Integrative Lactation Care

Whether your baby has always been a “poor” sleeper – restless or colicky from birth – or they have historically done consistently long stretches at night, hourly wakes are a red flag for an underlying issue.

A baby waking up more than 5+ times per night for more than a week on end is experiencing some kind of physiological concern that warrants addressing.

While it is completely normal for babies to go through short spurts of increased wakings, especially while popping a new tooth, working on a big developmental leap, or sick, prolonged periods of wakings are not normal.

It also bears saying that they are not behavioral. In other words, your baby isn’t doing it to manipulate you, and it’s not because they simply “haven’t learned to self-soothe” or “learned sleep skills” (cue eye roll). Sleep is not a skill, it’s a physiological process.

Let’s talk about the most common causes of hourly wakes.

What causes a baby to wake hourly?

0-6 Months of Age:

• Inadequate intake / hunger
• Body discomfort
• Reflux
• Gas
• Constipation
• Food allergy, sensitivity, or intolerance
• Body tension

6-12 Months:

• Poor iron/mineral status
• Body discomfort
• Reflux
• Gas
• Inadequate intake / hunger
• Constipation
• Body tension
• Gut dysbiosis
• Sleep-disordered breathing (snoring, open mouth breathing)

I have been doing holistic sleep support for over four years, and I have *never* had a single case of hourly wakes that wasn’t attributable to one of these factors.

If your baby is waking hourly, I can just about guarantee there is an underlying physiological issue that is asking for support.

Behavioral sleep training programs are not the answer – they are only going to mask physiological issues and bury them further. Babies don’t wake at night because they are trying to be difficult. They do not have control over when they wake up. They are coming out of sleep because there is a physiological reason.

Peds will often say “they’ll just grow out of it” – but the reality is that these issues typically do not go away, they simply metamorphize into new and sometimes more complex issues. If root causes like GI dysbiosis, oral dysfunction, and mineral deficiencies go unchecked, they often look like the following in older kids:

• persistent constipation
• poor stomach acid levels -> picky eating, poor appetite, sugar cravings
• behavior dysregulation, brain fog, trouble focusing/listening
• snoring, sleep apnea, feeling “wired but tired”, insomnia
• chronically sick / chronic congestion
• swollen tonsils & adenoids (sometimes warranting surgical removal)
• eczema, psoriasis, & other skin issues

I say this not to scare parents, but so that you are fully empowered to take action NOW while your baby is still young and interventions are 1. more cost effective and 2. easier to implement. The longer that the root causes of issues have time to become entrenched, the more costly and more challenging it can be to reverse them.

In other words, your baby’s hourly wakes are the canary in the coal mine. There is no better time to trust your intuition and seek root cause care to get to the bottom of what’s going on.