Did you night wean and if so what age (and how....??)

[Jellybabie3]

Just considering if this is something I should consider dping. DS is ebf. 10mo and wakes 3 x a night (11, 3 and 5).

I was happy to go with the flow but now hes fighting naps etc (likely to be linked to crawling too) I wonder if it will help.

Thanks in advance

I sleep trained so DD would self-settle but didn't night wean. She started consistently sleeping through the night at 14mo. However, before that she would usually wake only once, occasionally twice, and that didn't bother me enough to night wean IYSWIM. Night waking up to 12 months is also considered par for the course, too, so I would have held off until at least then even if it had.

But three times must feel quite a lot, so if you decide to go ahead I'm sure someone on here will be able to assist. When I mentioned mine was still waking, a HV did suggest offering water rather than BF (the idea being they don't want it and so learn not to wake) but I'm not sure if that's a good suggestion? Either way I didn't follow it!

The amount of naps (or lack of) doesn't seem to have made a difference to night wakings in my experience. My dd (now 16 months) was still waking every 1-2 hours at 10months. She naturally got better from 11 months and by 13months was down to waking once a night (at 4 or 5am). I think moving her into her own room helped. Also if she woke before midnight my dh would settle her. At first this took a bit of getting used to, but since I've gone back to work I've had to do nights and she's settled absolutely fine with him, so I'm glad we did that when we did. I read a really useful article by Dr Jay Gordon on night weaning, which i would have used if my dd hadn't naturally done this herself: drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html

Ah ok. I think i keep going then for abit. Thanks!

I left mine to it and he stopped night feeds at about 2.5 years.

I'd moved him into his own bed in his room at 2.2 ish and he would have to walk through to me (stairgate on stairs) if he wanted me. Some nights he'd snuggle up and feed, some nights he'd just crawl into bed and sometimes he just wanted to check I was still there! It wasn't every night. I don't really remember it being disturbing though, perhaps I would have changed the pattern earlier if it had been.

IIRC by around 18 months there was really only one wake up at about 11pm - but of course, it's possible that I slept through a later one.

I night weaned at 18 months (DS1) and at 15 months (DS2).

Only offered water, and held them upright over my shoulder instead of cradled in a feeding position when they woke at night.

To my absolute amazement it worked within 3 nights - they no longer asked for milk at night.

It made no difference to the number of times they woke unfortunately. But I have very bad sleepers (even the sleep consultant didn't work!)

I night weaned my son at 9 months because I felt he was using it as comfort rather than an actual need for food - he wasn’t feeding properly, falling back to sleep quite quickly and able to be put back in his cot so I felt it was just habit (he was waking up twice a night at this point). I started by dropping the earlier feed and got my husband to go in to settle him and after a few nights he was only waking once so I repeated the process for the second feed. It was pretty quick for us. He is a fantastic eater and took to solids brilliantly, so this may have helped. We did have a sickness bug a month or so later which meant I went back to feeding during the night just to make sure he was getting enough food. It was harder to wean him the second time but we just followed the same process. He still wakes occasionally during the night now (20 months) but he’s pretty easy to resettle.

I don’t think night weaning made much difference to his naps, he’s a pretty good napper anyway. He is an early riser though which kills me but I think that’s just his nature.

I night weaned at 9 months... was going to make DH do it but then decided I wouldn't be able to stay in bed and hear him upset while DH went in to him. Each time he woke I brought him into the bed with me and basically just let him moan - he didn't scream but did get frustrated and threw himself around a lot in a half asleep state. Once he'd fallen back to sleep I put him back in his cot and did the same for all night wakings.
His first feed was usually around 6am, however this got earlier and earlier until he was waking for it at 4am and then staying awake for the day so I stopped BF completely at 12 months.

Most bf advice is not to night wean before 1 year but people who stop before a year obviously do. I'm not sure if they then give formula at night or water, cows milk is ok after 1. They do still need the calories at that age though and it doesn't necessarily stop wakings.

You can look at dr jay Gordon, dr sears for tips.

kellymom.com/ages/weaning/wean-how/weaning-night/

7 months, because I saw that it was purely comfort rather than food for her at that point. Offered dummy, shhed and patted her each time she woke up instead. One difficult night, but thereafter it improved night after night. For now (11 months) she sleeps through and has done for a while.

