10 MO still waking all night long - hungry or habit?

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Hi All,

I posted a while back when DS was 8 MO and still waking 4x night for BFs. He is now 10 months old and still the same. I was sort of hoping he'd just grow out of it / start taking more solids in the day etc, but 2 months on there seems to be no improvment.

The last couple of nights I was really determined that he would not get a feed the first time he woke (about 2 hours after going to sleep), but it takes about 45 mins of crying/being picked up/falling asleep on my shoulder/being put back in bed/waking up immediately/crying etc. Then once he was exhausted, he would sleep for about 20 mins but then wake up again! Then I don't have the energy to go through it all again, so just feed him straight away as is the only thing that settles him.

I thought it might be that he just wants to come into my bed, as we feed in bed at night and I inevitably end up falling asleep and he stays in my bed til the morning. But even if I snuggle him in bed beside me, he still cries for boob. He then wakes up a further 2x at least.

I have sort of resolved just to continue feeding him every time he cries as A) it gets him back to sleep immediately B) if I leave him to cry he gets in such a state that he can't breathe/stands in his cot and falls and C) I just think ''well, he must just be hungry''.

Am I making a rod for my own back? Has this just become habit and should I be trying to break it?

Thanks holly! It makes me so mad that someone can say it is definatly habbit and imply something is not being done "correctly" ie food during the day/nightweaning. When really it,s just a natural stage a lo is at.

To be fair, eastmidlandsnightnanny didn't say there was anything wrong with feeding at night, just that you probably don't have to with a 10 month old if you don't want to. It comes down to personal choice/parenting decisions at the end of the day, and the OP did specifically ask if it was hunger or habit. The majority of 10 month olds are capable of taking enough calories in the day to last the night, if that's what the parents want to get them doing.

agreed (for the sale of argument) the majority of 10m olds may be able to get enough calories during the day. But a majority isn't all is it? Therefore it can't be "def habit" as she puts it.
There is still an underlying suggestion that not enough cals are being provided during day. That in its self implies that night time bf is a sign that something is wrong. How do you make a baby eat "enough" at a time of your decreeing?

If the op is told it is definatly habit, but finds that despite her best efforts, her lo will not settle without milk, the implication is that she is not feeding enough during the day. Ie it,s her fault, not just something that is normal for that particular baby.

That is why i don't think it's helpfull to talk in the kind of absolutist terms nightnanny employs.