Should my 10 month old still feed during the night?

sorkycake · 2007-12-18T18:07:36+00:00

I'm asking because this is the longest I've bf for and my first two children slept through from 8 & 9 weeks respectively, so I'm not used to this tbh. When will he stop the night feeds. He has a feed at 6pm then wakes at 10.30-11pm, then 2 hourly throughout the night on a good evening, hourly if bad. What can I do I'm suffering through the lack of sleep.

purpleduck · 18/12/2007 18:32

THAT does seem alot, but my son was similar (bf as well), although it was awhile ago, and my memory is a bit hazy
Good Luck
Can't offer anything else, but someone else will come along shortly

mylittlepudding · 18/12/2007 18:36

I stopped with gradual withdrawal at around 9 months.

It didn't worsen her sleep (though it was still pretty terrible).

I think YOU being exhausted/ not functioning/ depressed etc, is a very reasonable reason to night wean.

beautifulsnowydays · 18/12/2007 18:39

my dd who is 10 months started sleeping through the night last week of her own accord, didn't do anything myself, and she was up 3-4 times a night for milk prior to that. so don't give up hope

of course she now has a cold so not sleeping again... ho hum!

CoteDAzur · 18/12/2007 18:43

Hourly breastfeeding through the night is not normal, but you know that already since you have two other dcs.

I would get him a dummy.

5goldrings4MONKEYBIRDs · 18/12/2007 19:25

how old is your baby, sorky?

dummy might help but as a dummy veteran I'd be cautious since a. might (but not necessarily) cause nipple confusion. Especially if your baby is little and you're still establishing supply etc... I've resorted to a dummy in desperate times with all of mine and I'm pretty sure this hasn't helped my latch every time so have had pain for longer than necessary and b. once they get hooked, you end up waking up in the night anyway cos they're cross having dropped it!

Don't know how you're feeding in the night but i found things improved when I did a full sitting up lights on feed, both sides etc - because i was alert, was able to tell when DS really full... when lying down, he would wake more frequently cos I was usually half asleep and so was he. If you don't mind this, fine but if you're not able to sleep, try something else?

And have to say, think you had a massive stroke of luck with the other two. Neither of my two previous DS slept through before about 18 months, though pretty regular from about 12mths... and DS3 wakes anything from once to 3 times between about 9pm-6am

5goldrings4MONKEYBIRDs · 18/12/2007 19:27

doh!

dummy prob less of an issue at this age...

curlywurlycremeegg · 18/12/2007 19:29

HI sorky , no words of advice really just to say DS2 still does the very regular night feeds and DD did till she was 18 months! Know this isn't what you really wanted to hear but just to let you know you aren't alone. Pop onto the Feb postnatal thread as there are a few others there that are struggling with this also.

DennytwasNewYear · 18/12/2007 19:30

What happens if you ignore the cries for milk? Will he give up and settle himself off again?

pukkapatch · 18/12/2007 19:33

dc3 gave me alot of grief over this. i followed teh advice of she who is not to be named on mn and breastfed only every four hours, at six, tten, two , six and then at ten. ignored her crying otherwise. gave her solids at set times of the day.
took four very hard days before she settled down and realised i was not going to feed her the accustomed twenty seven times a day.
but, she was younger than yours. but it was drivuing me insane. two months after this, i managed to stop fbreastffeeeding complety. !

levan · 18/12/2007 19:46

I found offering a bottle of watered down EBM straight from the fridge worked (I know it sounds harsh but I was at the end of my tether!). Dd objected bitterly for two nights and then decided it wasn't worth waking up for - has slept through ever since unless ill or teething. HTH

levan · 18/12/2007 19:46

I found offering a bottle of watered down EBM straight from the fridge worked (I know it sounds harsh but I was at the end of my tether!). Dd objected bitterly for two nights and then decided it wasn't worth waking up for - has slept through ever since unless ill or teething. HTH

happymumathome · 18/12/2007 19:59

Hi Sorkycake, my ds has just stopped doing that this week we have moved him into a different room,I think we were waking him up and every time he did he thought " oh lovely milk time!"
In another room (lounge) after his dream feed at 11ish and sleeping from then til 7 ish, might be worth a try......
good luck

Original poster

sorkycake · 18/12/2007 20:17

Thanks guys for your thoughts. We've moved him into his cot and dh is bringing him into bed with us and I'll take him back after he feeds tonight to see if it is being in bed with us that is disturbing him. I've tried GF and he had none of it! I defy her to come round and sort him out, she'd run a mile. Thing is he's soooo happy being b'fed, soooo happy during the day that it's hard to think about stopping. I've honestly considered the controlled cry thing but I can't do it to him, I know I can't.
CWCE it's very nice to see you type I've popped over and left an update.
I might try offering water tonight, oh, and he has a dummy but can't find it when he loses it and wakes up then as well.
Tbh it's putting me off having a fourth baby even though it is what I want, because what will I do if he still isn't sleeping through is still b'fing and I have a newborn!!?!!

OP posts:

pukkapatch · 20/12/2007 11:07

sokycake, hope your getting on ok.
it must be old age this, but i remember with ds1, who was mix fed, i was told to give him only water during the hours of darkness. this being in july.
first two nights were a nightmare. i remember being sooo grateful for dawn. but he slept a treat after that.

