6 month old and night feeds

[CherryA1988]

Hi Everyone,
I am looking for some advice and hoping you can help. My 6 month old baby is formula fed and still wakes a few times a night, but is now only doing 1 night feed.
I have reduced his night feed down from 5oz to 3oz, as when I was giving him 5ozs he wouldn't take his morning bottle (and I was having to wait 2-3 hours after he woke up to feed him). Now he is on 3ozs at night he still isnt hungry for his bottle for at least an hour and a half from when he wakes in the morning. Given the fact he is not hungry when he wakes, do you think this means he is just feeding for comfort in the night and I can potentially look to phase out the bottle completely ?
As an fyi, he has 4 x 6-7oz bottles in the day and one solid meal (just purees currently).
Thanks

I'll jump this thread to the top as I have the same problem. DD is on 7oz and she has one at night but I think she's the same as yours for comfort as when she wake sup at 7am she wouldn't have her breakfast bottle till 8am which sort of mucks up the breakfast weaning and lunch bottle

My DS was like this with waking at 6am but not interested in a bottle until 7.30am but when I tried to stop the night bottle he resisted and wouldnt settle so I carried on with it for a couple more months. It doesn’t hurt to try but equally if it doesn’t work I wouldn’t push it too much

I would just feed him as much as he wants. Would he drink 5 oz during the night? If so, give him that. It's fine if he doesn't eat straight away in the morning. If he's 6 months, offer breakfast instead and then a milk feed mid-morning. There is no rule that they must have a milk feed when waking up first thing. Usually between 6-12 months get tricky for night wakings and if you're currently only having one waking and feed, that sounds great and I'd encourage that to stay that way as long as you can. It will all sort itself out in time as it's always changing.

I'd night wean.

If you don't feel confident enough of his daytime calories to night wean, then make the single feed you give him earlier in the night ratger than later. Say an 11pm feed when you/DH goes to bed.

But I wouldn't do that, is just go for night weaning fully.

Hi @CherryA1988 when my DD was around about 6 months I started to night wean. I made sure she was down to having 2oz of formulas when she woke in the nights consistently for about 3/4 days and then if she woke anyway after dropping that bottle I would give her water from a bottle instead

Thanks! That is really helpful, I will do the 3oz bottles for a few more nights, then go down to 2oz, then try water.
Did your little one kick up a massive fuss when they realised it was water? Just trying to prepare myself if I will be in for a few difficult nights!!!

@CherryA1988 no she’s didn’t fuss I think after a few nights of realising it was water she gave up waking up for it. I think it becomes a habit sometimes to them rather than being hungry. I was lucky to have a baby that slept through until 6:30/7 from 7 months after we night weaned barring the odd sleep regression.

Thanks everyone!

Just offer a bit of water and straight back down. No fun, back to sleep !

Maybe he’s ready for more food in the day, perhaps something a bit more filling like baby rice.