Time between feeds at night with BF baby

[SharkSkinThing]

Hoping for some honest advice and am in no way expecting a miracle answer!

Does it follow, that, if my EBF 6.3 month old baby goes roughly 3 - 4 hours between feeds in the day (and is feeding well with weaning, that I should aim for this at night, too?

I know that bf is about so much more than food (comfort, security, pain relief when teething etc), but does anyone else set a limit on when they would comfort, and when they would feed?

DS wakes 3 - 4 times a night, and tbh, I find myself feeding each time because I'm too tired to do anything else.

Should I be setting some gentle boundaries (ie, it's ok to go at least three hours between feeds?).

He's a really good weight, and a very happy baby.

Help!! I know he's not a robot and each wake-up is different, but I could really use some advice!

Thanks.

If you feed every time then he will expect feeding every time. Both mine were bf (ds to 6 months, dd to 13 months) and fed twice at night when tiny and only once from about 5 months onwards. Have you tried shushing and patting him to sleep instead? This is a baby whisperer thing and I found it worked really well to settle and comfort them without feeding.

Thanks, shopping - we did the pu/pd for the first wake up of the night (anytime before 11pm, he goes down at 7pm), and it worked really well.

I've just been a bit rubbish with the next ones post 11pm because DS has been teething, has had a cold, and I've been thinking he needs the extra (an excuse, really, to not commit).

So tonight I'm focused again. because in my heart I know it's not hunger, it's a habit now. I think he'll suss it very quickly, and sleep better as a result. He did with the first change.

Thanks!

I coslept and just went with it. He suddenly started feeding much less (ie rarely) at night around 9 months.

He is going through a wee phase of having a feed at the mo (for the past couple of days). I'm putting this down to some sort of developmentleism (he's about to crack walking)

Good luck

Thanks, Moon - I would never ever refuse him, just that even I don't believe he needs to eat every hour (or two!).

Tough one, isn't it?

It is tough yes.

But they will grow out of it.

I sometimes thought DS was so busy taking in the world during the day he didn't fit in all the feeding he needed...so would catch up doring the boring nights!

I never found with either of mine that daytime schedule had anything to do with night-time feeds. Sometimes they'd go five hours at night, sometimes only 40 minutes if they were having a growth spurt and trying to get my milk up. You can always try a bit of soothing then if that doesn't work go with a feed.

DS is 5.5 months and I am now starting to try and get him back to sleep without feeding first - although I will admit that I can be a bit hit and miss at 4am when I am knackered myself!

You could try feeding every 2 hours in the day to pile more in to see if it meant less night wakings but it seems to make no difference to mine!

Cosmosis - he is eating 4 times bf in the day and having three good meals and snacks - my boy can eat! I should be grateful he's only waking twice tbh.

I like the idea of soothing first, and then going with a feed, it does seem to work sometimes!

The killer is that he'll wake at 2.30am and then at 4.45am - and at 4.45am he's raring to go, and not really hungry. So I bring him in to bed, and after an hour or so of wriggling and giggling he'll have a bit of nork and drift off for an hour or so.

I guess it could be worse!

Let me know how you get on.