Night weaning formula fed 10 month old

[teamseashore]

Hello, so I have decided the time has come to take a pro active approach to night weaning my 10 month old! I kept hoping she would drink less milk on her own at night but it's not happening. In fact after having only one wake up a night between 6-9 months she has started waking twice a night again grrrrrr! But only about 50% of the time I'd say.

She is formula fed and I'm planning on a gradual approach rather than going cold turkey, by gradually reducing the amount of milk I offer her, eventually just offering some water. My question is - given some nights she wakes once, some twice, which feed should I tackle first? Her wake up times are really irregular. I was thinking if she wakes before midnight I'd try and reduce that one first, on the basis that if she then has a second wake up (which would probably be around 5am) it will be harder to settle her without milk because she will be hungrier. But! By trying to reduce the earlier feed am I just encouraging her to wake a second time?! As she only wakes twice about half the time and I don't really want to encourage it!

Help! Any advice appreciated x

[FATEdestiny]

Do you have a way of getting her to sleep without milk? So getting her to sleep when you don't feed at all?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

Is she fed to sleep? If so, that's why she needs the milk at night- to get back to sleep. Not hunger.

[teamseashore]

I really struggle to get her back to sleep if it's been at least 4 hours since her last feed. We don’t feed to sleep - she gets a bottle at bedtime but then is still awake when she finishes it, and then we read her a story before putting her in the cot. We then leave her to self settle, going back in every 5-10 minutes if she doesn't settle.

Same for her naps, and she doesn't always get a bottle before her naps - sometimes it's after. Her morning nap she never gets a bottle just before and she settles really easily, but she will have eaten breakfast a couple of hours before.

I guess she is just used to being fed at night and wants that full tummy feeling 😕

[louisejxxx]

How many ozs is she having during the day and how many is she having at night?

[teamseashore]

She drinks 4 bottles in the day totalling about 20oz, although I always offer more than that. At night she drinks 5-10 oz depending on whether she wakes once or twice x

[FATEdestiny]

You'll need to add in two extra bottles in the daytime, to be confident the calories won't be needed when night weaning.

I would suggest giving more frequent bottles, rather than bigger ones.

[THNG5]

I went cold turkey with my dd at 7 months. She was getting more than enough during the day of everything so I offered water in the night. She quickly got the message and stopped waking for a bottle! Does your dd have a dummy or comforter to help get her back to sleep without feeding?

[teamseashore]

Yes she has a dummy. I guess there's no easy solution, we will muddle through. I'm not going to introduce any additional daytime bottles- I can barely fit in the 4 I give her already plus her 3 meals! I'm hoping as I plan to do it gradually she will gradually start to eat / drink more in the day. She rarely finishes her daytime bottles. Will see how it goes. If I remember I will post back here so anyone else with this problem can see how we get on! X

[unclemontyscrumpets]

I did it gradually at 9 months- reduced the size to a 4oz then started to dilute the formula every few days. I meant to get down to water but by the time she got to 1 scoop she stopped waking for it. Doing it that way I was confident that she wasn’t hungry as the calories had shifted to the daytime.

[TheBottomOfTheLaundryPile]

It’s normal for babies to wake at night, at 10 months and beyond. Hunger isn’t the only reason babies wake, though if it was why not feed her if she’s hungry? But sleep is developmental and not linked to how babies are fed so removing night milk may not make any difference to her sleep.

[Feb85]

Hi @teamseashore i am in the same situation with my 10month old and just wondering did you find any solution that helped with the night feeds?