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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

quick straw poll- did nightweaning improve DC's sleep?

30 replies

hairymelons · 30/08/2009 09:49

Have read the Dr Jay Gordon method and we've made the decision to do it next week. I'm a bit worried that it won't actually improve DS's sleep though...
Just yes or no is fine, details welcome too though!
Many thanks

OP posts:

WoTmania · 30/08/2009 11:07

DS1 No, He oinly started regularly sleeping thorugh at 3 and a bit.
DS2 Sort of.
DD is only 6 months so not applicable

Purely anecdotal but a couple of friends have night weaned/weaned completely at 12-18 months and regretted it as bang goes a nice easy way to soothe them at night.

FlamingoBingo · 30/08/2009 11:11

No - we just had to supplement it with another drink in the night, which was a pain in the bum. Especially as with DD1, she would only accept squash and not water as a substitute . Gave up in the end and went back to bfing in the night. Her sleep naturally improved age 4 (which, I now know, is the natural age for children to start sleeping through).

DD2 still wakes once or twice a night, but goes to sleep after a cuddle easily - she's 4.5.

VulpusinaWilfsuit · 30/08/2009 11:15

Yes. 3 days of screaming, DH in, me with earplugs. Then slept through reliably every since. Can't remember exactly but was about 15mo. Now 2 and still feeding before naps

mawbroon · 30/08/2009 12:34

No, it didn't the first couple of times I tried. It was very clear that he wasn't ready to night wean, so we went back to feeding and he was back to normal behaviour wise during the day.

Then on attempt three, it did make him sleep better. But, he was 3.5yo at the time, and it took a good few weeks for his sleeping to improve. I took from this that he was ready, and we haven't fed at night since (this was almost 5months ago)

PinkTulips · 30/08/2009 13:27

dd, no, got worse

ds1 i never really night weaned properly but 'discouraged' feeding between 12 and 5 and he slept better then but became impossible to get down at the beginning of the night, i had to spend hours up there and he'd generally end up just coming straight into our bed.

ds2 is only 6 months so not old enough even if i were planning to do it again, which i'm not.

KingRolo · 30/08/2009 13:31

Yes, at 10 months old.

Original poster

hairymelons · 30/08/2009 17:52

Thanks so much for your responses. You've mainly confirmed my worst fear which is that it won't improve his sleep!

However, I really feel like he's ready because he sleeps through occasionally and he settles in just a few minutes for his dad. And, in our house, bfing in the night is no longer the quick fix it was as once I go into him he wants to feed for hours.

I'm going to go for it, if it feels wrong or doesn't work I can always pull back a la flamingo and mawbroon

Any tips? Aside from earplugs....

OP posts:

Rhian82 · 30/08/2009 18:12

Yep, massively, at about six and a half months old. Week or so of crying, then he went from waking every couple of hours to sleeping from 7pm-5/6am almost every night.

FiveGoMadInDorset · 30/08/2009 18:34

No. Weirdly putting them in the same room sorted out DS's sleeping

PrincessToadstool · 30/08/2009 19:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

hairymelons · 30/08/2009 19:27

He's 14mo. Come on, prepare me for the worst...

OP posts:

Original poster

hairymelons · 30/08/2009 19:28

FGMID I don't think that's wierd, I'm sure the company of a sibling would be very reassuring in the night. Maybe I'll borrow my neice for a few weeks.

OP posts:

PrincessToadstool · 30/08/2009 19:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

hairymelons · 30/08/2009 20:07

Yeah we really feel like he's ready, it's almost like the availability of bf stops him from going back to sleep because he doesn't want to let go.
I'm dreading the tears though, it breaks my heart to think of him confused and upset. I'm a wimp and I know it! We've got to do something though, DH and I are at breaking point with it and I'm becoming a danger on the roads....
So did you stop feeding to sleep at bedtime too? I'd intended to carry on with that but cut out the middle of the night feeds.

OP posts:

morningpaper · 30/08/2009 20:12

I weaned mine at 18 monthsish and it made no difference to sleep

Going to SCHOOL helped

Original poster

hairymelons · 30/08/2009 20:29

Oh fuck, really? I'm going to feel very bad indeed if all the nights of tears amount to nothing but a pissed off toddler!

OP posts:

PrincessToadstool · 30/08/2009 20:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

hairymelons · 30/08/2009 20:54

Ok thanks so much princess.
DH works long hours and has DS one evening a week whilst I work soooo we're only both at home one evening a week. If he were around more he could do more bedtimes, DS always sleeps better after DH has put him down.
I like the big fuss idea, he's just of an age where he can get excited about stuff.

OP posts:

PrincessToadstool · 30/08/2009 20:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Grendle · 30/08/2009 21:22

With ds night weaning made no difference to his sleep. Dh ended up co-sleeping with him regularly in the spare bed, as I was pg and too knackered. He was around 21 months and in his own room (at least at the start of each night!).

With dd, she sort of night-weaned by agreement very early on in this pregnancy, so she was around 19 months. She was co-sleeping, and I suddenly found (accidentally) that a cuddle would settler her almost immediately with no need to offer a breastfeed. She continued to wake repeatedly for a couple of weeks, as had been the pattern since about 16 months when she'd started waking 3-4 times a night, and then started sleeping through, though still in bedside cot or our bed. She's slept fairly well ever since and has started transitioning to her own room since just before her birthday.

MrsMerryHenry · 30/08/2009 21:23

Yes, at 9 months old. It lasted a week. Then he started teething. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Six months later he was sleeping through the night again.

MrsMerryHenry · 30/08/2009 21:25

Never heard of Jay Gordon, who he?

Actually, don't bother. I have enough parenting experts coming out of my ears at the moment!

Original poster

hairymelons · 30/08/2009 21:38

DS is constantly teething or ill so that's why this week is a golden opportunity, he's on top form for once.
Normally don't have much time for parenting experts but the night weaning advice just seems really, well, reasonable.
I think I want DS to self-wean but I'm so self-conscious about the fact I'm still BF. All my pals who BF babies born after DS have stopped and I feel like the freaky extended BFing lady. But am happy to continue for now because he still really wants to.

OP posts:

bloss · 30/08/2009 21:49

Message withdrawn

Wonderstuff · 30/08/2009 21:56

I night-weaned dd at about 14mo (I think) She was a nightmare at night because once she woke she wouldn't stop suckling and I would be feeding all night. I stopped feeding between 12 and 5am, which in reality meant that I wasn't feeding between 8pm and 5am because she rarely woke before midnight, I think it helped me to think I was only holding out for 5 hours. We had 2 or 3 nights of desparate sobbing, I did shush pat and at the third or forth night (its all a sleep deprived haze) she accepted that she wasn't going to get boob and barely cried at all. She still wakes in the night 2 or 3 times a week, but is normally easily settled so it definitly did help.

I still bf at bed time and first thing in the morning (she is 22mo) I am the only person I know irl bfing a baby this old, and like you I was a bit self-conscious of this when the last of my friends stopped bfing at around a year but I have got over that now and am happy to go to at least 2years, possibly longer. Sometimes she feeds to sleep and sometimes she doesn't it doesn't seem to affect whether she will sleep through. I have found that morning naps rather than an afternoon one seems to encourage better night time sleep. Our rule is she has booboo at bedtime and when it is light, which she seems to understand and is mostly happy to accept.

Good luck hope you get sleep soon. x

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