Will stopping bf make dd sleep through??

[mrsmoomoopoopoo]

This is probably a stupid question as I know all babies are different....

DD is nearly 11 months and still wakes at least once during the night for a feed. Some nights she sleeps through, she is so unpredictable!

She has formula for bed but I will bf her if she wakes in the night. That's the only bf's she gets. When she wakes I don't think she's that hungry I think it's more of a comfort.

I know a couple of mothers who once they stopped bf their lo's started sleeping through and I just wondered if anyone else experienced the same?

The reason I'm reluctant is if she wakes and I go make her a bottle then wait for it to cool she will be wide awake and then difficult to get back to sleep by time her milk is ready.

Do I try bottle or is there no point?

Thanks

[Mybeardeddragonjustdied2016]

At 9 months my ds was waking a few times to be bf. Broken sleep was killing me! The first night I sent dh in with a bottle of formula - had a mouthful then went to sleep. Second night dummy back in and went to sleep. Third night slept through!! He is 2 and never woken in the might AT ALL since!!

[Wondermoomin]

As you say all babies are different - stopping BF is not a magic route to them sleeping through. I continued BFing mine long after they were sleeping through. We mainly achieved that by my husband settling them during the night without any milk once they were old enough to go without night feeds - so no bottles required at all.

[MrsJoeyMaynard]

They're all different. It's not necessarily going to make any difference.

DS1 - bottle fed, entirely formula after about 7 months. Sleeping through most nights by 11 months, but still waking for bottles a couple of nights a week, which I found difficult as he would only drink warm milk, so he would be wide awake and very distressed by the time it was ready, then hard to settle back down.

DS2 - breastfed. A better sleeper from day 1 than DS1. Sleeping through most nights well before 11 months, and when he did wake for milk, sorting him out was much faster and easier than with DS1, and he settled back to sleep faster. His sleeping went downhill for a while after I went back to work (at about 12 months) but he adjusted to that after a few weeks.

My sister formula fed both her babies. Both poor sleepers. She said that DN2 didn't sleep through once until almost 2 yrs old.

[MYA2016]

For us it meant our night wakings dropped from 6-8 a night (!!) to around 1-2 a night. And then within the month he started sleeping through.
However I can't be certain if this was due to the introduction of formula or the end of a regression.
Dont stop night breastfeeding JUST for this reason is my advice. Do it because you're ready.

Otherwise if it doesn't work you'll just be upset with yourself :-(

[Hmmnotkeen]

There's no guarantee.

[doleritedinosaur]

I stopped breastfeeding 3 weeks ago & DS is 18 months, now sleeps worse.

He did drop his night feed around 10 months & just used it as comfort to get to sleep.

Takes 1.5 hours to get to sleep at the moment but is self settling begrudgingly.

[minipie]

I stopped feeding DD at night at about that age as it was just habit (did involve a bit of crying but hardly any) but carried on Bf in the day.

I was glad I'd carried on BF in the day and kept my supply going because a month or two later (winter) she got really ill and BF was very helpful in getting her to sleep at night and getting calories into her.

[golfmonkey]

I stopped feeding dc1 at night when they were fully weaned (9 months) - was bf at night but ff in the day as I had gone back to work at 7 months. One night I just cuddled /rocked/did everything except feed to settle them. It took about an hour to settle whereas feeding would have done it in an instant. They slept through from the next night! I felt ready to stop bf by then so am ok that it happened when it happened. I know it meant an hour of crying in the middle of the night, but dc wasn't left alone to cry at any point so although it was bad, I at least felt we were trying to comfort them. However, didn't work for my sister. The only difference between the children was that they were always cuddled to sleep at bedtime so kept waking for cuddles. But she didn't mind cuddling them in bed so it was ok! We had spent a few nights of pick up put down to get dc to self settle when they were 6 months or so, so thy went to sleep without being cuddled (obviously we gave cuddles before bed just not at the point of drifting off to sleep!)

[golfmonkey]

Ps your dd sounds like she might be self weaning? If some nights she sleeps through? My dc never slept through until that time but was down to 1 feed.

[Flisspaps]

If it worked, then all FF babies would sleep through from the start.

[Mrsbadger77]

Imo it's not necessarily BF that you need to stop but just feeding at night no matter what it is. If possible could you send your OH in to try to settle your LO and offer water. We did this and my dd stopped waking up after a few nights. It might work. At 11 months if they're eating and drinking in the day they don't need milk in the night.