Weaning off night breastfeeds

[slothprincess]

My baby is just 7 months old and wakes several times a night to feed.

I wondered if anyone had any experiences of night weaning from breastfeeding. Something I read suggests cutting down the duration of the feed gradually (like by 1-2 minutes every couple of nights). Anyone tried this or other methods?

Thank you.

At 7m night feeds are quite normal and tbh it's usually the quickest and easiest way to get a baby back to sleep.

Most night weaning advice is aimed at toddlers 12-18m or older as restricting bm intake in a young baby isn't good (bm is the main part of their diet until 12m and then a large proportion until they are 2y).

Looking at ways to make night feeds as easy as possible and as less disruptive as possible is usually a good idea - co-sleeping (moving baby's cot back into parents' bedroom if they have been moved into their own room), bedsharing, going to sleep when baby does a few nights a week to get more sleep (say baby goes to sleep at 7ish, you go to sleep then a couple of times a week to get a few more hours sleep in), etc.

Thanks TruthSweet, that's really useful. I guess I find it difficult to know whats "normal" for a breastfed baby.

It is normal to breastfeed at night at 7 months especially.
But I night-weaned DS2 at 10 months old. He was on proper solid food then, his daytime milk had reduced and I had no concerns weight wise. He also didn't feed for that long when he woke either. He was doing it as he didn't know how to settle without it.
DH did the night weaning really and we did cold turkey - DH cuddled him / patted him back to sleep, gradually later and later every few nights. Within a week he was sleeping until 5am, without waking.
I wouldn't do this with a 7 month old though, as solids aren't likely to be properly established by then.
I was desperate to not be up 3 - 4 times a night then. In my mind, it was better to night wean at 10 months and I then BF'ed daytime until he was 18 months old. I don't think I would have continued that long, if we hadn't have night weaned.

But it is totally normal to BF in the night for longer. Lots of mums do and they and the babies really enjoy it. I think it comes down to whether it causes you any issues doing it. I was fed up with waking in the night after 10 months.

My DD was still waking (lots) in the night and taking in lots of milk at 7mo - we went down the route of co-sleeping so we could all get some rest.

Things didn't improve much until about 11mo, when all of a sudden she got loads better at sleeping through. Now, aged 1yr, she will normally sleep through (8pm-7am) with a feed around 10pm. If she wakes any other time I still bf her back to sleep but she isn't taking proper feeds anymore so I think it's a comfort thing rather than a hunger thing. I'm planning to start night-weaning (except for the 10pm) this weekend by giving her water instead of milk. I'm comfortable doing it now as DD is older, well established on solids, and I know she can go 10-7 without milk. I think it would have been hard work to night-wean her at 7mo, and both of us would have been unhappy with the amount of crying!

So if you can find a way to cope with the waking for now, I'm sure things will improve on their own :)