so, how often would you expect a 7mo to NEED to feed during the night?

[olivo]

DD2 is 7mo and is waking every 2hours and bf. she feeds about every 3-4 hours during the day, have tried more often but she just doesnt want it. I am exhausted after nearly 4 weeks of both of them being poorly, and having been up 6 or 7 times a night. I am now unwell and can't se me shaking it off until i get some sleep.
so, how often would it be realistic to expect DD to go between feeds during the night? i know some of it is comfort suckling but don't want to deprive her of food if she is hungrry.

My DD at 7mo went to bed at 8 and slept till 6, had a feed then back to sleep till 8 or 9. By 8mo she slept through that 6am feed.
They say that after 6mo they no longer need a feed at night.

wow, that's impressive! DD1 had one feed until she was one, even then she didnt sleep through till about 16mo.U'm thinking that i could encourage DD2 to go at least maybe 4 hrs or so at a time. Encourage meaning try everything but feeding

ds2 fed every hour approximately, at that age

ds3 feeds I think 2 or 3 times, sometimes more. which i guess makes it every 3-4 hours

I really feel for you. My seven month old was recently waking every 2 hours at night, sometimes more often, every 45mins some nights! It's hellish. She was addicted to breastfeeding to get back to sleep. I borrowed a copy of 'the no cry sleep solution' which really helped to give me some ideas about kind ways of teaching her to settle on her own without breastfeeding. E.g. gradually shortening the time you feed her at night, then just giving her a cuddle, then just patting her.

It seemed to work surprisingly quickly (although could also be b/c it coincides with her taking more solids). She's now down to two feeds a night - fed at 7, then bedtime, feed at 11.30ish, then back to sleep until 4ish, when she ends up in bed with us.

I still feel knackered, but 'just' two feeds feels like heaven compared to where we were a month of so ago.

I would def recommend trying to stretch her out between nighttime feeds for your own sanity!

thanks.
'just two feeds' sounds like bliss! i have successfully used the NCSS for preschoolers for DD1 and so will try and get hold of a copy of the baby one, with a view to pushing her a bit longer. i have become lazy as bf re-settles her without waking DD1 up, i worry that leaving her to cry/winge any length of time will result in two awake children and that is no fun at all!
all of my friends DCs sleep through, i use the excuse that i am now the only one bf but i know it's not that really!

Poor you, you must be exhausted - are you adverse to dummies if she's comfort sucking or just isn't interested? Mine slept through at that stage but if they didn't (poor last feed) then once should see them through. Hwr, both mine had started weaning by then, dd only just though, and I found that made a big difference.

DD has only recently started sleeping through, at 11 months. She was still having a dream feed and then one night feed at 7 months, sometimes two.

Mind you, she went through phases of waking every hour...it just wasn't milk she wanted.

NCSS worked for us too. The library might have a copy....

dinah, not averse to dummies at all but she won't take one, i've tried. she has been a thumb sucker since she was in the womb!
she has been weaning for about 3 weeks but blw so plenty of throwing it around. more seems to be going in though in the last few days.
i'm going to move out of her room tonight as well, see if that helps, then it's a call to the library in the morning for the NCSS i think.
then there's 'just' the weaning off the breast with my little bottle refuser to sort out....

I suppose you have to define 'need'. Nutritionally I don't think a 7 month old requires feeding in the night, but emotionally for the cuddles and warmth etc maybe it is still necessary at times. i'm lucky though in that all my 3 slept through early (DDs on their own, DS with encouragement). i would approach it systematically. After a 10pm feed draw an arbitrary line in the sand and don't feed until 2am (4hrs). Yes she might wake at 12am and you might be up cuddling a cross baby for 2 hrs before you feed her at 2am, but after 2 or 3 nights of consistency you'll find that 12am wake will drop out of the picture. Then try and get rid of another feed so that you move to 4 hrly feeds. then shift to 6 hrs. I did this with DS (my 3rd baby). It worked amazingly. 2 nights of crying and holding and rocking a v cross DS then the wake / feed I was refusing just dropped away. Within about 10 days I had shifted both his remaining night feeds and he slept through ever since. Be prepared for being a bit more tired in the short term as being up with a baby cuddling, rocking, comforting etc way more exhausting than just popping on breast and back to sleep - but long term gain is worth it I think.

oh god, i can't get any less sleep, nelly! i think you're right though, and it' s helpful to hear that it worked out for you.I'm back to work in three weeks so it would be great to have her sorted by then

Olivo, come and join us on the Misguided Illusion thread - lots of babies over the age of 6 months not sleeping through for one reason or another.

