to offer like six ounces of milk, and maybe add in like an extra ounce of like water to the bottle. So they’re getting the volume of eight ounces, for example, if they’re a volume player, right, but they’re only getting nutritionally seven ounces. So you effectively moving out to the next day into the daytime hours. Okay? That is something I’ve recommend over six months. Okay, formulas, vastly water. So is breast milk, right? So

people say like, Well, should I be doing that, you know, for again, a baby over six months where you’re trying to move milk without just ripping it out, and let them cry for two hours. You want to just move the milk, if you take an ounce here, and you remove it that night, the next day, it goes here. And then that night, you take another ounce, and then the next day it goes here and over three or four days, you can get probably 80% of that milk moved. The other little bit of that two ounces that they’re getting is that habit waking where you go. Now this is crap. It’s now a habit. I’ve confirmed it. And we’re done with this, right. But I think as a parent, we question sometimes like, is our baby hungry? And I don’t ever want a parent to feel like they can’t feed their child, right? Like, that’s not the point of this. Run every age I work with you. Right? Like I work with plenty of kids. We keep feedings all the time, because it’s nutritionally appropriate, right? But feeding from nutrition overnight and feeding to sleep is a prop. There’s a big difference in those. So if you want to keep a feed for nutrition, great, my kids are both like tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny like 1% on the growth curve still and they’re six and eight. Right? But oh, my daughter wants to eat our carrots and cucumbers and salads. And you know, I’m like What am I supposed to do? Peter? She doesn’t want grilled cheese. Please just feed her crackers like she’s on crackers like what you know what I mean? So with her It’s like she’s six and eight and I still fight with like, sorry, my kid wants salad, you know, but protein wise like I gotta get it for so I make pancakes with whipped cream and I’ll like uses whole, you know heavy cream with maple syrup to sweeten it. There’s no sugar, but she thinks it’s the bomb diggity, I make her you know, whipped cream for her pancakes, she thinks I’m the best mom ever. And all I’m really trying to do is get some fat and protein in her because I add collagen protein to the milk. And just make it like a little mini protein shake in, you know, it’s the same kind of idea. Like if kids are nutritionally getting what they need, from the foods that they’re eating, the other stuff is play. And then what happens like if you do have to pull the purees during the day, right? Pull them for like three or four days, get that milk moved, and then slowly add them back in, you know, a week later, right? They’re six months old, they’re not going to suffer from a week of no purees. Alright, so you know, just something to keep in mind is something I deal with a lot when I have parents who are like, damn, they’re like six months old, they’re slamming three meals a day, they love table food, but they’re still waking twice at night to eat. Well, it’s nice, they like table food, but they gotta sleep through the night. So you kind of balance it a little bit and say, All right, give them like a tiny bit. But make sure it’s like avocado or full fat Greek yogurt, not flavored full fat, Greek yogurt plain, I will often add like a tiny bit of like, I take raspberries and I let them get liquid. And then I like smash them up a little bit in the microwave. And then I strain them into the yogurt. And it gives it a nice flavor without any added sugar. I had a mom when she was giving their baby a vanilla yogurt. And she was like fighting me on the success aspect of why their little one was struggling to go to bed at bedtime. And I’m like you are doing something like I can tell cuz I do this a lot with like, over 1000 Kids privately all over the world, you’re doing something wrong. And I can tell like take me through everything. They ate everything they did. And she’s like, like gave them yogurt. I was like what kind of yogurt and she went downstairs to the fridge. She’s like, Oh, it’s vanilla, like, Okay, pick it up and look at the nutrition ingredients and tell me how many grams of sugar are in that half a cup of vanilla yogurt that your kid slammed three times today and she almost fell off of her chair. So you pay attention to some of that stuff too. Because sugar will make you more hyper right. So you know trying to minimize the the refined sugars trying to maximize the fat and protein, get them having that good solid independent skill of sleep and then introducing like macronutrient dense solid again, applesauce once a day fine. Applesauce is their primary source of puree is just taking up space, which could otherwise be milk to fill it up. Okay, so hopefully that makes sense. I wanted to spend a few minutes on that and just take you through, you know what some parents kind of struggle with because you don’t really realize that that could be the reason that your kid is waking up overnight, because they’re eating like so many kinds of empty calories during the day. But then they’re still eating milk at night. So in summary, that’s what I recommend. Hopefully, that’s helpful. Hold on one more thing before you go. As a valued listener of the kids sleep show, I want to help you build a great sleep or not just in the times you’re listening to the show. But all day every day. Every week of the year. I have a new Facebook group called slumber made simple. It’s a place to gather with other parents looking for sleep support, laughs and the latest in sleep research to build a family that is rested and at their best day in and day out. If you want to be part of the community where you can get free sleep support, weekly training sessions, unbelievable content and so much more. Head on over to tiny transitions.com forward slash community that’s tiny transitions.com forward slash community or head over to Facebook and search slumber Made Simple. drop me a note and let me know when you join. I can’t wait to see you there.