Dropping night feeds 6mo. Advice please for 2 - 3 hourly feeds

[Jellybabie3]

Ive been using the gradual retreat method to teach 6mo to self settle and its worked really well. I am now at the stage that I can sit in the room and he will go to sleep. However. He still wakes 4x a night and wants a feed. No consoling seems to work and I give in.

Typically it goes:

Bed 7pm - falls asleep quickly sometimes on the breast so i try to rouse him again
7.35pm sit in with him til he nods back off
9pm ish - awake wanting feed
11.30pm ish awake wanting feed
1.30am awake wanting feed
4am awake for feed
7am up

I dont mind as such but it is waring and he doesnt seem to be taking all that much at times. I also then risk him feeding to sleep. Hes fed on demand in the day so any spacing he chooses. He has been having solids for 2 weeks. I feed downstairs for naps then carry him up to sleeping bag etc so not fed right before naps. Hes fed in nursing chair in sleeping bag after bath and put to bed.

Any advice on how I can do this?

With both my children I had to enlist husband's assistance-he totally took over in the nights and went in for every wake up-for us it worked a treat and within 3 nights we were down to 1 wakeup

Hmm might be an option. Although I have a husband with selective deafness/narcolepsy . I've read somewhere about feeding a minute less each time until they realise its not worth waking for but I can see that ending in tears....hmm

It's normal for babies to wake multiple times at night to feed, night weaning or skipping feeds at night is not recommended until later, about another 6 months. Feeding to sleep is also normal, you're not "running the risk" of him doing it, you're just soothing and comforting him in a natural way.

Do you use a dummy? My DS self settles in his cot now for bedtimes and naps, with the dummy. It has improved his night waking a lot too. If he wakes and it's been less than 3ish hours since I fed him, I stick the dummy in and he goes off to sleep quite happily. This only happens about once a night. On a typical night he feeds at 8pm, 11pm, 2am and 5/6am, which is a massive improvement since I got strict about not feeding to sleep and started using the dummy. Occasionally he skips a feed and goes 5 or 6 hours.

Hi, no we dont use a dummy. Hes got really good a settling himself but tonight he is overtired so I have had to shush and hold his hand. He had woke after the usual 35 min then 2 hours where I would usually have given him a feed but with shushing went back down after 3-5mins of grumbling. Clearly not hungry after all. But now I wonder if he will wake because I have helped him back to sleep by expecting shushing next time! Such pickles babies.....fx he gets a couple of hours in. Thanks all

How was he last night? I really recommend dummies, I'm a convert! I thought I'd have to replug it multiple times a night, but it's not been like that at all. I'm keeping it for sleeping times only. I didn't use dummies with DS1 and he's still a major thumb sucker at nearly 4...

He woke after 35min then an hour (after settling at 7pm) he woke every two hours after that but I fed him at 11pm and 3am only. He settled the rest of the time after some shushing and grumbling for maybe 5mins. I am shattered though. Hes been a nightmare to get down for naps today

Aww, it's exhausting when they're up so often. DS had a few nights of waking up every 45 mins for large parts of the night a while back, I was a wreck. Where does your DS sleep? Mine was in his Snuzpod but last night we swapped it for the full size cot, still in our room. I don't know if it was a one off but he slept a lot better. He went to sleep at 8ish, I dream fed at 11, he was up at 3 for a feed and then slept through til 7. I think he just didn't have enough room width wise in the Snuzpod any more - he likes stretching out his arms.

He's now been napping in his cot for 1.5 hours! This is unheard of! He's been a 30 minute on the dot catnapper up til now, except on rare occasions in the car seat.