night feeding at 9 months

[o2sleep]

My DD is now 9 months and still not taking a bottle or cup (her choice not mine). She is waking several times a night to feed and I feel it is now more habit. does anyone have any advice on how to get her til morning without feeding?

Bumping for you.

My DD also feeds once during the night (at least) and is 9 months. As she takes a whole bottle I don't believe it is a habit though.

I think the usual advice is to feed her for gradually decreasing times or offer her water (difficult if she won't take a cup!). The idea the water being that after a while she won't think it is worth waking for.

If she is still restless or wakes again I would take that to mean that she actually needs that feed.

My DD has always been a hungry baby...

My DS really needed a feed in the night until 18 months. No way would he accept water, and they were proper feeds.

I get my husband to try to get our 8 month girl back to sleep. It doesn't always work, but we have got to 5.30am the past few nights without a feed. If I go to her first it is just antagonising her when I refuse to feed and she gets even more upset.

My ds3 is still feeding through the night at 9mths. I'm mostly enjoying the extra cuddles, but it does get to me occasionally. He gets disturbed by sharing a room with me, on nights I stay up late he sleeps much better. Do you share a room?

My dd is 8 months, and two weeks ago we decided that her night feeds had become a habit which we wanted to try to stop. My dh went in each time she woke and offered her water (from a cup which she will just tolerate). It took two nights of her being a bit cross, but on the third night and from then on she slept 6.30pm to 7am .

We had tried this when she was 6.5 months, and she was still waking and getting upset after several nights so we decided she wasn't ready. Since then she had increased her solids (OK, she eats like a horse...) and I reckoned it was time to have another go.

The other difference this time round is that I don't go in to her at all, just my dh. I reckon if she sees/smells me, she expects milk, but is more willing to have water from dh.

Personally I think if they are having three good meals plus substantial feeds first and last thing and probably during the day too, then they should be OK without feeds at night. If you have a partner who can try to settle her instead of you for a few nights, why not give it a go. I think you will find that she either drops the night feeds pretty quickly or is very resistant to the idea, in which case you will know that she's not ready.

My DD slept through last night! She obviously did not need her feed last night but if she wakes up again tonight I will feed her.

I do find that if I have fed her in the night she will take very little at her first feed in the morning and so to me that reinforces the fact that she is actually hungry during the night and has had sufficient to keep her going. She will then go through till 'breakfast' before eating anything else.

OP How long does your DD feed for at night? If it is a very short time and she drops off to sleep or just loses interest I would say that she probably is doing it out of habit. If not to me it suggests hunger I'm afraid.

I found my DD needed to regularly feed at night until she was 18 months old, sometimes it was hunger and at other times it was comfort...both valid reasons to nurse at night IMO.

At 2.5 years old DD is poorly at the moment and has been waking up in pain several times a night and it seems that nursing, make her feel better much faster than medicine (though she gets both)

OP, Maybe your baby needs her night feeds ATM ?

We've just night weaned DS 11 months who was feeding 6-7 times a night. I am convinced it was just habit and a way of self soothing when he woke from a sleep cycle. We went cold turkey. He did wake and he did cry and DP went to him each time to comfort and rock. 5 nights in, he is waking less and less and crying less and less when he does wake. He has even woken and put himself back to sleep. I have upped his food and BF's during the day just to be sure. It has made a huge difference to our quality of life. Good luck

I think it is a combination of habit/hunger at this age. They are used to taking so much during the night so they are hungry for it then. By feeding during the night they do not take as much during the day so do need some at night - difficult cycle to break. We had exactly this with our 8 month old - we decided to have a go at breaking the habot and steeled ourselves for a few nights of hell. The first night she screamed for 45 minutes, she was so cross, the second night 15 minutes of scraming - night three, she slept right through and hasn't fed at night since. It's not fun at the time but well worth doing!!

FWIW our DD took to a tommee tippee at about this age. She refused all the others, cups and bottles. Doidy cups also get a good press on here.

Like others when DD was only waking once and I felt she was doing it out of habit rather than hunger, I sent DH in. He gave her a nice cuddle/pat and soothe and it only took a couple of nights until she stopped - I think once they realise they aren't going to get a mummy-milk cuddle they stop bothering.

Disclaimer - DD didn't yell for hours when we did this like some friends DCs. Then you're getting into the whole controlled crying thing which is very much up to you and whether you can do it/want to do it.

HTH