To ask whether 6.5 month can go through the night without being breastfed?

[Pastaalldaylong]

6.5 month old EBF (bottle refuser). Is usually fed to sleep at night at 7.15pm ish. She slept through the night before when she was younger but for the last 3 months has woken multiple times a night. I usually try to cuddle her but almost always end up giving her a quick 5 min feed before she goes back to sleep as she just cries otherwise.

I'm worried that if I were to really persevere and not feed her but just cuddle etc that she is hungry and that's why she's woken? Or is it just a habit and comfort now. I dont think I can bare controlled crying. Last night she woke up 5 times! I wouldn't mind 1 night wake feed but I'm barely getting 2 hours at a time now.
Any advice please?

Probably a growth spurt. If your introducing solids now that’s probably having an impact as well on digestion.
It’s not advised to stop night feeds till a year,
She will sleep through again but I can’t tell you when. Have your tried co sleeping? That might help with getting up and down as you can just give boob and go back to sleep. My 3yr old and 16 month old will both go through the night for ages (a week) but then wake up sometimes and be all funny for a few days. Normally coincides with other changes.
It’s so tough, hang in there and good luck .

She doesn't need to feed at that age for nutritional reasons - she's primarily doing it for comfort (which is still a good reason from her point of view!). Is she eating well in the day (milk and solids)?

Yes, she can. I nightweaned both mine around that age, it was easy and massively improved sleep.

My ff DD1 and bf DD2 both had 3 feeds a night at that age.

I have 3 kids, all EBF until over a year, introduced solids at 6 months.

All mine were sleeping 10 pm to 7 am without a feed by 7 months.
DC1 did it at 5 weeks!
DC2 used to wake up every hour, and feed bakc to sleep. At 6 months I was knackered, so I offered her water at 1 am in the night. She cried and went to sleep and slept through til morning. She then settled and stopped waking for a feed at all!
DC3 gradually dropped feeds until by 5 months went 10 pm to 7 am.

I know every baby is different and mine were all large. But if he is not taking an actual feed, I think it is just as likely to be a way of getting back to sleep.
(assuming normal weight gain etc etc)

Thanks all.@ElektraPlektra how did you night wean?

All of mine were still feeding multiple times at that age, and long after.

All four of my boys dropped their night feeds last. The first three were done by 18-20 months but ds4 (youngest and spoilt) went for another year.

But a friend of ours, her ds1 slept through from a few weeks old and didn't wake for night feeds again until he had a cold.

It depends on the baby and what they eat/drink when. Try different things, like a supper of porridge, fruit, toast, cereal or something else at different times before bed and see which food and time suit best. Try final milk feed at different times and see if it's best before or after last solid feed.

Is there anyone else who can try to settle her during the night? She might not need a feed but will probably smell the milk and want it to self soothe, if you are not close that won't happen.

Hopefully it's only because of a growth spurt and the multiple wakings will settle down soon.

You dont say whether you are on solids. This is a classic sign of needing solids. I hope you have started. Since the later weaning rules you can progress faster. Start with little tastes followed staright away by a breast feed (which will reduce) Increase every week and offer a little for lunch and then tea. Once you have gor 3 meals going you will see the BF naturally reduce. You may need a little supper feed of porridge for supper which is slow release and there will be no need for a noght feed. If you start night feeding again you will teach a beahavioural feed but I would not advise any controlled crying or other stuff until you have the three meals a day established. Breast milk alone is not enough by now. If you start co sleeping that is another whole new world you are starting, your choice not babies

@NoMorePoliticsPlease
Oh yes she is on solids. We started at the beginning on March with 3 'meals' a day. Tastes really at the moment. We are doing BLW. I have always so far just given her a bit of what we have for dinner. Perhaps I should try porridge then (she often has that for breakfast).

@FishyMcFishyfingersFace my husband often works lates so isnt around most of the time in the evenings. I was thinking of trying with water and hope the novelty will wear off? I dont know.

Maybe some babies.. mine didn’t sleep through until 10.5months and even then still needed bf (until we stopped) on the odd occasion because of f teeth, jabs, colds etc. It’s the age old adage of sleep more, cosleep if you can, send in your partner and accept this as your lot until your baby is ready :) it does happen!!!

