Night feeds and overall intake

[user40816]

DD is 10.5 months, EBF milk wise probably 6-7 feeds in the day, is offered solids 3 times a day but rarely eats much. We recently had a routine HV appointment (the first since 8 weeks) and she has continued to follow her curves to a T.

The thing is though, she can end up getting up to maybe 15 feeds at worst, 7-8 on average, throughout the night and this has always been the case. Her sleep is a different story and I'm not looking for advice there. I know she doesn't 'need' night feeds anymore (as in, she's not going to starve without them), but for her to be following her curve perfectly then she must need the amount of milk she's getting if you see what I mean?

Random numbers but let's say she drinks 1000ml in 24 hours, and that's keeping her on her curve. But 600ml of that is being consumed through the night. Now is just a completely hellish time to be even contemplating any kind of night adjustment so I'm not saying I want to try right now, but I am conscious about the fact she's consuming more milk through the night than the day, and how eliminating this might affect her growth before she moves entirely onto solids.

I hope this makes sense, any thoughts about this are welcome.

If I've read this right, are you worried that if you cut the night feeds she won't get enough milk at all?

If that's the case, first, as she's breastfed she's in control of what she takes. If she doesn't take what she needs at night, she can take it from other feeds. At 10 months they can just have 2 feeds a day if they want and get what they need.

If you decide to night wean (I did at this age using controlled crying) likely she will just compensate in the day with either breastfeeds or solids.

It's like the previous poster said - babies are great self regulators. If you removed the night feeds, she would compensate in the day by feeding more or having more solids.

In fact, it's likely a bit of a vicious cycle - she doesn't eat much in the day, so feeds at night. But then doesn't need it in the day so doesn't eat much.

Removing or reducing the night feeds would therefore increase hunger in the day if that makes sense!

Yes, thank you both @Hodgepodge211 @Twizbe

I know given she's always fed like this that it's her routine at present, but if she's able to regulate how much she wants, does that mean she actually does want all these feeds in the night?

I'm also wondering whether she doesn't get much per feed and that's contributing. I admittedly don't drink anywhere near enough fluid (not on purpose, I'm just not thirsty and so I forget), and I've also lost a lot of weight since pre-pregnancy although that seems to have stabilised at the very low end of normal for my height. Could these 2 things be impacting on how often she needs to feed?

She needs the amount of calories she takes in the 24 hours - and that includes night and day. But she doesn't "need" them at the proportion she is having overnight. It's just that's how she has chosen to take them - it's common and called reverse cycling.

Overnight feeds are often not just about the calories themselves too - and can be about comfort and help back to sleep. So the frequency might be nothing to do with the size of the feed, but more to do with wanting frequent and little to help her back to sleep.

In other words - you can choose to night wean and it will likely have little impact on her total calorie intake. She will be just compensate elsewhere!

Just as above. If she's got into the routine of feeding at night that's ok if it's ok with you.

If you want to recycle her to a more 'normal' daytime routine that's fine too.

Oh and you should drink to thirst, drinking more water won't change your supply.

Your body takes what it needs for your milk so as long as you're eating a balanced diet it's fine.

I probably wouldn't worry about it tbh. My DD fed frequently overnight and felt like she wasn't feeding as much in the day around that age. She then self weaned night feeds around 11.5 months and day feeds at 12 months old.
I did find that the extra feeds at night were probably more for comfort and we had a difficult time from 9-11 months with her sleep and waking hourly. But at 12 months she started sleeping through.
We get an occasional wake up now (19 months), teething/cold etc. and it's just a cuddle to sleep.

Any tips on how to remove the night feeds? I'm stuck in a habit cycle where I feed eveytime he wakes up at night!

Sorry I'll start a new thread

I'd agree with others. Carry on with night feeds if you're happy to, but if you did custo wean, she'll make up for it elsewhere.