Original poster

sorkycake · 20/12/2007 12:31

Well he's all over the place!
Last night I fed him at 7pm and gave him a top up bottle of formula, well dh did and I tried to sleep. He took another 6oz of formula, so am I right in guessing that I may not be providing enough milk for his last feed?
He didn't wake up at 11 for feeding, dh put his dummy in when he stirred and he carried on sleeping until 3am, when he woke and sounded genuinely hungry, plus I had a lot of milk. He fed then went back to his cot until 5am, waking again and only settling with the breast, then woke for the day at 6am.
Am I on the right track d'ya think? Any additional advice to move further forward?

OP posts:

pukkapatch · 20/12/2007 17:06

most babies self wean off the breast when mother is pregnant, although its eems that lots of mothers on mn have tandem fed.
its entirely up to you. i think that at this age, you can still enforec your decision. if you want to stop breastfeeding, then do.
personally i stopped at 8.5 months, because that's what i wanted to do. and a lot of it was down to the fact that they were having plenty of solids. proper food, not mush from jars though. and the bottle was replacing the breast. they had all slept through earlier, because of the gritting and bearing it for a couple of days.
i think that you should just refuse to feed him during the night time, except for water. and hopefully it shouldnt tkae him too many nights to understand he wont get fed a tnight. as long as he has no health problems, then it should be fine. but i dont know you, or your situation other than what you have described. so its very probable that this is no good for you.

curlywurlycremeegg · 20/12/2007 18:16

I am tandem feeding, DD breastfed regularly through my pregnancy and I am sure that's why I had a very quick labour with DS2. When I got very tired with my pregnancy I moved DD into her own room (she was 18 months), had been co sleeping up till then, and she slept through the night without a peep. I think by that stage I was waking her up in the night whenever I moved and this was just the prompt for her to feed so things worked out well for us by doing this.

Sabire · 20/12/2007 18:37

I night weaned my babies at 8 months, 10 months and 14 months respectively (got a bit more tolerant of night feeds as my family grew for some reason).

Basically I just just stopped feeding them at night - it took 3 nights and then they slept through. I got a bit engorged and in retrospect I probably should have done it a bit more gradually - taken a week or so and dropped one feed a night, but I was knackered and just wanted to get it over and done with.

The crying I dealt with by getting DH to help me comfort them - I didn't want to leave them to cry uncomforted, but I didn't want to start offering other drinks at night. I'd stand by the cot and pat them, or pick them up and rock them - putting them down as soon as they were calm.

All three hugely increased the amount they ate (solids and bm) during the day as soon as they were night weaned and didn't seem traumatised by the experience of suddenly being deprived of booby at night. I know it can't have been very nice for them to have had such a sudden change, but all three were very happy, non-clingy babies and I think they were robust enough to take it.

Sabire · 20/12/2007 18:39

Sorry - ought to have said - I did offer water at night - left a bottle in the cot, but they were hugely unimpressed with this! My youngest hurled it across the room about 50 times........

Gemy · 20/12/2007 20:21

At 10 months your DS is able to go for a good stretch without feeding, as long as you are giving him the majority/all of his calories during the day. You are not being cruel by trying to cut out the night feeding, and if my husband got up a few times a night to prepare me a tasty hot snack I'd be waking up for it too!

My DD slept through from 12 weeks, but this was not every nught guarenteed. By about 6 months it was set in stone that she would not wake (except for when she had a cold). We did the baby whisperer routine EASY with dream feed. I think she was about 9 months before we dropped the dreamfeed and that was that.

Maybe he is just snacking and not taking a full feed? Persevere sorky!

Good luck

Anxtra · 22/02/2025 06:05

Hi there, my baby she started recently out of the blue to sleep through the night and I wanted to asked since yours are bf as well and it happened suddenly, how that affected your milk supply if it did. Thank you 😊

Anne511 · 24/02/2025 08:56

Solidarity here, it's completely normal. It's hard, but very normal, and as baby is your third you know how quickly the time passes! But it's a lifetime when you're in it.

It's definitely not that you're not making enough milk. Breastmilk is full of incredible stuff but also made for historically vulnerable babies that need to be alert and keep their caregiver close (think 1000 years ago when predators can easily take a humnan baby if left apart from mama unlike other mammals who can walk as soon as they are born). Cows milk based formula is for a completely different type of mammal and so fills them up and is harder to digest for humans, hence sleepiness.

I'd say follow your instincts, co-sleep, let baby get what he needs from you if you can manage it. Maybe he's teething and breastmilk reduces inflammation and provides pain relief.

Woth noting that upping formula, especially at night will tell your body to make less milk

Anne511 · 24/02/2025 08:59

''Hi there, my baby she started recently out of the blue to sleep through the night and I wanted to asked since yours are bf as well and it happened suddenly, how that affected your milk supply if it did. Thank you 😊''

You will eventually make less milk to compensate but that's fine if baby continues to sleep through. It'll take time to make less milk in case it's just a phase of sleeping through and it changes back again