Night weaning from breastfeeding

[mummyme100]

I have a 9 month old baby who is breast fed, and will only sleep for naps and at night by being fed to sleep.

This has happened as when he was younger he would not sleep at all, so feeding to sleep became a habit.

I know this is a hard habit to break but I'm due back at work in a few weeks and he's still waking several times a night and needs feeding back to sleep.

Any advice from anyone who has had success at gentle night weaning plan?

We've tried controlled crying once, but it was awful he got himself worked up in to a real state and pulled himself up on crib bars and was throwing himself around - so will not repeat that again!

He is sensitive to milk so has not had any formula, we have given him soya milk (on advise from dietitian) but it's so sweet I'm reluctant to give that at night. Coconut milk is an option.

Should I start expressing and bottle feeding him, or offering water to drink at night, or should I rock him back to sleep - denying him any milk in the night?

Any advise gratefully received 

So the advice I am currently trying to follow is this - when baby wakes, try to get him back to sleep with rocking, shushing, patting etc. for 10 minutes. If, after 10 minutes, he is still awake - breastfeed. If he falls asleep before feeding but wakes within the hour - breastfeed as hunger is probably waking him. It's a gentle method and doesn't work overnight but it has definitely reduced night feeds and also means DH can help re-settle with shushing / patting. We are now down to 1 or 2 feeds and once I'm back at work I will be replacing those feeds with water to see if that knocks it on the head completely.

Oh also I do initially feed to sleep but it's the wake ups I don't. Although since trying this method he actually now often comes off the breast himself and falls asleep on his own which is fantastic progress for us.

Katnissk, thank you, this sounds like a doable gentle method I'd like to try. That does sound like good Progress, well done. Did you read about this method or did someone tell you about it?

It was advice given to me by someone in my local breastfeeding group. The hardest part is not giving in for those initial 10 minutes for the sake of getting back to sleep quicker, but it's amazing how often he re-settles within a few minutes without breastfeeding! Definitely worth a shot.

Do you have a DH/P? What worked for us was DP getting up with DD overnight rather than me (she was a bit older at 12 months). She would settle for him (he didn't give her a bottle, just hugged/rocked I assume) whereas she wouldn't settle for me unless she was breastfed. It took a couple of weeks but she then started sleeping for much longer stretches.

I found Dr Jay night weaning really useful. It's a couple of years ago now but I think I decided that I wouldn't breastfeed dd between 11pm-5am. If she woke before 11 I'd breastfeed, if she woke between 11-5 then DP got up.

If it's any consolation, I breastfed dd to sleep until she was past 1 and as soon as I stopped breastfeeding she started to go to bed by herself just fine. Touch wood, she is 3 now and is by far the easiest to get to sleep out of all of my friend's children.

Thanks Katnissk, I really need to get to a bf support group, we have one locally but clashes with one of the few baby groups we attend, so have never made it.

Ohcomeonn thank you for you're reply, I have not heard if Dr Jay, I will have a look.
Have thought about dh Settling him, maybe this weekend would be a good start as he up early for work during week so I'd feel bad having him up all night too!

Dietician should probably have mentioned that many babies with CMPA (is that what you mean by 'sensitive to milk') have the same problem with soya

Any 'gentle' plan for night weaning wouldn't start til after 12 months I'm afraid

I switched to a bottle and started with say 4oz and reduced by an oz over 3 nights, on third night just had water but baby wasn’t interested by then, was easy and no tears, did this with two dcs and second wasn’t bothered after the first night when bf wasn’t offered so very easy to night wean both. The bottle was more to reassure myself they actually weren’t hungry and just wanted comfort. This was between 8-10 months.

It didn’t solve the sleep problem in general though either time and largely was the point at which we started regularly cosleeping as didn’t have bf to soothe back to sleep. It did make a difference to dc2 at the time as she was feeding multiple times during the night, she woke a lot less frequently, but is now over 2 and still doesn’t sleep through.

Arbrighton, yes it is CMPA, my health visitor said the same thing, relating to nuts too, and the dietician was not impressed with that method, his reasoning was that he will be given soya or nuts at nursery so better for me to try him and monitor so I know what he can and can't have before he is being fed by someone else. He also felt it was bad advice to avoid food groups because of one sensitivity. I had previously given him very small amounts of tofu with no ill effect and continued despite the health visitors advice, he was fine with the soya milk too.

Tfoot75 I did wonder if I should express and give a bottle and slowly wean to milk. I am not sure if he would go to sleep with a bottle, I guess it's the same comfort so should work. Yours sounds like a success story I'd like to follow! Did they just go to sleep with no fuss? DS has never managed to settle himself to sleep, and when we tried to let him he works himself up in to a state.