Completely normal (and completely normal for us as parents to be frustrated with it!)

DD is 15 months and still wakes in the night, 9 times out of 10 I’ll feed her as it’s the quickest and calmest way to get her back to sleep. She’s still very little, I wouldn’t try to night wean yet personally.

Teething?

Have you started her on solids?

Milk is more filling than vegetables so she may be hungry.

Mine all started waking more often when I first started weaning as they ate mostly vegetables.

Babies and toddlers all go through phases.

My breastfed baby went through the night (9pm to 7am) from 3.5 months to 6.5 months. And then teeth happened. We get phases where he gets into a routine of only waking once to nurse, other times sleeping through and other times getting up every hour. Especially when he is teething. He's 19 months now. We just sort of role with it.

It’s not advised to stop night feeds till a year

Where has this advice come from?

DS stopped feeding at night mostly between 16 & 20 weeks. After that he only woke at night if he was ill or had a nightmare (rare). I bf him til just shy of 1 (Also a bottle refuser).

DD is 7m (5.5 corrected for prematurity). She sleeps through some nights, has 1 feed on others, usually the ones where she has had less milk in the day. She's barely started on solids so I don't think it's that that makes the difference.

They are all different - it's perfectly possible for some EBF babies to sleep through. It may not be possible for yours to yet.

I don't feed to sleep as a standard which I think help - mine don't wake up expecting to be fed to sleep & they don't co-sleep.

We night weaned at 7 months, the first time by accident. I had a bad back and my husband had to go and get her, lift her and tried to comfort her before bringing her to me (I was in so much pain it was hard to even sit up so he was trying to avoid bringing her to me unless he really needed to). After a few nights of him settling her she actually fell asleep with him and then just stopped waking up.

The second time I might weaned just before 7 months as we sleep trained, we had an awful sleeper was waking every 90min for 7 months and I couldn't take it any more. I was prepared to feed between two windows in the night and she self settled next to us the other times she woke. First night woke up once and after that she didnt (and she doesnt think we dont love her etc, she still cries and comes in with us if she has a nightmare or is ill etc). It was purely a habit wake both times and they adjusted to eat a bit more in the day (well about 10x more in the day for the bad sleeper)

I never fed through the night past 7/7.5 months.

I'd love to tell you it sorted out their sleep but nope. They were both woeful sleepers. But they never looked for food at least.

But they were both pretty good eaters and I gave them a lot of food from day 1 . We bought that Purple baby feeding book from the banana pouch people (gah! Name escapes me!) and found it excellent.

Even though they continued to be light sleepers until the age of 2, I never regretting night weaning them as it really helped their food intake during the day. They did take bottles but to be honest at that age they can have various types of cups.

If they refuse anything other than breast milk, try putting a few dots of vanilla extract through whatever you're offering. They love it.

DC2 breast fed at night until established on solids at 8/9 months. DC1 was formula fed but slept through at a similar age.

I was told not to force sleeping through until 9/10 months as before that they may well be genuinely hungry as they were not getting their full nutrition from food. After that it's up to you, I continued to feed all three of mine until they were older than this but stopped at around 18months and let them cry for it but stayed with them on the rocking chair cuddling but not feeding. You have to do what suits you and your family and what you believe but 6 months is too young to expect a breastfed baby to sleep through.

This is still a very young baby. I see no reason not to feed your child at any time. What could possibly be beneficial to an infant in going hungry in the middle of the night?

If she's waking five times you either need to feed her more the first time, or it's not because she's hungry.

DD dropped her midnight feed at 19 months.

Yes they can sleep through the night but that doesn't mean they will. DD 4 months loves to have a night where she has two feeds followed by a night of 10 hour sleep so my boobs kill in the morning. No advice as I'm just rolling with it at moment.

They certainly can go through. My son slept through the night from 6 weeks old and I had to wake him for his morning feed. I'd give him one at 10 and then I'm an early riser myself so I'd wake him up at 6 before he got too wet. He didn't like being woken up.