Can I switch from BF to water to promote sleeping through the night?

[treehugga]

My LO is 7.5mo, she takes a fair amount of solids and milk (EBF) feeds during the day, but still has 1 or often 2 night feeds too (12 and 4). I would like her to sleep through after the 10pm dreamfeed, and a granny advised me to just feed her water when she wakes at night. Does it work? What are the pros and cons?

im in exactly the same situation and am trying to think about what course of action to take next as the lack of sleep is now getting to me and my ds1 (3yr) is baring the brunt of it. am watching this thread with intrest!!

i've got no answers. Ds1 fed during the night until he was 10months old and then just decided to sleep through. i tried water in case he was thirsty but it woke him up even more as he wanted milk not water. DS2 is the same and at 7.5months he has at least 2 feeds a night.

trying to night wean dd now at 13 months. she wont take water, from a bottle or cup during the night (fine in the day) she just screams, usually for and hour or more and then eventually goes to sleep. warning night weaning is not fun! but then my dd was feeding 3 or 4 times during the night till last week!

Exactly the same situation here - DS is 7.5 months and is waking at 1 and 5 (no dreamfeed here though). I think the water theory is more likely to work for bottle-fed babies. Breast-fed babies are often waking up not just because they want a drink but because they like the comfort and a cuddle. My DS feeds for less than 10 minutes - which is simultaneously frustrating and a relief! Sometimes he sleeps through one of the feeds but is teething at the moment so, as I say, likes the comfort.

You are certainly not alone - check out the latest few pages of

this thread

Our babies are mostly 6-9 months old.

I agree with artifarti - I think its more likely to wind them up if you try and offer them some water.

I would probably time the bf to cut it down by a minute each time and do a dreamfeed as well. If you wake her up at 10 to do the dreamfeed can you move that a tiny bit later to stop the 12am an then gradually lessen the 4am one?

fwiw - I think its much easier if you do it before about 10 months - after that I think they get a bit more stubborn.

it is possible that your baby still needs that feed during the night. she's still really young.

treehugga - read your OP and see that you are feeding EBM so not sure about whether you are giving a bottle or breast at night (sorry, blame it on the broken nights!)

giantkatestacks - BTW, did you manage to night wean by doing the cut down by a minute method?

nope - we got it down to one feed (still doing a dreamfeed at 10-11pm though) and then my dp went over and picked up and hugged and shhhed. He then sat by the cot for a bit and she went back to sleep. After a couple of nights we were just shhing from the bed.

I was already feeding on waking up from naps and not putting down and I think this helped a lot.

My dd definately had more of a sleeping problem than a feeding one iyswim - sometimes she would wake up and refuse to be fed and wasnt even that bothered in the morning.

I don't agree with purplemonkey- I think 7.5 months is not really young, I mean yes, they're babies of course, but feeding through the night (twice in this case) is probably more due to habit / comfort than due to a genuine nutritional need. And if it's a genuine nutritional need, what's wrong with encouraging more feeding in the day & less at night? I'm speaking as someone who is in the same position, DS is 8 & a half months, he still feeds around 11-12 (which I'm ok with) but in the last week or so started requesting a 4 am feed too; this feed he had dropped ages ago on his own... We gave it a couple of nights just to calm him down, and because we were on holiday & suspected he was unsettled / warm / something like that. Well, it's incredible how quickly they form little habits at this age. He immediately started waking every night at that time for a feed. What worked with us was offering a bigger feed during the night at 12 or so, and then sh-sh-ing at 4 am, offering the dummy etc. It worked! The habit has already been broken. The good thing with babies this age (I believe up to a year or so) is that habits change very very quickly, and even if you do it very gently, it's guaranteed to work quickly

By the way, about the water / or tea- which is what my mother suggests. I've also been told many many times to offer water / tea in order to help DS sleep through. Personally I don't think it would work, not for a bf baby, because a bottle might agitate him actually, plus if he's used to the milk at that time, he's not going to be very happy just with water. I think the method GKS suggested- sh-sh-ing & patting, in order to completely wean him off the 4 am bottle would work better.

Thanks everyone, very useful. I am forgetting about the water thing from now on. We have had some success shhing and patting, but like Maria2007 this good work gets undone when she has a cold, teething etc. Artifarti that link is fantastic, just what I need.