Night weaning - any success?

[Diamond345]

Has anyone had any success at night weaning?

DS is 10 months

This is a typical schedule for him :

6/7am 5oz bottle

9am breakfast

12pm Lunch

1pm 5oz bottle

Nap

4:30pm dinner

7:30pm 8oz bottle

12am 6oz bottle

He wakes for his night feed every night , he has on an odd occasion slept through but majority of the time he doesn't. The HV suggested i reduce the feed down and then offer water, but if he is hungry during the night , then how will this work? He seems genuinely hungry as he's draining the 6oz

We have just built up to 3 meals a day around a month ago, he has become a lot better with eating his food, but this made no impact to him waking at night!

Hi,

Veteran mum here (Aka really old). Have you tried not offering milk when he wakes at night? With all of mine at this stage I just stopped offering it when they woke. Went in, no lights, no talking, quick stroke to the head (gave dummy), heartbeat light tap on bottom if they were more upset some nights and left again. Did it a few nights with all of them (4) and they all just stopped waking for it. It can be a habit, not hunger.

He may start needing more before bed and in morning.

Are you moving onto cows milk at 1yo? I kept up formula until 6 months (long time ago don't know what rules are now, 4 months with my eldest 😲). Then moved to cows milk, nice easy transition plus good for them.

Good luck, HV have advice they have to give as part of their profession

Id say he needs to adjust to more milk in the day and less at night.

I'd do a few things-

Short term, make smaller bottles at 12am. Go down to 4oz. If still crying after that, water. 3oz in week 2 etc.

This will have hopefully the effect of making him drink more at his first morning bottle. Offer an 8oz bottle.

Swap the mid day milk around. Offer a bottle of milk at about 11.30/12noon, before food. His food intake will reduce slightly, so lunch just do some simple finger foods, toast etc. Nap. This means he will likely take more than 5oz, offer an 8oz bottle.

So he currently has about 24oz, and my timings above (once the night one is reduced) switches to 3x 80z so the same 24 but during daylight hours.

As he gets to 12mo, offer the evening milk earlier and add in a bowl of porridge to keep him fuller overnight.

Oh agree, porridge and bannanas for full night time tummys! When he's old enough 🤗

Yep, I did it when DD was 9 months old. it was life changing!! Giving more milk in the evening didn’t help the night waking as the habit was well formed! I decided to not feed in the night, just cuddle her back to sleep instead. It took 2 hours of cuddling her while she cried and protested! Then she went to sleep. The next night, she cried for 20 mins while I cuddled her. The next night - no more wakeups…. Fixed forever 😄
It had the effect of making her day time naps longer too, because she could get herself back to sleep if needed. She then ate more in the daytime to make up for it.
I would really recommend it. Good luck!

@SecondUsername4me we were on 8oz on all feeds but on advice from the HV we had to reduce down to 5/6oz during the day as DS would not eat his solids

I think this is poor advice. Food for under 1s is "for fun" and milk is the main source of nutrition up to 12mo.

Formula milk contains pretty much everything a baby needs, and is usually more calorific than the solids equivalents. And in turn, its had this knock on effect.

@SecondUsername4me i Don't think its poor advice, DS is getting much more from his foods and now learning eating skills for the future. At his age it makes sense, as he is coming off formula in a couple of months that there is a gradual decline in formula and upping solid intake.

Im going to try reducing the night time feed to see if that helps! But worried he just wont go back to bed, at the moment i don't immediately offer milk, he often wont go back to sleep without it! (If its been 3/4 hours since bedtime)

I'm not suggesting drop all food. I agree food skills are essential for him to learn. He clearly needs 24oz of milk a day, regardless, so if he can't have it in the daytime (due to filling up on food first) he is going to want it at night.

Does he fall asleep on the bottle?

Your HV shouldn’t be advising you to night wean before 1, so I wouldn’t really be listening to anything she says

I’m still giving the nighttime bottle at 14 months.
some nights they don’t want it and sleep through, other nights if they have been unwell or teething and not eaten as much in the day then they need it.
if you feel it’s more habit rather than need then try reducing or taking it away, but if you feel they still need it then keep offering.