Should I try and stop the night feeds now my son is six months

[Trix11]

He is on solids but does not want his porridge until 11.30am. He refuses it before this time, he wakes at approx 10, 2 & 4 and I give him approx 5oz. Ive tried not feeding him and even resorted to trying a dummy but he wont settle again until he has had the bottle - which he does fall to sleep on!! Ive tried giving him water but he screamed.

Should I just carry on?

Does he go to sleep by himself at all?
Sounds like he needs the feed to sleep rather than settle hunger iyswim.

We recently shuffled 7 month old DS's bedtime routine to make sure he went down to sleep quite awake and not with a feeling of a full tummy, he now sleeps 6-6, it seems he wasn't able to get himself back off to sleep.

my nearly a yr although by then it was one bottle could you dream feed when you go to be dthis lessoned mu=y ds waking for feed

its a comfort to go back off and could be having growth spurt also

i used to put ds down wiyth a full bottle and then i would dream feed when i went to bed this left me with a 5 am wake but that was fine as it was bottle and he'd sleep again for 2 hrs

Im doing similar to what your describing Bubblagirl. Victoria how did you get him to go off and change his routine?

I've just explained it on another thread too so rather than type it all out I've just copy and pasted...

To sort DS's sleeping out we did daytime naps first, started with introducing a nap within two hours of his waking (he wakes at about 7ish and is back in his cot by 9) spotting his sleep signals meant it was easy for him to go down without falling asleep to feed so we started doing feeds after his naps rather than before.

I'm not a fan of CC so DP and I had to talk over how long we were willing to leave him before going to him, we agreed whinging was fine but as soon as he was actually distressed rather than moaning then one or other of us would go straight up to him and calm him. We used PUPD (pick up put down) to calm him.

Every day he goes in his cot at around the same time for his nap, if he doesn't sleep then we leave him there for 'sleepy time' and most times he goes down no problem. He started sleeping without needing help in the day within a couple of days.

Then we started on the night time routine. We moved his bedtime forward about an hour as he was so tired at bedtime he would fall straight asleep feeding and not really wake much when we put him down, so we wanted to make his drowsy rather than tired at bedtime.

He was having a shower then feed and then straight to sleep at about 7pm, now he has dinner and a feed at 5pm, a shower, a small feed after his shower and is put in his cot awake.

We read a story and make him happy and comfortable in his cot then leave. The first couple of nights he cried a little, we would go to him and calm him, then place him back in bed, we also left the lamp on as turning it off made him cry.

After the first two nights we had no crying, within 4 days he was sleeping through.

IMO, he just needed to be comfortable being in his cot and getting himself to sleep, in effect he was falling asleep then waking scared and anxious in a different place, alone, with an empty stomach. Now he wakes up in the same place he goes to sleep or has his down time, plus he doesn't associate a full belly or mummy with sleep so he is happy to go back to sleep without me.

HTH.

Our daughter is the same and if fed after 10pm wont eat until 11am the next day - she has a feed at 10 and then if wakes is offered warm water, she then goes back to sleep (took a few days!) and now drinks her morning milk at 7am! Sadly she is still waking for the water 2 weeks on, but at least the rest of her routine is a bit better!

Victorias this is very similar to what Im doing and he still wakes at 2, 4 and 6 he is almost like clockwork. Maybe he is just hungry although he has now started to purse his lips when Im feeding him solids he refuses everything apart from the milk, sometimes I can get him to open is mouth by tickling his cheek but its getting harder, if this was my first child I would be paranoid its something Im doing wrong but as he is my third Im not so sure.

Great advice from VS

Trix - You have two choices:

(1) Wait until your DS sleeps through on his own, which might be until he is 2 or so.

(2) Stop night feeds now. You will have 3-4 sleepless nights, but then the habit of feeding through the night will cease, his appetite will adjust to eating/feeding more in the day, and he will sleep through.

Good luck.

I laughed when I read that Cote, I think I knew that, its just that the health visitor said to keep feeding - but its not working, plus he needs more than a bottle now - hes a big lad.

