12 month old still waking once for a feed in the night

[Rogue89]

Hello,

Looking for some advice from people who might have been through similar….
My son has been waking once in the night for a feed since he was 6 months old, it’s always around the same time, and he drinks a decent amount (5-6oz). He is on 3 meals a day plus milk and snacks so I can’t believe he could be getting hungry, but as he’s having a decent amount he might be?

Once I feed him he goes straight off back to sleep until morning (7/730am).

My question is should I try and wean him off this feed? Or do I continue and he may eventually stop himself? And how would you go about this? I’ve had many people telling me he should not be waking for a feed at his age and should be able to go 12 hours straight!

Thanks in advance :)

Hey, sounds like my little one. Always woke once a night (still does sometimes) and had a bottle then back to sleep for the rest of the night. He's 16 months now and stopped the bottle a few weeks back and he is doing fine. It wasnt really a planned thing, just felt he didnt need it that night and he was totally fine without it so carried on. Now we just give him little cuddle if he wakes then that's usually him until the morning. People are very good at telling you what you/dc should be doing but they are not mum to your child and you know what is best for your little one. Some kids can go 12 hours straight, some cannot. Mine sometimes does then sometimes can be a wee pickle. Just keep doing what you are doing if you are happy with the way things are going at the moment, but equally, don't be afraid to try and just give a cuddle (if he needs it) instead of a bottle and see how it goes. If he is still needing it and hungry without it, he'll soon let you know. X

My 19 month old wakes 3 times a night for a feed. I'm not thrilled about it but I would be less thrilled if someone told me he wasn't normal for it.

You can try and wean him but it doesn't mean it will stop the wake up and then you have to find another way to get him back to sleep. He definitely is still young and I'd probably wait a bit longer if you really wanted to drop it.

My little one did this until she was around 18 months old. In fact, she sometimes woke for milk twice a night until around 16 months or so.

At the time, I worried I was somehow doing the 'wrong' thing by giving it to her. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't let it bother me as she naturally grew out of it herself. She always ate very well during the day so I think it may have been a comfort thing for her, or possibly just an ingrained habit. Either way, she's a happy and healthy little girl with perfect teeth who now sleeps 10 hours through the night so it did her no harm!

The fact he goes straight back to sleep is a huge bonus. If you were up for 1+ hrs a night, I'd say try and change things. I think he'll soon sleep through without a feed and without any intervention.

My 19 month old still wakes at least twice in the night, sometimes many more times. His sleep has got progressively better though.

It is completely normal for babies/toddlers/young children to wake at night and need support from a parent to get back to sleep. However, just because it is normal doesn’t mean it’s easy and it’s a whole lot harder with people telling you he should being going 12 hours. The 12 hours is nonsense, some children will never manage more than 10/11hours at night. They are all different.

In have three DC . At one year my DC 2 had long since stopped waking in the night, DC1 had stopped feeding in the night at ten months but continued to wake four hourly for several years afterwards and DC3 was still feeding fairly frequently at night.
Ime you can give weaning ago if you think they aren't hungry but it may have no effect on the night waking.Lots of DC feed overnight at that age.

My now 13 month old did/does this and I stressed a lot about it because my health visitor said he shouldn’t need night feeds but whenever I tried to remove it he would scream and scream until he got it.
Baring in mind if he woke earlier in the night and cried, I could go in and comfort him in seconds whereas when it hit 3-5am nothing would console him but something to drink and i’m not surprised as sleeping 10+ hours with not even a sip of something is a long time. I have a drink with me during the night so why can’t he? He clearly needed it as he would go straight back to sleep afterwards.
so I ignored my HV and gave him the feed. A couple months later we have some days where he still has one and some days he sleeps through the night (and this is a baby who was a terrible sleeper and needed feeding 3 times minimum during the night for months).
I would stick with what feels right to you. I think babies know when they’re ready and the feeds will get dropped naturally with time.
I’m actually looking to eventually turn night feeds into water in a straw cup that he can have with him all night. Again if I have a drink at night I think my baby should have that option too

If it's at the same time every night and he goes straight back to sleep after, it sounds like habit rather than necessity.

If you're happy to continue then do so.

If you want to wean him off this is what I did:

Reduced DS milk by an oz every few days
Once I got to an oz or 2, started getting up just before DS and fed him while asleep / dozy
Once he was taking just the oz and barely awake, switched to water
He slept through no problem

I think you should consider yourself lucky that your baby only wakes once in the night for a feed.

You could try giving supper.

My twins are a little older (17 months, but were premature so 15 months developmentally)

They were still occasionally waking at 12 months for a night feed.

What I found helped was giving them half a banana each half hour before bed. I read something about how bananas can aid sleep and it keeps the tummy a little full.

Before I go to bed I also pop a little sippy cup of water in their cots. Often I think they were waking due to thirst rather than hunger so they will wake up now and have a few sips of water before going back to sleep.

Very occasionally now a milk feed is needed middle of the night (usually if they haven't eaten well during the day) but mostly they sleep through.

Hope this helps

@EggBlanket I don’t think OP is complaining about having to wakeup and do a night feed. I think it’s more the fact you get told often, that babies past a certain age do not need night feeds, especially at 12 months and that’s simply not true but it makes you feel like you’re doing something wrong and a bad mother.
Health professionals like HVs say all these shoulds and shouldn’ts, when they don’t know your baby and without actually giving advice on how to go about changing the thing they are insisting you shouldn’t be doing.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply, this is all really helpful advice! I forgot to mention in the OP that I’m pregnant so this is why I’m a bit hyper focused on this at the moment as ideally when the baby is here it would make things easier if my son is sleeping through. But he will be 20 months by then so I’m hopeful he will come to in his own time :)
thanks again! X