Do breastfed babies have sleep problems because of hunger?

Does your baby take a long time to go to sleep during the day or in the evening with breastfeeds, or won't breastfeed to sleep?

Sometimes you might think that your baby is marathon breastfeeding or wanting the breast excessively often during the day, and not going to sleep, because of hunger. But (as long as baby is tracking well along her percentile line on the growth charts) it's possible that richer sensory motor nourishment might help your baby need the breast less during the day, and make sleep much easier.

If your baby isn't going to sleep with a breastfeed during the day or in the evening, it's likely that your baby's sleep pressure isn't high enough yet.

When your baby is a newborn, or still in the first couple of months of life, hunger can result in 'marathon' breastfeeding. Your baby's weight gain, in this case, may not be following her percentile line on the World Health Organisation's growth charts. Or if she is gaining weight adequately, it may be because you are compensating for poor milk transfer (and breast tissue drag) with a heroic generosity of breastfeeding. If this is your situation, please see an NDC Accredited Practitioner or lactation consultant for support.

Common problem #1

You find yourself breastfeeding for very long periods throughout the day in a way that feels unsustainable. You wonder if your baby is hungry and not satisfied at the breast, and unable to slip easily into daytime naps for this reason.

It could be that your little one is looking for the breast inside the house because there's not enough sensory nourishment in the low sensory interior environment of our homes. He'll dial up and accept the breast because it's the most interesting experience available to him when you're indoors! You're exhausted, and thinking: "ok, now I'll be able to feed him to sleep" but then he doesn't go to sleep! His sleep pressure is not that high, afterall.

If you are able to create days outside the house, doing things that you enjoy with the baby fitting in, still offering the breast frequently and flexibly but not necessarily for long, everything starts to feel much more manageable.

Common problem #2

You might offer the breast when your baby seems to be tired, but then the feed goes on and on without your little one falling to sleep.

It's possible that your baby dialled up because of a need for richer sensory experience. It's easy when we're exhausted to hope that the baby will just feed and go to sleep! But if your little one isn't going to sleep easily, then the sleep pressure isn't high enough. The solution here is to shift the focus onto rich and diverse sensory experience, by getting outside the house - even if it's just for a walk.

Common problem #3

You breastfeed your baby to sleep, but she wakes as soon as you put her down.

This is normal baby behaviour. She took just a few minutes sleep, to take the edge off her rising sleep pressure, and that is all the sleep she needed. Babies cry when they wake shortly after being put down, not because they need more sleep, but because they are immediately a little frightened to find themselves alone and want to be close to your body.

Often women offer a brief transitional breastfeed to dial the baby down, and then ... on with the day!

How to avoid accidentally placing pressure on your baby to breastfeed to sleep (in the perfectly normal hope that you might get a break!)

Sometimes, a woman can be so desperate for a break that she might accidentally pressure the little one to breastfeed in the hope that her baby will go to sleep. This is such an understandable situation! However, by working through The Possums Sleep Program, taking off the sleep lens, and shifting focus onto sensory nourishment for baby outside the home, the days (and the breastfeeding) will quickly feel much more manageable.

The problem with accidentally pressuring our baby to take the breast is that the baby might develop a conditioned dialling up at the breast - which definitely makes everything much harder. You can find out about how to prevent a conditioned dialling up with milk or food here.

Does your breastfed baby wake excessively at night because she needs more solids?

• Just as there is no evidence to suggest that your baby will sleep better at night if you start solids earlier than five or six months, there is no evidence to show that the more solids your older baby eats, the better your baby sleeps at night.

• If your baby is in the second half of the first year of life, and gaining well according to her growth charts, but waking excessively at night, this is usually because her body clock settings are disrupted.

In 2018, a study about exclusively breastfed three-month-old babies, sleep and solids came out, receiving a lot of media attention and which seems to have influenced some health professionals' practice since. The authors suggested that babies slept better if solids were started from about three months of age. But I agree with other researchers who critiqued the way this data was interpreted by the study's authors. I discuss this study in the following video.

Recommended resources

Is your baby (< 6 months) with sleep problems hungry and needing to start solids?

Is your baby (6 months +) with sleep problems hungry and needing more solids?

About conditioned dialling up and how to prevent it, if possible

Selected references

Borowitz SM. First bites - why, when, and what solid foods to feed infants. Frontiers in Pediatrics. 2021;9:654171.

Dalrymple RA. Earlier introduction of solid food is associated with improved sleep in infants. Archives of Disease in Childhood Education and Practice. 2020;1015(4):251-252.

Perkin MR, Bahnson HT, Logan K, Marrs T, Radulovic S, Craven J, et al. Association of early introduction of solids with infant sleep: a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial. Jama Pediatrics. 2018;172(8):e180739.

Felder JN, Lee K. Association of early introduction of solids with infant sleep. JAMA Pediatrics. 2019;173(2):194.