Weaning 7mo baby off night feeds??

[BareFacedLila]

Has anyone achieved this with their 7 month old? I've read that it "should" be do-able by now but I don't know if that's just rubbish written on my baby app! It says you can wean your baby off night feeds by reducing the amount given gradually. (My baby is FF).

My DD is 6.5 months. She goes to bed at around 6.30-7pm after a 300ml formula bottle. She always wakes around 11pm and then again at 4am for a 200ml bottle each time. She drinks it all and is definitely hungry for it. During the day she's started weaning but is only on vegetables 2 meals a day so far as well as formula.

Any tips or do I just keep doing what I'm doing?

Well you need to increase the day time feeds to compensate.

They are quite small feeds, is she petite?

I would start by giving her water for her middle of the night feed to increase hunger during the day.

Do you think wanting the night feeds is partly comfort and the association of having a full tummy before going to sleep?

Basically they need enough calories in 24 hours and you need to go try and tweak it so food is between 7am and 7pm ish.

No she isn't petite at all actually! She nearly always stops drinking at 200ml at night. If I suddenly give water might that upset her?

Upset her in what way?

Upset tummy it shouldn't.

She may be disappointed that it's not milk.

It sounds like a comfort feed as she's taking so little she really isn't "hungry" as such is she?

I didn't realise that was so little to be honest! It's a whole bottle full / carton of SMA. It takes her a good 10 minutes to drink and she is guzzling the whole time. Definitely seems hungry to me.

How many ml to a full bottle?

I'm used to fl oz.

When would done a full bottle in minutes at 4 months 😳

Ok so that's about 2/3 bottle.

I would try water at 4am and not give her milk until 6am and then try get an extra bottle in during the day.

200ml is 7oz @RandomMess, that's a decent full feed for a baby that age! The fact that she's drinking the whole thing twice a night suggests that she's definitely hungry.

@BareFacedLila could hou try giving her more in the day, and then watering the formula down at night so it's less milk and more water each time? Then eventually when it's just water, stop offering and go for cuddles instead?

I wouldn’t worry about trying to wean off at this age; my DC stopped night feeds at 7 and 8 months and I could tell as they’d have a couple of oz but not be interested in much more than that. I don’t think those are small bottles; that’s about 6/7 oz isn’t it so about right for her age.
Some babies can go all night at that age and some can’t; I asked the health visitor at about 7 months and she said continue with it

To clarify, 200ml is 7oz

I'll definitely try giving more during the day. Hopefully full weaning will help too, once she starts eating carbs like porridge etc?

As I said you work out how much they need in 24 hours and try to squish it into 12 or so hours.

Work on dropping the 4am one as I'm sure that will make you feel more rested.

I have no idea whether it's luck or anything we did, but we did this with ours when she was about three months. She was still waking for one feed but would be shushed/comforted back to sleep, so we just did that and made sure she had a big feed last thing at night and as soon as she woke up. It's been working well ever since. Well aware it might be a fluke though! My HV told me never to feed watered down formula though, I can't remember why but it might be worth asking your HV's advice before doing that.

I have an 8.5 month old. He is breastfed but he still gets fed at least twice overnight, he still seems hungry as goes straight back to sleep afterwards

With one of my babies I did a straight switch to water to wean off the middle of the night feed and with another I gradually watered the feed down. Worked fine and was before 6 mi the with both. I kept night feeds for longer without my last ebf baby.

If you wean onto water, does that mean the baby stops waking up @3WildOnes ? Or do they now wake up wanting water?

@farandfew our baby slept through the night at 4 months, but then went back to needing a 4am feed. Unfortunately I don't think it's a permanent thing at that age.

If she’s not yet eating carbs like porridge or pasta, bread etc at 7 months then she’s too young to drop her night feeds.

@FelicityPike that isn't true. Babies can take in enough calories in 12 hours to not eat for 12 hours!!

All of mine managed whether breast or bottle fed before and after weaning.

Not all babies automatically take enough in at each feed to do this and all you can do is try influence it by restricting calories overnight to encourage increased calorie consumption during the day. Small babies often don't manage this because they have small tummies same for those with various health conditions.

@BareFacedLila oh I know nothing is permanent! Like I said maybe a fluke. But I just meant we stopped feeding her at night even if she wakes.

@BareFacedLila giving them water instead of milk postpones their hunger for a little while so it usually means you can get them to drink more milk/food/calories during the day which means they aren't hungry during the night.

Have you tried offering more milk at the 11pm feed or dream feeding a little bit more?

The aim is stretch the 4am out to 6am and then worthier have an extra feed during the day or a little bit more milk/calories at each of the feed.

Baby may be in the habit of waking at 4am for a while but just comfort them back to sleep.

I twigged one of mine was only waking for comfort feed when I clicked it was literally a minute breastfeeding so I stopped letting her feed the and cuddles her back to sleep. She was hungrier for breakfast and in a week she didn't wake up anymore. She always slept from 7pm and never could get her to have a dream feed before I went to bed.

If you wean onto water, does that mean the baby stops waking up @3WildOnes ? Or do they now wake up wanting water?

With my first, when we weaned onto water (15m ish...) it just meant that the same nightly wake up took 1-2 hours rather than 20 mins. That probably lasted for about a year, and its only since she's reaches around 3 that she's sometimes sleeping through. So by all means night wean if you want, and sometimes it helps, but sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it makes things worse.

He stopped waking up after a couple of nights of being offered water. I think each baby is different though.