Does my 6 month old need a night feed?

[MrsSamR]

Probably a stupid question but bear with me! My first DD cut out her night feed and slept through the night from 10 weeks old (a but of a unicorn I know!)

My second DD is now 6 months old - she hasn't been a bad sleeper by any stretch but has always woken for a feed between 1 and 2am whatever time her last feed is. We have tried different times for her final feed and putting her down her down at different times and whatever combination of 8pm feed and bedtime or 9pm or 10pm she wakes between those times for a feed.

I know I shouldn't complain as she'll have a bottle and go back to sleep until 6am but I'm starting to wonder if she still needs this feed or is just used to waking at this time? She is now sleeping in her own room and while she wakes at this time she doesn't cry, just kind of rolls around and makes noises. I've always made a bottle and fed her as I know she'll sleep after but I'm starting to wonder if I could try settling her and see if she'll go through until morning without.

She does always finish the bottle so I don't want to cut it out if she needs it. I guess I'd just expected her to drop the feed by now. Do babies usually just drop the feed themselves and one night just don't wake up or do you need to try actively removing the feed?

Sorry for the long post and probably stupid questions but my first was such an anomaly of a baby I feel clueless second time around!

If she drinks the whole bottle she probably needs it. Mine dropped a similar night feed after increasing her day feeds slightly so was still taking the same amount of milk altogether. We went from 6 x 5 oz bottles (with one during the night) to 5 x 6 oz bottles (all during the day).

You could try reducing by an ounce every so often to encourage her to take more during the day. Ds was 8 months before we could stop the night feed.

Yes I would say she still needs it. My almost 8 month old DS still feeds at least twice in the night. Babies who don't have night feeds at that age are the exception rather than the rule in my experience.

Probably still needs it. My DS still had 2 night feeds at that age. Dropped to 1 at 8 months and stopped completely at 9 months.

We reduced them deliberately by pushing back the time. E.g. would only give a bottle after a certain time. If he woke before then would settle back to sleep without. And then he started sleeping longer. But I would keep going a bit longer than 6 months personally.

I thought most babies still need milk at night until their one (and established on solids)

I had a unicorn baby first time round too, waiting to see what the second is like 🙈 towards the end of the night feeds last time (although it was earlier) we stayed up as late as possible til about 11/12 for the last feed just to break the habit of having to give another feed mid sleep. Although I’d imagine when she’s in her own room she’s already away to sleep long before this. Does white noise work with her? We had the Ewan the sheep that listens out for them waking for 4 hours and comes on to put them back to sleep. This might work if she’s not actually crying for a feed and is just going into a lighter sleep maybe at the same time every night. has she started eating? That might also fill her up more and stop her waking if she’s hungry

Thanks all - I suspected she still needs it so will carry on for now. The issue is she often doesn't take much in her bottles during the day so I guess she's topping up. We've just started solids so fingers crossed that will help too!

Technically their stomach is big enough that they don’t need it but I think many babies do

you could try increasing her daytime feeds by 1oz and decreasing the night feed instead

It's hard to say because all babies are individuals - you can't really say it's down to stomach size. I don't think we even know whether babies all have consistent stomach sizes by age, do we?

6 months seems to be a figure that goes around in HCP education about babies, but some of the sleep "experts" have gone and looked for the original source for that, and nobody seems to be able to work our where it comes from, or possibly it relates to a study where the definition of "sleeping through the night" is 5 hours - so why it's being used to claim that all 6 month old babies are physically capable of sleeping 12 hours is a bit of a mystery!

It's probably best to follow your baby's cues, of course there's no harm in trying some gentle methods like reducing feeds or introducing a bit of a delay before feeding but I definitely wouldn't be going boot camp or cold turkey or anything extreme.

Theororetically no, it's not necessary.

However if she's only waking once or twice I'd be inclined to keep feeding for now. At the most, maybe reduce one feed by an oz to prepare for dropping it in the future