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Weaning the night feeds

9 replies

Fairy45 · 14/11/2015 18:02

My 5 month old has started waking 3 hourly again for milk. She's only taking 1-2oz a time so I know its for comfort. I took her dummy away a few weeks ago as it was becoming a nightmare where I was getting zero sleep constantly putting it back in so I am absolutely not giving it back. I tried controlled crying on the advice of the health visitor but after 2 hours, she won. Anyone know how I can at least get rid of 1 feed in the night to try and get 5 or 6 solid hours? She is rubbish at napping in the day she has half an hour then she is wide awake. Even in the car or pram. She goes to bed really well and self settles by rolling on her side but she can't do that in the night. Any suggestions welcome. Thanks

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blushingmare · 14/11/2015 20:02

Hmmm tricky. I'm sure there will be plenty of people that will give you advice on how to night wean at this age. However, I did find with both of mine that around 5 or 6 months was quite a needy age for sleep and they needed the extra comfort of feeding and really didn't settle at all well without feeding. Definitely with DS I think it coincided with the start of teething and feeding was the only thing that would give him the comfort.

I have always been a "take the path of least resistance" person with my kids, so it was just less hassle and trauma to feed than deal with a screaming baby in the middle of the night!

Eventually I did night weaning around 15mo by sitting with them and patting/cuddling/ssshhing while they screamed at me. Took about a week to stop the crying and then a couple of months to stop waking up regularly. But I'd never have felt able to do that at 5 mo. For me, that's too young to have a screaming baby that can't be comforted, but everyone's different. Good luck - it doesn't last forever!

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WorldsBiggestGrotbag · 14/11/2015 20:04

5 months seems a bit young to night wean to me. But then I'd kill for my 4.5 month old to only wake 3 hourly!

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TaliZorah · 14/11/2015 20:10

Give more feeds in the day. My son is 11 weeks and wakes 1-2 times in the night, I'm trying to get him to stop one of them. What I'm doing is getting him to eat more in the day so he doesn't need to eat as much at night

Another technique is to give an ounce of water at night instead of milk

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Fairy45 · 14/11/2015 20:13

I'm not saying all feeds I'm just desperate for her to drop 1 of them haha! I tried going to bed with her at 8 the other night as her best stint of sleep is usually 8-12 but its like she could sense me in the room and woke every 45 mins. People do keep telling me it will pass but I feel like I'm never going to get a full nights sleep again :(

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Fairy45 · 14/11/2015 20:14

Tali Zorah I can't get more milk down her she clamps her jaw at 5oz, 2-3 hourly and if I manage to get more down her she projectile vomits it all over me :/

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TaliZorah · 14/11/2015 20:37

Fairy have you started weaning yet?

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Fairy45 · 14/11/2015 20:41

I've tried baby rice and she's had some pureed fruit but nothing serious yet

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TaliZorah · 14/11/2015 20:43

It's supposed to get better with weaning. I'm not there yet myself but could you give some baby rice with the night feed? I've heard from others it helps but DS is too young to try it at the moment

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Fairy45 · 14/11/2015 20:55

Yea she has baby rice before her last bottle. Maybe I should start weaning properly then. Bit scary! Think I will try offering water for the first feed tonight too and see what happens. I'm not prepared to listen to her cry though I'm also a softy in that respect.