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Weaning off night breastfeeds for 1 year old

2 replies

Missfionag · 03/09/2018 07:36

Hi all, my baby has just turned 13 months (but is around 11 months corrected as she was 10 weeks early) and I’m desperately trying to break a million bad habits we have with her to improve her sleeping. At the moment she’s still waking 2-3 times a week and I’ve got into the habit of just feeding her as it’s the quickest way to get her back to sleep :/ she’s started nursery and we’ve weaned off all other breast feeds apart from bedtime (although I’d like to stop completely - but she has always refused bottles or formula and now not taking to cows milk that enthusiastically) but I’d really like to try and get the golden dream of her sleeping straight through. I’m trying to reduce the amount of time she feeds for at each feed, but when I take her off from feeding and the earlier I do it the more frantic the screaming is. My partner has tried going in and she just screams manically. She arches her back at the same time and were finding sometimes amidst all this she must have some wind as some farts come out - but does anyone have any tips for stopping night feeds? She’s never been the best sleeper (sometimes wakes aside from the two feeds just crying a few times within the first couple of hours of putting her down - though those times she settles with some cuddles) but now she’s stared nursery and is more tired I’d love her to get a better nights sleep. We wanted to try some kind of sleep training but she’s sooooooo exhausted at bedtime that she falls asleep while feeding and can’t wake her to put her in cot. She used to go in awake and put herself to sleep easily. Loosely been trying the PUPD method but not helping her self soothe at night. She’s also hard to get to nap at nursery so we’d also like to get her better at putting herself to sleep to help there too. Any tips for getting her past 1) comfort feeding need and 2) waking up lots would be appreciated! Feel like I’ve read everything and tried everything about from crying out so far... and also I know it’s not the case, but feels like everyone I know in every baby circle now have these babies that sleep through and don’t have all this carry on and 5am starts etc. Just FYI we have a really good bedtime routine that involves baths, story, lullaby etc that she’s had since 3 months. Though maybe we need to move feeding around slightly in it as she’s exhausted by feed... hmmm. Sorry rambling!!

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Hatstand · 03/09/2018 15:19

I think moving the feed earlier could help. It made a big difference to DD's sleep when we moved the bedtime feed from upstairs to downstairs. Although she now thinks any time I sit down on the sofa she should have a feed, but that's a separate issue!

Creatureofthenight · 03/09/2018 20:20

I still feed my 14 mo to sleep. It’s not a bad habit, it’s totally natural and a great way of comforting them.
That said it is tiring, mine still wakes at least twice a night too. She has a pretty big feed each time so I’ve not made any moves to curtail feeds. I expect it’s because she doesn’t eat a lot during the day but I can’t force her to eat.
I do think your LO would benefit from an earlier night - I’m sure mine is more unsettled the more upset/overtired she’s been before bed.

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