Dropping the 10.30 feed

[motherinferior]

At the moment dd2 - 23 weeks - is exclusively breastfed. I still feed her when I go to bed, and she's used to this feed (for the past couple of nights she's woken up of her own accord and started wailing around then). I've kept it going for two reasons: the dread, obviously, of her waking in the small hours (because nowadays she doesn't, not usually anyway); and also because four days a week I have to express for her, and I shudder at the thought of cutting out a big feed and having to express this as part of her daily intake (I get 15 floz or so out in a day as it is!). But obviously I'd like to drop it at some point, and in any case soon she'll be moving on to what we so idiotically term 'solids'.

My question, my lovely friends, is shall I drop that feed (I could express it, I suppose, which does rather undo the point of dropping it though) in one go, and see what happens (suck it and see, so to speak)? Move it earlier to bedtime in gradual manner(demands a structured two-week programme, I suppose - I don't have much of a life but quite like the small bit that remains)? Any other advice?

Drop it. If she wakes out of habit give her water and she'll soon stop.

Do you think she'll want even more milk in the daytime? Even I can't get out that much.

Probably not if you introduce tiny bits of purees at the same time - they are much more concentrated forms of calories. My ds was bottlefed due to excruciating agony of cracked nipples/mastitis, and I was on the GF routine, so we put less and less in the bottle at the 10.30 feed and then when it got to only 2oz. cut it out altogether, as she suggests. Obviously you can't do this with breastfeeding, but I think the idea is that this mimics what naturally happens anyway as your milk supply is lower by late evening. Maybe introduce 'solids' one week and drop the late feed the next?

If it's a big feed I would keep it going. I dropped it when I was finding that dd was waking, sucking lazily for a couple of minutes and then falling asleep. We went cold turkey and found she would settle herself back down after a couple of wails. (She's now 18mnoths and still stirs in her sleep at 10.30 on the dot ebery night!)

If it's a big feed I would keep it going. I dropped it when I was finding that dd was waking, sucking lazily for a couple of minutes and then falling asleep. We went cold turkey and found she would settle herself back down after a couple of wails. (She's now 18mnoths and still stirs in her sleep at 10.30 on the dot ebery night!)

I think Pupuce and Tiktok would say that breast milk has many more calories than puree, so I don't think that is the way to go. Personally, I'd 'suck it and see', although if she's waking already perhaps that's not such a good idea!

No, I don't think food is as calorific as breastmilk. Breastmilk, in case you are interested, is 78 calories per 100g. I think I'd better keep it going for the moment and then either bring it earlier or go cold turkey. Dp not keen to do the latter, although I tend not to listen to him on these things

If she's waking for it and feeds well I'd keep it going. As the others have said, when they start fiddling and lazy sucking you know they don't need it any more. And if it helps her go through the night that's brilliant. If you cut it and she still genuinly needs it you may find she starts waking for a night feed which is much more tiring for all of you. I never did that 10.30 feed. Although I read ol Gina and agree with lots of her ideas I thought that waking my daughter when she was in a deep sleep seemed wrong. When I did try it she was so asleep she didn't even open her mouth! But she did have a sort of v. early morning feed for months, around 5am after which she'd sleep on for a while and that suited us all so I stuck with that.

I would let her wake naturally for feeds and see what happens. I didn't wake my dd for a feed and she slept through the night mainly, but did wake for night feeds when boosting my supply as she was exclusively fed till 6 months too. The old adage though 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' probably fits here. If the way you feed her is working for you just now, don't muck about with it when you are so close to introducing solids anyway. It might be better to wait until she is established on 3 meals a day before cutting out the 10.30pm feed.

I dropped the 10:30 b/feed at around 6 mths. She began to wake up at around 5 a.m. for a feed. DD is 10 mth now and I'm thinking of reinstating the 10:30 feed just so that she can go back to sleeping until 7 a.m.