Night feeds for 6 month old?

[Sleepybunny]

Hi my DD is 6 months now and has always woken in the night for a feed. It gradually began to reduce around 3 months but then I think we hit some sleep regression or growth spurt and she started waking more frequently.

Currently she wakes religiously at 11pm, 2am, 4am, 5am then is up for the day around 5:45-6am. She sleeps in her own cot in her own room, but I usually take her into my bed at 5:45am as sometimes she will dose or lay quietly until 7am.

I give her expressed milk in a bottle at all these times as she usually takes a couple ounces and falls straight back to sleep. Over the course or the whole night (7pm-6am) this can equate to 8-12 ounces.

Do you think she really needs to feed this often? And if I try to wean her from night feeds how should I do it? She will take a dummy during the day but at night she only seems to want milk.

I'm tired but was happy to muddle on in hope that this would just pass as a phase. However after speaking to my HV today, she seemed to think this was something to be sorted otherwise it'll just go on and maybe get worse.

Opinions gratefully sought!

Would you co-sleep? Then you could feed her and not have to get up. It's just a phase and wont go on for ever as he HV says.

My (almost) two year old will still down a beaker of milk in the night. She seems to need it, she sometimes will now sleep through, and sometimes wake for it. She has definitely needed it up until now though (she eats like a horse in the day and still needs it...).

flanbase I'm trying to avoid co-sleeping, just be because I don't really sleep well knowing she's in the bed. Plus she likes to grab my face

bumbolina has your dd always done this? Did you ever try any sleep training or night weaning?

I prefer the 'go-with-the-flow' approach but if I could get her to just feed once or twice in the night, then that would be heaven!

DD2 was like this at 6 months - up every 1-2 hours for a feed. Once she was eating some solids in the day, I decided to see if I could gradually wean her off some night feeds. I started with the earliest one (about 1.30am). I gradually offered her less each night (am Bf so cut down by 1 minute each night). When I got down to just a couple of minutes, I decided to see if she would go back to sleep with just a cuddle instead. Within a couple of nights she stopped waking at this time. I then tried it with the next feed (3.30). Now she's 8 months she will generally only have a feed about 4.30. If your DD is only taking a couple of ounces each time, I'd say she's not really that hungry, so you could maybe choose a time when you will try to settle her by cuddling instead? Maybe your DH could have a go? I never left my DD to really cry btw, if there are nights when she is teething or seems genuinely hungry I still feed her, but these are rare now. Still looking forward to the time when she'll have no night feeds though!!