I may as well start tonight and see how I go - Im getting up anyway so what the hell.

I would def try CC during the night. By 6 months this is not cruel and he cannot be starving as is on solids of a sort. It is v. hard, but believe me, you will only benefit. I'd do it probably at the 2am awakening.

Persevere and good luck. It worked with our 2 DS's after a week or so. He probably doesn't want his breakfast 'till later 'cause he's still full up from 4am feed. The aim is to try and replace main milk feeds with weening (obviously not completely at such a young age). Both my DS's had milk in a bottle until they were 4yrs old?? Good Luck!!

Thanks all for your words of encouragement.

I'm not suggesting you leave him to cry on his own for hours, by the way.

What we did was stay sty with her throughout. When she woke, DH or I rocked her, shhhed, patted, etc until she fell asleep. It took several hours the first night, less than an hour the second night. She slept through on third night and (except illness) has been sleeping through ever since.

Take the decision to do this together with your DH/DP because it is important not to give in and feed, although the next few nights will be difficult for you both.

It may be better to start next Friday and Saturday then when dh has no work the following morning, the thought of being awake for hours i the middle of the night aahh

I spoke to h/v about this with ds and she told me it was perfectly safe to water formula down to wean him off of feed, and when he learns the food isn't worth waking for, he wouldn't wake, so I tried it and it took 3 days. Night one, 7 scoops in 7oz water, night 2 6 scoops in 7oz water, night 3 5 scoops in 7oz and he stopped waking.
That's what I did anyway.

Ande he stopped waking after 3 nights lbb

Yeah, I expected it to take longer, but yeah 3 nights until the teething got bad about 2 weeks later, but by that point I wasn't gonna turn back.
He was eating alot through the day though. Can't remember if I'd weaned yet or not. Think I was holding out (he was about 5 months) he was having 8oz milk every 3 hours.

This sounds like very good advice - what do you do if there's a 2 year old that's going to get woken up by all the screaming??

Also - what't the youngest that you think this is reasonable to do?

We did it when DD was 4 months, at the advice of her paediatrician.

I personally wouldn't do anything until the end of 4 months.
4/5 months was the turning point in everything for us. Anthing before that I think is too young, but they are all different and you've got to listen to your intinct. If you feel it's right, it's right and if you feel it's wrong it's wrong.
For example, I did CC at 4 months too, although lots of people tell me it's cruel before 6 months, maybe I'm just heartless but it felt like the right time to do it, so I did it.

We did CC at 6.5 months too and it worked really well. Except that I had to psych myself up for it so much that I went a bit insane the day we had planned to do it and rushed off on a non-intentional IKEA visit. After work. Absolute madness. Anyway, he slept through the first night (after waking at 10.30pm and crying for 25 mins, we went in every 1 min, then 2, then 5, then 8...etc) and since then has not looked back -although we still get the odd morning when he wakes up early and can't get back to sleep. If that happens, DH goes in to entertain him and I just don't feed him till 7am to keep some kind of structure.

I completely agree with Cote. Decide on a few days when you and DH have the energy to prepare for 3 or 4 sleepless nights then just stop feeding in the night - offer water but no milk. Maybe stick with the 10pm feed for an extra few weeks and start by cutting out the 2am and 4am feeds. Pat and rock, do PU/PD, or just sit there, whatever you feel most comfortable with, but DON'T feed!! He will cry I'm sure so be prepared, but eventually he will drop off again. The first night will be awful, but generally you will find it sorts itself out in a surprisingly quick time. This will also have the knock on effect of hugely increasing his daytime feeding, which is a virtuous circle as if he eats more during the day he is less likely to wake in the night anyway.

Thankyouandgoodnight - I think you just have to accept the 2 yr old will be distrubed for a few nights too - it's worth it in the long run. If your two are sharing a room then maybe bring the little one's cot into your room for the first few nights to minimise the 2 yr old's disturbance. Also you might find the 2 yr old is not as disturbed as you would expect. I've always found with my 2 that it takes a HUGE amount of screaming by one to disturb the other (and they share a room!!)