still feeding 18 mo during the night a couple of times. when will he stop, if i just let him stop when he is ready?

[peanutbuttersarnies]

Has anyone else taken this approach? I havent got the energy to do sny sleep training. Its just easier to feed him back to sleep!
We finally reachedban age where he will cuddle to sleep at bedtime after his feed. So he can fall asleep without sucking.
I am hoping he will stop waking for feeds and sleep through the nights before he is 2 or maybe 2.5. I dont fanvy still bf 3 yo during the night.
Just wondered peoples ecperiences.
He sleeps in his cot til firts feed st about 2 or 3am then comes in to my bed. And feeds s couple if times before morning.

We had to force DD to night wean at about 14m and it was (in retrospect) absolutely the right thing for all of us. The strategy involved DH settling every time she woke and was far easier than I expected and she is now a fab sleeper.

I'm not sure she would have started sleeping through of her own accord anytime soon...

Night weaning - similar to previous poster, DH did the settling. I've not tried it with dd yet (22 months) but may do soon!

When DD2 was 18 months I was so utterly shattered that we popped her in her own room and DH aka Daddy No Norks did the re-settling. Within a week she was sleeping through. Best bloody decision I ever made. Though I do look fondly on those night time snuggles, the whole family was on its kneesfor lack of sleep. Realise it is different for everyone tho.

I felt terrible about the night weaning but shouldn't have done, it wasn't that bad and she really was more than ready. She was always quite low in weight and not a big eater so I worried she really needed to milk but she obviously didn't as was fine.

I forced both my DC to night wean at about 21/22m. Left to themselves they would have carried on, don't know how long. I have a friend who has a 4 year old that feeds at night still.

Dr jay Gordon method is gentle

As pp say, it certainly helped dd sleep better.

They understand more at this age so communication is key, even before bed and saying no milk after x time, begins to set some 'rules' around when you'll feed.

I will add my 22 month old has dropped to one feed a night, sometimes none. But I always put her back in her cot.

Oh thanks. Wasnt sure i would get any replys.
Not really what i wanted to hear. Most people seem to think they had to force night weaning. Which sounds like hard work. I suppose i will persevere a bit longer amd maybe try in a month or two. We have a holiday coming up which i think feeding will come in handy for.

It really might not be as hard as you think. Could just be a couple of nights and then all is well. I did start to reduce length of night feeds gradually by timing and making sure I took DD off. She had dozed off by then anyway, so it made no difference to settling her.

If you do have to night wean I hope it goes well for you.

Thanks jenni. Fingers crossed

I psyched myself (and DP) for about 4 week before I started. Had dr jay Gordon's method printed out - shoved under dp's nose at every opportunity then eventually started. It was so much easier than I thought, not many tears at all.

Good luck OP

Hi OP,

No useful advice at all here as my baby is slightly younger than yours (17m) and still feeds a hell of a lot at night. But wanted to wave and say I'm planning, at the moment, to leave it up to him to drop night nursing when he's ready. It varies for everyone I know but with my particular child, I feel he's still meeting some important emotional need when he nurses at night, and I don't have a ready replacement for that yet.

Good luck whatever you do - v curious to see if anyone replies with an age where the child dropped night feeds of their own accord.

my dd did but much earlier than you are talking about - before 6 months. she was then sttn.

we dropped the association with gli g to sleep first. so she had a feed after a nap not before in the day.

then we noticed at night she sometimes only fed for a minute then cuddled for a bit or arched her back to go in her cot. so we stopped offering it automatically and just picked her out and cuddled her when she woke and then out her back in. it didn't happen overnight but pretty quickly.
the last night feed to go was the before bed with be when she seemed to take less and less and then when I was pg dh was putting her actually into bed. so eventually I just stopped offering again and she never asked.

we never replaced any feeds with cows milk although she has it at breakfast in a cup. she has bfs in the morning and as requested during the day. never had formula.

sorry if disjointed am one handed with dd2 currently feeding.

Same as pp I'm afraid- night weaned DS deliberately at 15months. Sent DH in. Took 2 nights until he went from waking several times a night to sleeping like a log every night. Now at 4 he is still an amazing sleeper.

DD is 13 months and I'm not ready yet, but will probably try something similar in a few months...

I didn't force night weaning with my twins. Until just past 2yrs old they were each feeding three times per night on a normal night, at about 12.30, 3.30 and 5.30 (then back to sleep til 6 or 7am). They gradually started to sleep through and wake less, and at 2yrs 6mo for DS and 2yrs 9mo for DD they weaned at night (were already weaned during day).

So it can happen at their pace, but you might have to wait!

Meant to say, we also started the night with them in cots, bringing them in to bed from first feed. Now they can climb out of their cots, they start the night in our bed and stay there! Less disruptive now I don't have to feed them though :)

Ah thanks happyasasandboy. Someone who night weaned without forcing it. 2.5 doesnt sound too bad. I am just not so keen on going til 4. But i suppose you never know and its different with each child.
My older ds was bf til 1. Then bottles at night after that. He had bottles sometimes during the night til about 2.3.So i am hoping ds2 will be somewhere similar but with bf.

Hello to gotadifferentnamenow. Glad to know i am not the only crazy person!