When did you night wean?

[NotSoThinLizzy]

Wee DS is now 16 months and still waking 4-5 times a night for comfort once or twice of that to actually "feed" we are doing half Co sleeping atm. He's in his cot until I go to bed then in with me when he wakes up. How do I night wean without upsetting him to much?

I started stopping about that age. I used the Jay Gordon advice as it seemed to match what I wanted to achieve and how I felt.
My last feed was just before DD turned 18 months. It went really well, I hope that is because we were both ready.

Somewhere between 14 and 18 months for all four of mine, once it got to the point where I was confident they were having plenty of food during the day and I wanted to get back to having a full night's sleep.

For the first few nights I went to bed in a vest and high necked pyjamas to stop them from helping themselves. When they woke up I still let them into my bed but have them only cuddles, no milk. They were understandably pissed off at first, would pull at my top and try to get a hand inside it. That lasted 1-2 nights then they started settling with just cuddles, then they would only wake up once a night, then after around 4-6 weeks they stopped waking up full stop.

Yes deffo plenty of food during the day non stop eater here 😊 Ive been trying to tire him out by going on late afternoon walk to the shop or up and down the road think its made a difference he's only woken once so far.

No advice NotSo but just to say that I'm in the same boat here with my 15mo DS, even with the half co sleeping!

How long does your DS nap for during the day? Mine is down to one nap but most often only naps for 45 mins. When he naps for longer he sleeps so much better during the night though.

He's down to one nap most days sometimes 2. 1st nap is about 1.5 hours long at about 11am then if needed a quick 30min nap at 3pm going to try to aim for a nap after lunch today and split it down the middle see if that works better

Send your DH/DP in with a beaker of water each time he wakes then takes full responsibility for comforting him while he will understandably protest. What really helped mine was for DH to say 'Mummy's asleep look' and I lay in bed pretending to be asleep.

Will take about 3 nights with decreasing amounts of crying each night but it worked with both of mine and they then slept 12 hours ever since ( and they're now 4 and 7). Quick and tough is the best way with toddlers! Far too many people carry on the softly softly advice (which is completely valid and correct for younger babies) and end up with 2/3/4 year olds who still wake frequently at night.

9 months

I was talking to my doctor about reflux. They were baffled that I was still night feeding and told me he was getting plenty of nutrients during the day.

I was so greatful, sleep improved steadily into all night pretty quickly and it wasn't as hard as I thought.
It was better for both of us.

I did it at 2 1/2, moved DS from my bed to his own bed but still in my bedroom and he slept through from the first night so I think it was the right time for him.

We did Jay Gordon's method with DD when she was about 16 months, it took 2-3 nights but worked really well and definitely made her sleep better.

14 months. DH would cuddle him until he went back to sleep.

DS will be 3 in Spring so I really need to get cracking!

We are going to start with sleeping in his own bed first though as I think he'll sleep better not constantly rolling into us.

I didn’t do anything really. Dd just stopped waking up for a feed in the last 2 months (she’s just turned 2). After 2 years of multiple wakings it is bliss!

It coincided with her starting at nursery when I went back to work full time, so I think it’s because she’s knackered.

I’m going through this now. My 11month old started waking more frequently for a few months. He ended up in our bed, using me as a dummy between each cycle. It got to the point that I had to go to bed early so he could sleep. My mental health was suffering, so chose to try sleep training.

Last night was day 4 of sleep training.
Night one- he woke at 12 and it took 2 hours to get him back down and then he was up for the day at 5
Night two- he woke at 12 and it took 15 mins to get him back to sleep and he was up for the day at 5
Night three- he slept through and was up for the day at 5
Night four (last night)- he slept through to 6.10am

I’m so thankful that I’m getting sleep. I’m a much happier mum

It can be done! Good luck 👍🍀

2 years. I’d tried it about 5x before but my ds wasn’t ready at all.
I tried Jay Gordon technique and adapted it to suit us. Lots of tears for one night and a couple of weeks being unsettled but with LOTS of cuddles and reassurance we got through.

My main tip is that you need to do it. It’s not fair to take away milk and mummy. We’d tried with my dh coming in but it made the whole thing so much worse as my ds definitely wanted mummy still!

My GD was the same, now at 18 months she has one warm bottle of milk.

I agree that it's either you and no milk (or a bottle), or someone else with a bottle.

I’ve nothing to add as I’m in the same boat only mine is 19 months, I’ve tried and failed a few times to try and night wean, the screaming when I refuse to feed wakes everyone else up so I give in so everyone can sleep.

I’m so ready to stop, my sleep is so disturbed it’s really getting me down. It’s just difficult to do though without having the entire house up. I didn’t even have to night wean my first child, she just did it herself quite early on so this is unknown territory for me.

Honestly my best tip for any child over about 14 months is for you to pretend to be asleep and have your DP bring them in and say - look shh mummy’s asleep, can’t wake her up now, let’s cuddle in your bed. For both mine it was like a light went on in their head - they hadn’t even considered I might be unavailable!!! Once they saw me asleep they both went down much more easily.

Is this just about breastfeeding? Or any night feeding?

My bottle fed babies had their last night feeds at about 4-5 months, when they started sleeping through. But they are teens now and in those days we weaned at 3 months. So they were eating and drinking loads in the daytime by then.

@BigusBumus I was wondering the same thing? I also bottle fed and DS was sleeping 10pm-6am by 4 months old. He didn't start solids till he was 8 months old though, he point blank refused them. By the time he was eating solids he was going through the night 7pm-6am.

DD didn’t have a night feed from about 7 months. We just stopped feeding her when she woke, settled her instead. I never realised it was a thing to do it any longer than that.

I told myself any time from 18 months on I could do but when it came to it I haven’t. My son is 2.5 years and actually doesn’t feed now 50% of nights at least, so he’s getting there himself.
I’ve heard it naturally happens between 2-3 years.

Watching this thread with interest. Baby dc is 10 months and I have just finished breastfeeding (dc has loads of teeth). The co-sleeping thing is the next thing to try and crack (like you baby settles in her cot then she comes in with us). I never had this with my other two dc. DH offers baby a drink on one of the two occasions that she seems to wake (she only woke once last night) and then she seems to want to settle in with us - I want her to go back into her cot, it is currently situated in our room and probably needs to be moved out. We have other children in the house and it is going to be difficult deal with any crying in the night from baby (probably one of the reasons we started to co-sleep).

5 weeks for all 3 of my kids. They were on a 3 hour schedule and they dropped their middle of the night bottle by then.