I am using some of the NCSS techniques at the moment with DS and it has really really helped.

Have you ever tried not feeding him when he wakes in the night and rocking him/walking him/singing him back to sleep instead? When DS got to 6 months I decided to keep the dream feed and cut the night feeds as he was feeding a few times a night and then not hungry for his morning feed. It was hard work as changing any kind of sleep association is hard work but it did eventually work. He didn't stop waking up, but he did stop expecting to be fed so I was less knackered and the settling took less time. Over the past couple of months we've been working on getting him to settle himself to sleep when he wakes up (but with no leaving him to cry - I just can't do that - hence the NCSS) and it is definitely working.

Oh and by the way, DS was a total bottle refuser. I persevered offering him a bottle every day then at 7 months he started taking them and by 8 months he had weaned himself off me onto bottles far earlier than I had hoped... so you never know, it might be easier than you think.

Sorry Nelly - just realised you have basically said the same thing - I hadn't read the thread before posting.

I have to say how much they need to feed surely depends on how much they have consumed during the day.......changing feeding habits and sleep props can be done in a kind way you don't have to resort to leaving them to cry IME.

I've tried tanking her up in the day but it hasn't seemed to make much difference tbh, cargirl. SHe slept through for several weeks from about 10 weeks but then hit the 4 month sleep regression and that was it. she can feed loads in a day still not go any longer at night [anger]

I did wonder if i have a supply problem and she's not getting enough or something.

It's probably a sleep association thing, she either feeds herself back to sleep when she wakes or likes to go to sleep with a full tummy of milk. Also if she is feeding in the night even if you offer her more feeds during the day is she actually taking in more milk or just a bit less each time.

I think you may have to go through the trauma of skipping one or two night feeds first to get her to have more the following day IYSWIM. If she does feed herself to sleep then that is an association you will have to change. Not easy and the older they are the longer it can take to change - you may think it through and decide to go with the flow instead IYSWIM.

YOu're right cargirl, def an association, but i suppose, better tackled now rather than later.
last night was an unprecedented disaster - i managed to cuddle her back to sleep at 8pm but after dream feed at10, she woke at 12.30and woke DD1 so i had to leave her with DH while i resettled DD1, by which time she was screaming so i fed her. she then woke at 2.30, cuddled her, thought she'd gone off but then started screaming so i fed her, and again at 4.30 so i fed her lying on my bed in her room. she then slept till DD1 woke at 7.
I'm knackered!
on a more positive note, i've been on amazon and the NCSS is £4.98 so i've ordered it.
wil be over to join your thread when i get time, bicnod, thanks. might make me feel better to know i'm not alone

She probably doesn't need to feed but it's very difficult to stop them at this age.

I bf both of mine who were quite good sleepers at an early age. It all went to pot between 6 and 9 months and I fed both of them loads in the night during that time.

However, once we'd got through the winter and everyone was healthy in the spring, I stopped feeding them at night. They were both about 9 months then. I had to send my dh in to get them back to sleep because if they saw me, they wanted a feed.

WIth the older one, I managed to carry on BFing on my terms; i.e. during the day only. But, with the younger one I actually stopped completely at 9 months. I always feel a bit bad about this but she was an utter pain about BFing at this age...she kept on biting (and laughing!)

interested to see how this goes Olivo. dd is 8 months old and I want to stop night feeding. Don't mind so much when she just feeds once at night, but lately it's been 3 times. It's hard to get her to take more milk in the daytime - not interested it seems, but maybe she will be if she has less at night. She is bf as well.

please post back if you have any success ladylush!

Will do Am a bit scared to try this just now though as dd's weight gain has only just stabilised after a period of no gain followed by weight loss.

I think, looking back (dd is now 6) I still expected her to be needing to be fed on demand at 7mths during the night.

I know she was feeding about 2-3 times still at that age.