when to drop the night feed?

[frootloop]

my ds is nearly 7wks, ive stopped doing a 10.30 feed as he was impossible to keep awake long enough to get more than a few mouthfulls down and i am having to wake him up for a night feed at 2am.

if i didn't wake him for the night feed he would quite happily go from his suppertime at 7pm until he has his brekky at about 8am without any food.

is he too young to go that long without food? or should i do what my mum says and give him some baby rice at suppertime and let him go through the night without a feed?

I have to say that I would really not give rice to a 7wk old.. If he is growing well, it may be that he is getting enough from his daytime feeds. He will soon tell you if he hungry. If he is sleeping through the night at 7 wks, you are on to a winner (as long as he is growing well and getting enough wet nappies every day).

Defo don't give rice - his far too young to have solids as his digestive system is only geared to cope with milk. Milk should be his only food until he is around 6 months.

DS was bf & started sleeping for 8 hours+ most nights from about 8 weeks so its not unheard of. If you have no concerns about his weight, milk intake, number of wet & dirty nappies etc then I would just let him sleep & get some rest...you might need it if he decides to change his routine again

i was very wary of mums baby rice advice. his weight is following the 75th centile so no worries about that. ill try leaving him tonight and see how it goes.

if you're concerned you could try dream feeding him last thing, takes a few goes til they get the hang of it so don't give up if he only takes little bits at first

o and congrats on having a baby who sleep

Definitely no baby rice!!

I'm not sure why you wake him at 2am???? Why don't you just let him sleep? My two DDs were just the same, 10.30 feed was a disaster once I'd established a good 7pm bed time as there was no waking them and I could never get them to latch on, so I stopped it at 5 weeks or so. Both slept approx 7pm - 2am to 6am by about 6wks. With DD1 the 2am feed quickly moved later and later and she slept 7pm to 7am at 8 wks ish. DD2 slept 7pm to 7am ish from about 9 weeks ish). It never crossed my mind to wake them for a feed in the middle of the night - surely it can only encourage a habit of unnecessary night waking? I'd be pleased he is sleeping so well and let him get on with it!!

I'm assuming he feeds well during the day and you have no concerns re weight gain.

i hope the sleeping lasts, i won't brag in case i jinx it

im not concerned about missing the 10 feed but i do wonder if it would be bad mummying if i let him go the whole night without food, he's not too fussed about the 2am feed either but will take it.

what is dream feeding? i tried getting him to take food at 10ish for weeks before giving up as he was too sleepy.

dreamfeeding is just wot it says on the tin you don't wake them up you just pick them up and 'persuade' them to drink. its amazing how quickly they get it. done it with both dss and works a treat. we lifted them out of the cot gently, cuddle them in and offer them the bottle. first few tries often don't work but they soon get the hang of it. you have to get a few drops in their mouth then usually they just start drinking. the idea is they are so relaxed they drink slower and don't get the wind. that was fine for ds1 but have found that ds2 needs to be upright for a bit (still asleep just held more upright) before settling back into his cot.

definitely wouldn't worry about him sleeping through, if he gets thirsty he'll wake up, if not he needs the sleep

i agree its really hard to get them to eat when all they want to do is sleep but if you wait til they're sparko, somehow their bodies just take over

ds2 is 5 months now and has just dropped his dream feed but is still sleeping through mostly

good luck and long may it last

i'll try this dream feeding and see if that works.

nellytheelepant, i confess to reading gina ford and i've got it into my head he must be woken at 2 for a feed or terrible things will happen.

Actually I'm quite a fan of Gina Ford (dare I admit it....!) but I didn't think she advocated waking the baby in the night, just that whatever time the baby does wake in the night you should still try and get him up 7ish in the morning so that daytime feeding stays on track. I thought the night feed times she mentioned were just the approx times she thought the baby was likely to wake. Probably I mis-read it and if I did I'm v glad! Let sleeping babies lie I say - at night anyway.

I know dream feeding works brilliantly for loads of people but there was no hope at all with my two as they were out for the count at that time and nothing would induce them to wake up enough to feed. If I did fight them awake enough then they got v grumpy and could take ages to resettle afterwards which was a disaster. From what I've heard I think it works better if you are bottle feeding as the baby doesn't need to make so much effort, but if bf it's a lot harder if they refuse to participate!

I wouldn't suggest you introduce a feed at 10pm / 11pm ish unless you really need to - if he sleeps through without it why give yourself an extra thing to do when you could be collapsed on the sofa with a glass of wine??