At what age did your bf baby no longer need night feeds?

[ThursdayNextIsMyHero]

Ds2 is 7 months old and I would like to reduce night feeds, but am unsure what to do. Ds2 is a frequent feeder during the day (fed on demand), but nighttime is mixed. Until the last month, on average he would wake twice a night for a feed, which I could cope with. Regularly he would sleep for a 5 hour block at the start of the night, feed, then sleep for a couple more hours, before waking up again, having another feed, and going back to sleep again.

In the last month though, he doesn't sleep for more than 1 or 2 hours at a stretch, and it's taking its toll on me. He's also stopped getting himself to sleep, and is being fed to sleep.

I have been feeding him each time he wakes, but don't know whether I should be trying something else. I asked my hv for advise, and she said because he's bf and blw, he will continue to need frequent (ie at least 3) night feeds until he's about aa year old. Based on the last couple of weeks, I don't think I can continue this frequently.

What did you do/how did you cope?

Probably not what you want to hear but dd3 is still night feeding at 21 months.
I've not tried to stop her though.

my DS1 started regularly doing some nights without feeding from about 10 months, but he did always wake if he was ill or teething. i didn't ever try to night wean him, but he did just gradually start to sleep through by himself. i also always fed him to sleep for as long as it worked!

I'm not sure how i coped really as i was back doing full time shift work at 6 months.

i just tried not to think about it as the more i worried how many hours sleep i got the worse i felt.
sorry, that's not very helpful

Thanks for the replies. How often are your dc waking for night feeds/how long can they sleep through before waking again?

It's not that I was expecting him to go all night without a feed (although it would be nice!), as ds1 had one nightly feed for longer, and woke once or twice a night until he was nearly two.

One or two feeds a night are fine (and I still feel human), it's the nights he has four or five feeds that I really struggle with. It's not a question of giving him more milk in the day as he feeds really frequently anyway. Please reassure me that your babies get more than two hours sleep at a time, or only wake up twice.

Do they wake at similar times each night? Do you think I could try to get ds2 into a routine where I'll feed him if he wakes at say 12 & 3 am, but not other times, or would that just be too confusing for him?

dd about 6 months, ds a little later, maybe 8 months.

Dd3 usually comes in bed with me when she wakes so I sleep through other feeds. So I've no idea how many. More than 2 though. Possibly only cos I'm on tap!

I think you could go with what you suggest and only feed at set (ish!) times.
By 6 months DS slept on average for 45minutes between feeds always feeding to sleep. At 6/7 months we did controlled crying and I decided to go for insisting on 3 hour intervals with feeds as I didn't feel comfortable going from 10ish feeds a night to none. It was hard to do but it did work. I didn't set times but would only offer a feed after 2 1/2-3 hrs gap. He learnt not to wake before then after a bit (about 3 weeks). He was a pretty bad case though I think. The advise we were given suggested 1 week is the norm for this sort of training and that you'd see a difference in a few days.

At 14 months we were still at 2 1/2-3 hr gaps with night feeds and at that stage we did cc to get him through the night. That was less hard perhaps as he was older or perhaps as no feeds was a less confusing concept! He would wake at about 5 and come into out bed for a feed then.

I think in your situation you have a much better sleeper to start with so I would try the training him to stick to only the feeds you are comfortable with and I'm sure he will respond well in a few days as he has managed with just those feeds in the past.

We've been feeding to sleep up until last Thursday night. DS is now 10mo and I was hoping he'd just stop waking as much at night needing to feed. Sometimes he'd wake only twice per night between 7 and 7am. Other nights it would be every two ish hours. We decided that we needed to stop the night feeding and get a little tougher and did a combo of pupd and shhhhing to resettle him. First two nights he woke twice each night and took between 1hour and 10 min to resettle. Last night, he slept from 730ish to 630ish without needing us to come in and help him resettle. I couldn't believe it. I'm hoping this continues. I think at 10mo he is ready and is responding to it... I don't think we would have done this much earlier. It wasn't easy resettling him the first few nights and listening to him get upset but we knew that it was time to help him learn to resettle without the feed. We also wanted to get our sleep back on track as I have work coming up in a few weeks.

DD was somewhere between 10-13 months. Sorry, it was a while back and I can't remember properly. I offered her water instead of booby for a couple of nights and then she was fine. She still woke up for water a couple of times a night for a few more months, we cosleep so I just kept a sippy cup next to the bed and handed it to her without opening my eyes.

All babies are different, I don't think there is a set age when they no longer need a night feed. It's when they're ready. I waited until DD was just having a quick comfort suckle rather than proper feed to try the water.

