Giving water at night....

[Scarlett77]

Hello All,
Apologies if there is already reams about this on here - this is my first post!!
My DD is 7 months, EBF and we are having lots of fun with BLW. I'm still feeding her at night (around midnight then around 3ish) and don't mind that TOO much (I do actually but I'm learning to live with it....)but she's starting to wake aside from that and when I have succumbed and fed her she's clearly not hungry.

I have read that it's a good plan to get DH to offer water and I wondered what people's experiences were? My little one is really not keen on bottles anyway so I wondered whether this would give her an added aversion to it or whether it actually works quite well. I'm not really a fan of the controlled crying, especially as we live in a one bedroom flat.

Thanks in advance!
xx

[BITCAT]

Have u tried a cup rather than bottle.

[Scarlett77]

I haven't tried anything yet, but she's pretty good with her sippy cup so it's worth a go.

[BITCAT]

well anything worth a go..so you can get a good nights sleep. I hate to say it but how do you feel about dummies and would you try it. Also i had a similar thing with my 1st ds, he was using me as a comforter at night and would spend most of the night in my bed..just so i could sleep. Do you think it could be the same thing that its the comfort not the feed she wants. I was told by hv that its because of the unique smell of breastmilk that they want to be close to you, she suggested putting something of mine in the cot with him, so he could smell me, and believe it or not it did work and i got my sleep and my bed back. I only had to do it for a few weeks until he was used to it and didnt feel the need to be so close.

[ches]

I don't see the point of substituting water for breast. Either she is hungry or some developmental leap or teething is making her want to nurse for comfort. Water will not satisfy either of those. If you want to night wean, or reduce the number of night feeds, go ahead, but water won't do anything for a BF baby.