When did you give up night feeds (breastfeeding)?

[2015mom]

Hi my 7 month year old wakes up during the night for a feed.

He goes to sleep at 8 pm and he wakes up on average at around 1.30 then again at 5.30.

Occasionally he has not woke up at 1.30 but he has woke up at 2.30 or 3.30, a couple of times at 4.30.

I noticed lady night he work up at 2.50 and I put him back in cot but he never went to sleep until 4 ish after I Gave him another milk feed and then he never had a big milk feed in the morning like before.

I need to wean him off the night feed now because I don't want him just waking up for the sake of having milk. He is fully weaned and has three meals a day (9/12/6) with milk feeds in between (10/1/5) and a snack of fruit at around 3 pm.

When he goes to sleep he mainly soothes himself to sleep in the cot, occasionally from breastfeeding.

He used to wake up at 10.30 or 11 so my husband used go rock him back to sleep so he dropped that feed. But I don't want to disturb my husband because he has work the next day and the problem is he smells the milk from me. Do u think if I went cold turkey and gave him water at night it would be successful.

I think that's very early to give up milk feeds but then I've two crap sleepers so what do I know - I'd just feed him quickly and hope he goes back to sleep. DD1 self-weaned from night feeds past one, I think it's,perfectly normal to wake up for milk the first year at least.

With my 8 month old I find she's so excited when waking up that she won't feed much, even though she probably is hungry, so I'm not sure the lack of a big morning feed is indicative.

HV talk a lot of nonsense about how babies shouldn't have milk at night after a certain age. IMO it decreased naturally. I still feed on demand at night but most nights since my LO has been 1 she's not needed it. I try stroking her wee sweaty head first! Works if she just needs comfort.

Mumsnet disclaimer: HV I have come across in my life. Please no avalanche of face and "Well I would never say that..." - some areas it seems to be policy. Even the BF advisors trained by the NHS advocate not feeding on demand and sleep training (and the middle class mummies lap it up and chat on FB about how she must be right, she's the NHS BF lady not a volunteer...) - although their manager does advocate all the modern/agreed methods.

Thanks for that. Initially I was thinking I don't mind at all waking up for one night feed and putting him back to sleep after a milk feed because I thought what is the harm of giving my LO milk and felt bad denying him off milk.

Then at a class another mother said to get him out of night feed earlier because the longer I left it be harder it will be which got me worried.

That is the only reason I thought about weaning him off the night feed.

I honesty don't mind giving him a feed.. Just thought he would grow out of it eventually to be honest... And there was a pattern emerging that he was waking up later and later for a few days then back at 1.30 lol

I'm still feeding my 10.5 month DD at night. Similar timings to you, so normally just once at around 1.30 but sometimes later. I've heard that at this age it's through habit rather than needing it but in our case, I really think she still needs it and therefore fine with getting up once to feed her. Just do what you think is right though, trust your instincts.

Then at a class another mother said to get him out of night feed earlier because the longer I left it be harder it will be which got me worried.

All babies are different but in our case this simply wasn't so. Now she eats like a 'person' not a baby (so from about 1 year on) she needs less milk so naturally needs less at night too. She still likes it sometimes but sometimes doesn't at all.

I think it would have been more challenging to wean her off at night before she was cutting back a lot on milk.

Now it's almost helpful as I still have it as an option on a bad teething night etc, but equally she sleeps through on other nights.

I don't think there is a right answer. However you asked for my personal experience so here it is. DD1 went on daytime nursing strike when she started teething at about 6 months. Over the next couple of weeks she just substituted all her day feeds for night feeds. It took 2 nights of deciding enough was enough of me getting no sleep and her turning day into night for her to give up night feeds altogether and go back to day time feeds. DD2 and DD3 were strongly encouraged by me to stick to feeds between 5 am and 7 pm once they got to 6 months. Nobody starved or grew up emotionally scarred. In all 3 cases they were not doing much other than playing with proper food until they were about 12 months.

Thanks for your input guys... I have concluded that I will not stop his night feeds as it's only one a night really there is no harm in giving him more milk.

The lady who said it does not breastfeed so for her child he may be seeking comfort in another way... My LO is in his own room so no harm in giving him milk for whatever reason he desires whether hungry, thirsty or comfort...

Eventually he will have feeds later and even stop all together himself and like you said when they are teething it's a comfort/relief for them which I can't deny him off as we try anything for pain to go away so why deny him of the same.

Thank you for your stories

I think a whole night...ie between 10 and 12 hours. .is a long time for a 7 month old to go without a drink . I drink water if I wake at night so a little baby who is developing far more and faster than I am is likely to need that nutrition even more !

I stopped night feeds at about 10 months to a year....it was directly linked to stopping breastfeeding both times as I noticed as soon as there was no boon involved they were not as wakeful at night

After posting that last night the LO decided to sleep from 9 to 6 without waking up!! First time ever Yey!!

I will just do it on his cues, if he's hungry give him milk if he don't wake up more sleep for me yey

I even watched him on camera at 3 and his eyes were wide open but then he closed them! Self soothing to sleep has paid off Yey!!

Yay, well done baby! Funnily enough, mine slept through to 5.30. Think we need to post on MN more often!

My DS was having milk at night when I read that once they're past the 6month mark they should generally be able to go through the night without a feed.
I was still BF and he was about 7 and a bit months and was waking for a tiny little feed every 2-3hours (sometimes more often) but never stayed on for long just a feed and fell asleep within a couple of mins. So I decided to try a little bit of warm water instead since he looked like he was only doing it as a soothing thing rather than hungry and thought that maybe getting water instead of milk will put him off. At around 8.5months he started sleeping through and still does from 9 until 7.45 sometimes 8.15

DS2 self-weaned at 8 months, DS1... well... I forcefully took him down to one night feed at 18 months, and he didn't give up overnight until he was nearly 3 :S - even then we used to have an emergency banana by the bed, he just seemed to burn through food at an amazing rate!

Both awesomely easy to put to bed and sleep like little angels now though, so feeding seems to be no prediction of sleeping.

DD2 started mostly sleeping through at eight/nine months which is when I stopped doing a night feed. It was pure laziness on my part that still had me feeding at that age because she absolutely didn't need the milk, just the comfort. I just hoped to hell she'd grow out of it herself and she did.

Around a year old. It was more of a natural progression rather than me doing anything to stop him feeding.

Glad you've had at least one good night. If it's any consolation my 11 month old breast fed baby is waking up to feed still but equally so are several bottle fed babies I know. There are all sorts of reasons for them waking. I'm taking the easy option for now of feeding back to sleep!

I night weaned at 7.5 months. It was very easy which meant he was ready in my mind. It was very much like clockwork, I thought it was a habit.

Thank you everybody with your feedback. Well done on all the kids they are doing great.

18months, 30 ish months & still going at 26 months.
Generally appalling sleepers though- anytime they feed & go back to sleep I'm happy! The being up for two hours at a time