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Weaning

Cutting out 3am feed for 9mo

4 replies

jaz2 · 02/09/2007 19:47

Sorry, not sure where to post this messgae, so it's also posted under "sleeping!"

We are desperately trying to get DS to sleep through (at least from 10.30pm - 6am).

At the moment I am BF him at 7.30pm (changing this last BF to formula next week), then he wakes at 10.30pm for a feed (tho it is still a sort of dream feed) - he takes 8floz. Then he wakes anytime between 2am and 3am for a feed, which we have recently changed from BF to formula (4floz). Then he is not hungry again until 7.45am.

In addition, most nights he wakes at least one more time and he has to be cuddled to sleep.

We are considering controlled crying, but I am confused what to do about this middle of the night feed. Surely he shouldn't need it anymore? He is on 3 meals a day, although he doesn't eat as much as some of his peers.

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artichokes · 02/09/2007 19:52

Does he drink well in the day? If he is a normal size for a 9mo then he probably does not "need" any night feeds (from 7-7). However he is used to them and may not be taking as much during the day because of them. I would cut out one night feed at a time over a couple of weeks and encourage him to eat and drink more in the day.

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walbert · 02/09/2007 19:57

Hi jaz2, my dd is about 9m, she had about 1 week of sleeping through at about 6.5m then started waking for a feed between 2 or 3 in the morning (as she pretty much always had done). I was pretty brave and went in and started to hold her for a little bit r give her water, which stopped her wittering for a feed, but she stayed awake! Then a nursery nurse v helpfully pointed out that if dd had managed a couple of nights sleeping through, she could obviously do it, but if she was waking for a feed then we needed to give her that milk, or equivekent in food as she was well on to being weaned, during day: have you tried giving your ds snacks bewteen meals to make sure he is lovely and full by time he goes to bed? We did this with dd and she sleeps through (half a slice of toast, a mashed banana, a yoghrt but poss stick with sort of slow v=burning carbs?) and she is an ace little chubber as she's not crawling yet! The snacks don't disturb her mealtimes either, if that is a worry for you!

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walbert · 02/09/2007 19:58

And dd's last 'feed' is about 7 at night, about 200 - 250ml formula milk if that helps.

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jaz2 · 02/09/2007 20:29

He has 3 x 6fl oz during the day, plus the 7.30pm, 10.30pm and 3am feeds. Not sute if this is enough if we cut out a night feed?

He's not massively keen on eating, we try every trick in the book to encourage him, but he just gets tearful. Weaning has been a bit hampered by illnesses over a 6 week period (7-8months), so we are not where we should be in terms of weaning.

Good idea about the snacks, we'll give them a try. Annoying that banana is off the cards as he has bad constipation..for which we are trying to get him to have water...the struggle is never ending!