Should I be night weaning??!

[Saffra]

DD is 10 months old and EBF. She's progressed well with solids, has about 4 x bf a day, and is a good weight (75-91st centile I would think still - not weighed her in ages as not had any concerns). She has NEVER slept through though, and can wake 6 times a night. We co-sleep, so it's kind of ok, and usually a quick feed later, she will drop off (normally latched on still).

I would like to encourage her to sleep more at night. Plus, would be nice to not have her continuously on the boob. Should I be thinking of night weaning? Tried the Pantley Pull Off thing and sometimes it works but usually not.

Have you tried feeding her more often in the day time? 10 times over 24 hours sounds about normal for a 10m old so perhaps she is making up for minimal daytime feeds by feeding when she has more chance to.

Not sleeping through is normal and in general night weaning isn't recommended until 12m or 18m at the earliest as BM is still a very important part of the child's diet.

When I said 4x BF's a day, I meant during the actual day itself (between waking up and 7.30pm). Sorry, if that wasn't quite clear!

She does feed a lot at night (although I'm half asleep so not sure how much). Yes, I think I'll try feeding her more during the day and see if that helps. I had started extending the time between day feeds as thought she was getting more from solids - so generally 4 hours, unless she's asking for it before. Is that not enough?

It's difficult isn't it. I'm in the same sitch (DS is same age & keeping same habits). I've tried offering more during the day, and sometimes we get up to 6 BF's in 'daylight' hours. But even in a darkened room with no distractions, he's just not that into it unless he's properly hungry.

He will literally latch on, suck twice, pop off, crawl across the bed/sofa, smack me in the face, pull my hair, laugh maniacally, latch on, suck twice, blow half of it back in my face, repeat ad nauseum.

He does still want a lovely relaxed nursey cuddle mid-afternoon where we'll just cwtch/nurse/feed for an hour or so but otherwise it's literally top up the levels then back into mischief!

We had some success with not fully weaning, but certainly cutting down the number of sessions overnight. I camped out on the sofa for 3 nights and DH did all the settling, calling me in when DS nosedived for DH's boobs! That led to only 2 night feeds, which was entirely dealable with (compared to 6 or 7). That's all gone to pot though with camping, illness and teething. Personally I wouldn't want to night wean because of the lack of continuity during such times . I don't want to confuse the issue by withdrawing it completely then having no quick comfort when he needs it most.

I read that if you cosleep babies feed about 25% more often over night just because of proximity to you. My dd is nearly ten months and we cosleep after the first night feed. Gradually she seems to be waking to feed less as she gets older. Some nights only 3 times but other nights she is quite restless and it feels like she is off and on most of the night. I'm waiting til she eats more solids before I try weaning at night.

Other babies I know from groups seem to be dropping some feeds, hence why I was trying some spacing out of feeds. To be honest, DD seemed to be ok with it... But perhaps I'm just encouraging her to reverse cycle!

Out of interest... How old is your baby Felicity?