Breastfeeding at night - 6months

[Mosshead348]

Hey mummas,

Looking for some advice.

My DD is 6 months old and has been combi fed since day 1. I have a low milk supply and she uses the boob mainly for comfort over nutrition (refuses a dummy).

She is a terrible night sleeper and only settles when on the boob. I’ve tried offering a bottle instead but she’s not hungry and doesn’t take much if any.

I’m wanting to try and stop the habit of boob during the night and wondering if anyone has any tips/experience of this? (Won’t do CC or CIO)

xx

This was a very long time ago for me, but I remember trying to do all the ‘put them down drowsy but not asleep’ type thing that we were told to do at the time, and then trying to give a bottle in the night to try to get them to sleep longer. None of it worked. We ended up with less sleep and more stress all round.

What worked was just feeding to sleep, and with DS2 keeping him in the side-car cot till he was 1 and far too big for it because that was by far the most efficient way to get everyone back to sleep.

I was back at work from 5 months for both, and wish I’d never wasted time trying to do what I thought i “should”.

What I’m saying is you can’t rush them out of this stage. She’s waking and needing comfort to get back to sleep. You can’t replace that with a cup of water. You can withhold the breast, but that will take longer to get her back to sleep.

She’ll grow out of this stage eventually.

I combination fed. At 6 months, mine was feeding at 2am and sometimes 5am. All wakes at other times, I sent dad to deal with (baby was in their own room by then). Around 6 months the 5am wake up naturally went. Then shortly after that, the 2am feed turned into a 2am screaming session. So we swapped to a bottle of formula from dad, and after 3-4 nights, my baby stopped waking in the night at all, and I breastfed immediately on waking instead.

We also gave our baby some porridge with peanut butter as part of dinner to help with night hunger.

I think baby having their own room, and taking me as mum out of the equation, helped with night weaning.

I think send Dad in with a bottle of formula. There will be a lot of tears for 3-4 nights probably. Personally that would be too much faff for me and my DS started sleeping through until 5am at 11 months (quick feed at 5am, and would sleep until 7.30) and then around 16 months started sleeping 12 hour stretches. No intervention or tears. I know 6 months feels like a lifetime but it really isn't. You're his whole world and the boob is a wonderful comfort to him. The sleep deprivation may be bad (and I sympathise, I went back to work full time at 6 months when he was still waking every 2-3 hours) but it's short lived.

You just have to not offer it. That said, if it’s comforting and it’s working, 6 months is a rough time for sleep, I probably wouldn’t be changing much right now unless a bottle settles her quickly and allows you to get back to sleep. 6 month olds definitely still need feeding during the night (if they are waking).

I night weaned my first 2 by reducing the feeds 2 mins every night for 4 days. But that might not work if she's doing it for comfort rather than hunger.

I'd get dad to do a lot of settling, 2 days of upset is probably worth it if you really don't want to feed at night anymore.

No 3 is still fed at night at 13months but it's much less than the others wanted so doesn't bother me.

Yeah I'd send dad in with a bottle if you want to reduce the breastfeeding at night. Saying that, milk supply is higher at night and 6 months is still young so she probably is getting nutrition from it 🤷