I night weaned both mine at around 7-8 months, can't remember when exactly. I offered water in a bottle in case they were thirsty, and then just ssh-patted until they fell asleep. Worked like a dream, they slept much better after that - until other things started waking them up. that's a different story though!

Yes, around 9 months by offering water. Worked within a few days but occasionally goes out of the window when teething/ poorly etc. We still do the 5am feed and have morning cuddles

First DD 10 months, it took 2 nights of hard work and horrible crying and then she adjusted no problem and slept through from then on.

We tried our DD2 at the same age but she wasn't having any of it, so we tried again at 12 months and had more success! Our second DD wakes at a drop of a hat and has always been a terrible sleeper compared to DD1!

DD night weaned at 7 months ish.

She had moved on to bottles during the day at 5 months for practical reasons but I was still breastfeeding at night.

DD clearly preferred bottles to breastfeeding and after a while would get cross if she woke up in the night and only breast was available but I wasn't going to start getting up in the night to make them at 6 - 7 months. I did take up a bottle with water in it though so she could have a sip if she was really thirsty and refusing the breast. She started not bothering to wake up quite quickly once she established that she wasn't going to get a warm bottle of milk for her efforts.

I should add that if possible get your DP to do the settling. I've been given this advice time and time again. DP has to do the night settling when weaning because if I go anywhere near they know I could give them milk

I don't know if what I did was night weaning, but from 6.5 months I decided DS2 really could manage without milk between his late dream feed and early morning, say 5am or thereabouts. He'd done a few nights previously of sleeping between these hours so I reckoned he could definitely handle it. Also some very young babies can manage to sleep for a 6 hour stretch, so I thought that my bruiser on 3 meals a day should be able to cope. So any time he woke between 11pm and 5am I just gave him his dummy, or occasionally a drink of water and then put him back in his cot. He never really made any sort of fuss about this - the dummy seemed to be enough to get him back to sleep. I can't say that it immediately made him sleep through but he's getting there (now 9 months old) and last night slept from his 10.30pm dream feed until just before 7am.

I definitely couldn't just go with the flow.on this, personally. It would kill me to still be doing night feeds for a year or more. I totally admire anyone who can do this but I really need my sleep!

Hmm i get the idea of offering water but after months of trying to get him to drink water from a sippy cup or beakerbwe had a eureka moment and he finally accepted it in a normal cup...yay! But to do that in the night he will inevitably get soaked 😣

Hmmm

Thanks for all the advice. Think I will need to wait til this heat is finally over either way!

Well tonight I have tried to stop the first wake up feed as I felt like it was a habit. DS screamed the place down for about 5min and I totally caved....I guess I am waiting this one out.....

At 8 months we night weaned my dd, I was just totally exhausted and knew she didn't really need it. OH went in with her sippy cup with water (which she never took) gave her a quick cuddle and put her back down. I stayed in our bed with earplugs in, it took about 2 nights but only probably him being up an hour each night. She's 2 now and has slept 7pm-7:30am ish since.

I'm hoping number 2 will do similar on his arrival although I may try it sooner at 6/7 months. The health visitors all said they don't 'need' a night feed beyond 6 months

They will eventually stop on their own, but most mums prefer to night wean earlier. My DD only has the occasional night feed at 22 months, and it seems to be a sign that she's about to come down with something or is teething.
Good luck with whatever you decide!

DD was formula feed. I just waited until she stopped waking for milk at 13 months. She still -woke up- wakes up now at 2 1/4 most nights several times but just for cuddles.

Thanks all. I am going to wait longer I think but the tips.are really helpful. DS is not in a good place with teething and 10month regression for me to pile much more on him i think right now. 1 tooth came through last night - 3 still to come

Today has been odd though. Hes literally fed 4 times which is very very low for him and now at bed instead of gulping and falling asleep hes had a nibble and then i read a story on my lap until he fell asleep. Not sure what this means for tonight but maybe now the hot weathers over hes calming down a little....heres hoping!