to ask if night weaning really works?

[lola88]

DS is 11 months and still taking up to 14oz of formula at night, he can wake anything between 2 and 7 times a night and i feed him back to sleep. This has got to stop i totally admit i've allowed him to do it because i've been to tired to fight him and give up after a while and give him the bottle but enough is enough. He deff does not need fed at night i'm 100% sure it's habbit not hunger and he eats plenty in the day so i'm sure he's ready to stop eating at night.

DP is off the next 4 days so i am ditching the milk and will only offer water i've heard people say this can work in 3 nights but i am just finding it hard to imagin how DS can go from waking constantly to sleeping all night.

So does only offering water really work? has anyone done it and how quickly did it work?

I have no answers. DD is 17 months and I started cutting the volume down in her night feeds when she was fully weaned and eating three meals a day. This was at about 10 months I think. She still had three bottles a day - morning, afternoon and bedtime - of about 6 oz. Through the night if she woke I offered her 3. She still sometimes wakes for 3oz now, or she wakes at 5.30 and will take her morning bottle before she goes back to sleep for an hour. With my mummy friends, there are those that suggest I water down the feed or offer water to wean her off, and there are those who say if 3 oz means that she sleeps 7-3.30, 3.35 - 6 then keep doing it, she will grow out of it. Many more experienced mums seem to agree that once they have all of their teeth the night wakings become less frequent. I know what you mean about needed to stop the feeding to sleep and think you are probably right, good luck!

thanks :( i realy need him to sleep better last night he went to bed at 7.30 woke at 9 12 3 5 6 and 8, he gets worse the older he gets and since giving up his dummy (not my choice) only wants a bottle to go back to sleep

I was hoping to get a flood of people saying oh it worked in 3 nights and they have slept 7-7 ever since, give me some possitive thoughts for starting.

The switching to water worked for us. And yes, I think it was about 3 nights. Although DD was BF rather than FF, not sure if that would make a difference? But by the time she was 1, she'd dropped night feeds completely. Teething of course means she doesn't always sleep through, but it can be done

it's worth a go. If it works than fine if not try something else.

I did the pick up put down method with DD and that worked for me

We night weaned at about 8m (ebf DD but I don't think that makes a difference. If you're not sure about going straight to water alternatives are to cut down on amount of formula offered and gradually reduce it to nothing or at that point just offer water.

Based on our experience I'd say the most important lessons learned were:

1. Whatever you do re the contents of the bottle, try to put him back to bed awake. Really dozy is fine, but not actually asleep.

1. Agree quite a detailed plan of action with DH and write it down - means you have something tomcling on to at 3 am when younstart doubting yourselves.

1. Try to make jus brief notes of what happens each night as it happens - that way you have a decent record of what happened and will be able to see progress even though it might feel that you're not getting anywhere.

1. Be prepared for it to take a little while. Based on our experience 4 days will probably show some progress but you may not have completely cracked it - that doesn't mean it's not worth persevering.

Good luck!

Sorry for random ns - keep hitting instead of spacebar!

I was hoping to get a flood of people saying oh it worked in 3 nights and they have slept 7-7 ever since, give me some possitive thoughts for starting.

I think it worked in 3 or 4 nights for us, certainly less than a week. We night weaned at 15 months, she was waking several times a night and I was feeding her (BF) back to sleep. All we did was have DH go to her rather than me, and cuddle her back to sleep. We couldn't believe how easy it was to be honest.

She now sleeps 12 or 13 hours straight.

thank you all it's given me some strength to know it does work for some people all ready to go tonight :)

It worked for us - offer water in a sippy cup so there is no association with the bottle.

Worked very quickly for us, first night was hard but ds was older and he was OUTRAGED. He has been a great sleeper ever since :)

Good luck.

We watered down DS's feeds when he was 13 or 14 months old. He was waking up and only had 1oz or 2 at most, then was asleep again for a couple of hours. So for us it was a gradual process, it took about 2 weeks. DS was eating a lot in the day, so I was confident he was not starving. Also, at that age he was sleeping with either me or DH, and there were no tears (I'm a big softie TBH and I knew if he was distressed I would have offered him the bottle again). We watered down his bottles by 1oz every 2 or 3 days, and after a couple of weeks he wasn't asking for milk during the night. He didn't sleep though until 2 months ago (he is 2 next months) but his sleep improved a lot. And I'm also happy that he doesn't have milk after I brush his teeth at night (I've always had rubbish teeth so I'll do all I can so he doesn't suffer the way I did).

Ds ended up with a small amount of decay from night time feeding so if I had my time again I would definitely knock night bottles on the head a lot sooner don't know WHAT I was thinking looking back!

Thanks we are all set for only giving water tonight, had a blissful 9 hours sleep last night and feeling strong for tonight :)

Yes _ i find it does work and the 3 nights thing is often correct.

TBH I would go cold turkey completely on any liquid, or you are just replacing the comfort of a milk bottle with the comfort of a water bottle.