How do I stop breastfeeding at night??

[Huntawaymama]

My 7m old wakes every 1-2hrs through the night and will only feed back to sleep. I'm so tired. We started co-sleeping a 4m which helped with her sleeping but now she's waking all the time and if I don't feed her she will just scream even right next to me

She's got a bit of eczema so attacks her head to, she wears socks over her hands but goes mad when she's stressed.

I tried not feeding her at midnight a few nights ago as I knew shed eaten at 1030 (nappy fine to) but she cried until I gave in at 2am and fed her.

She refuses a dummy and I just don't know what to do

Any tups anyone?

Just to add she also feeds to sleep for naps, she'll nap for maybe 30mins on her own but if I hold her she'll nap an hour or two

She’s too little to be cutting out night feeds. Assuming she’s eating well, it’s more realistic around a year. Even bottle fed babies should be getting milk feeds during the night at only 7 months. It will likely phase out eventually as she’s a bit older. My now 11 month old has lately been sleeping about 11 to 6, but you can’t really force it at this age.

That said, I’d really focus on naps for improving nighttime sleep. So if she’ll sleep well being held, in the car, co-sleeping, etc, do that so she naps well. More and better daytime sleep means better nighttime sleep.

I agree that she's quite young for you to cut night feeds (rather than her cutting them out herself IYSWIM).

I'd prioritise cosleeping naps when you're at home - and escape when she's asleep for a cup of tea and some TV. Mine didn't start napping for a decent length on their own until at least 10mo+ so I'd either cosleep and enjoy the enforces rest for now or try to escape and see if you can gradually get more time on your own.

Then I'd think about trying to break the cosleeping first as that's easier than refusing to feed when you're right next to her. With my DS we put him onto a double mattress on the floor in his room at 12mo. I fed to sleep but then escaped and went in and fed to sleep if he woke up. It worked like a dream - started sleeping through in 3 nights. It wasn't always like that (illness, teeth etc) but he always fed less than when he'd been in with me and over the year slept through for the vast majority of nights. We put him in a single bed at 18mo (house move) and I still feed him to sleep but then that's him until the morning (he's 2 now).

You might not be thinking about how long you want to BF for but I found with both of mine, changing where they slept meant that night feeds 'improved'. But we never attempted a cot as we knew cosleeping methods worked better for us.

I know feeding at night is a pain in the arse but she’s still needing milk / comfort whilst she growing.

I wouldn’t advocate stopping (yet) and as others have said, focus on the day time pattern and creating other sleep habits to help her go down, and stay down. Babies don’t tend to “sleep through” before 12 months (some do and some don’t) so there isn’t a magic “one size fits all” to sort it

I’m sharing this blog with you as a gentle night weaning method, however, as Dr Gordon says, it’s for babies over 12 months and beyond. It’s worth reading. I was where you were, read this and put it away for another 6 months and went back to it. Then we night weaned (13m) and it was a much better time to do this

drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html