My DD was the same around that age. She had occasionally slept 7-7 for the odd night since a few months old, but would usually wake once or twice. Then she started waking constantly and I really found it hard to cope. Co-sleeping once I'd gone to bed or after the first waking did help a lot.

I felt like it would never end and kept 'fantasising' (as I would never do it) about CIO/CC and how it would mean I got a good night's sleep. Then, suddenly at around 10 months (just before I think) she just started sleeping through. She doesn't go to bed until around 8 or 9pm most nights, but other than occasional wakings, she does sleep through every night until around 7.30am now.

I never did anything different, (we BF and BLW too) and she didn't seem to eat or BF any differently, she just started sleeping.

Six months (he's 10.5 months now).

He does 7-7 and really can't go much beyond 7.30pm as he starts falling apart. Every night without fail it's four books, bath-time, goodnight to all the bath toys, quick baby massage and either nurse or rock to sleep.

On the downside, his naps are usually awful (25-30 minutes, twice a day).

My DTs are 20 months and feed 2 or 3 times each between midnight and 6am, though they don't normally feed between bedtime at 7pm and midnight.

They have been through several phases of feeding much more in the night, normally just before they surprise me with a new skill :) but then it calms down to two or three times again.

They have also gone without feeds when I've been away (two separate nights at 12 months and 18 months), and occasionally one or the other will sleep through. So I don't think they need milk, they just want it.

At 20 months, 1 week and 3 days we had a momentous occassion - THEY BOTH SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT

I've never had any luck restricting feeds in the night. They just get angry and shout at me and I give in and feed them. I've not managed to refuse a feed for more than about 30 seconds yet, as I just want to get back to sleep! Cosleeping may be your saviour :)

Can't you co-sleep? Then you barely have to wake up at all to feed.

My daughter's 15 months and feeds at night, I don't intend to stop her.

I don't remember accurately (also twins - it's all a bit of a blur) but I think DTD1 probably about 9m (which was when they dropped the first of their daytime feed) and DTD2 certainly before 12m. By 14m they were only bf at bedtime and soon after that I stopped bf. They were also BLW so I didn't try very hard to drop any feeds just letting them set the pace. They didn't sleep through the night until 13m (DTD1) or later (dtd2 has only slept reliably through the night from about 3yo but that's another story. Don't think about it!) so I don't feel that the sleeping and the feeding are connected but more about what they at eating in the day as the HV has suggested. You could try feeding more often in the daytime - I think that worked to some extent with DTD1 but not really with DTD2 who was more of a comfort feeder always.

Pretty much the samme as Happyasasandboy. I feed DTs to sleep about 7. DT2 wakes between 930 and 1030 and then 2-3 hourly after that, DT1 can sleep through until about 6 but for the past 2-3 weeks he has been teething and 'developing' so he is waking a couple of times. We sometimes co-sleep with one or both.

I don't think night weaning will stop DT2 waking (considered it at 12 months but didn't try it) so its easier to feed back to sleep. Especially as he escalates into hysteria if he is shushed bby either me or DH. And I guess DT1 'needs' it as he sometimes sleeps through - so if he wakes it means something is wrong.

I go through phases of finding it tough (if they won't settle back to sleep for example) but most of the time my body adapts (and I have one early night a week and one afternoon nap a week).

Sorry if that wasn't what you wanted to hear but hope another story helps you decide how to manage it.

DTs are 14 months by the way - fairly crucial bit of information!

DD is 9m old

her night feeds stopped around 6m. she sleeps 7 - 7 and naps for 3 hours in the day.

DS, 6 months. He would wake occasionally after that and feed, but only really when ill.

About 12 months.

My 7 month old DD is yo-yoing between the extremes. Last week, she slept through several times from 8-6ish. This week she's gone to bed at 8 and then been up at 11, 3, 5, 7.

I think there's a lot going on in her little body as she's now started to do proper solid poos, she's BLW, and she also seems to be food hungry as well.

The only thing that gets me through is that her naps are fairly predictable at the mo so I nap with her for the first nap of the day.

I am trying to night wean my 8 month old.

We are down to one feed between 8pm and 6am. Baby wakes up 2-3 times but I only breastfeed once. The other times I shush or husband cuddles...this seems to be working ok but one of the times she just gets hysterical and I cave in and feed.

my other child I managed to stop night feeding around 8 months. I just let her scream while cuddling her...1st night it lasted 10 min. Second night 1 minute, and then she never fed again. Somehow this second child is not so easy.

I might try letting her scream tonight. maybe...