Should I stop feeding my 7mo when he wakes at night?

[Chestnut99]

My ds is 7mo tomorrow. He usually sleeps through the night (but still has a dreamfeed at 11pm). On the nights when he does wake up (maybe once a week) I have tried a dummy, I've tried a bottle with just water in it, I've tried singing and not singing, I've tried picking him up and rocking him and I've also tried leaving him in his bed with my hand on his tummy, but basically the only thing that gets him back to sleep is a feed. I've just stopped breastfeeding so a bottle put him back to sleep eventually last night when I'd tried everything else.

Is it okay to just carry on feeding him in the night or should I get tough and not feed him? He drank 6oz last night so it's not just snacking. He doesn't wake every night and he doesn't wake at the same time so I don't think I'm reinforcing or creating a "bad habit".

Any suggestions would be welcome!

if you think he's hungry, feed him. My 13 month old still very ocassionally wakes hungry in the early hours and has some milk. You're not reinforcing a bad habit, you're just meeting his needs.

My DS is 2.2 now and very occasionally wakes up in the night. I will still give him some milk (usually only an ounce or two) because it means he goes back to sleep within minutes (and so do I). I have always done this and he started to not need it very often about 6 months ago. I do believe that prior to this he really needed the milk - he always had more in the morning followed by breakfast.
If you think how hard it is for an adult to sleep if you wake up hungry I don't think anyone should expect a baby to ignore hunger.

If he's taking 6oz he's hungry! I'd say try to cram more calories in during the day (that worked for my first, slept 7-7 without a feed from 10 weeks...) but like Flootshoot, my second would still wake regularly at 13 months, and occasionally until she was 2.

When she started taking very small amounts and/or wouldn't eat her breakfast, I mixed water with the milk so she weaned off the night feed. But 7mo is quite early, although it may not feel like it! So I'd stick with the milk, once a week, and wait for him to grow out of it.

My experience with 13mo DS was that how much he fed at night could vary quite a lot depending on how he was growing. I wouldn't fret too much about creating a "bad habit" personally, and go with what works for now. As you say, he's having a proper feed, so presumably needs it.

You can always try something different later if you do feel it has become a bad habit. One thing I read about was gradually reducing the amount in the bottle, so you gently wean them off being hungry at that time. But I BF, so didn't try that one.

yes

bugger, I mean no, don't stop feeding him

doh

Very smooth AF

< sigh >

DS2 is nearly 11 months and I have only recently stopped regularly feeding him at ngiht. But he really wasn't having much when I did give it to him iyswim.

So I would say no your baby still needs a night feed by the sounds of it.

If he's only waking up once a week, what's the problem? This is fantastic sleeping from such a tiny baby. Count your blessings (and feed him)!

Sounds like he could still be hungry so I would feed him. DS has just stopped feeding in the night (9 months). I think they give up when they are ready tbh.

My 7 month old wakes at least once for a feed. He also is hungry at breakfast. I would keep feeding him tbh as long as he is hungry at night.

Feed him!!! he's 7m, soon he'll be 7 years!!

If he goes back off after a feed then feed him. You'll spend longer patting/singing/shushing imo.

My DS followed a very similar pattern, and began to sleep through more and more often from 7 months, to it being nearly all the time at 8 months. I still fed him if he woke until after he was 1. Now it often works just to shush and pat but I will always then go to a feed if a few minutes of patting and stroking isn't working. I also still feed him to sleep when he actually goes to bed, too. So yes, keep feeding your DS when he wakes - it will get even less frequent anyway so jst wait for things to take their course. Once a week waking at his age is doing well.

Thanks all - he hasn't woken again this week so I've only just checked back and got all these lovely answers. It's very helpful to have confirmation that my instinct - to just feed him - is right. I'm surrounded by Gina-ites who have been telling me to stop. I'm trying to ease him out of the dream feed (bossy HV orders) but since he still drains the 6oz he's offered at that time of day, I'm going to follow my instincts there too and take it very gently!

Chestnut - there is no 'right way' about this - if you think he still needs a dream feed, carry on - if he's still waking in the night or has only recently stopped, stopping the dream feed will likely cause him to wake again IMO.

FWIW, my DS never stopped any feed in one go - each time we dropped a bottle it was a process rather than cold turkey, eg. he'd not have a dream feed for a fews days, then he'd have a growth spurt and start night waking so I'd reintroduce it for a few days, then stop again.

I have a very similar situation. My DS is 5 months and is sleeping well with a dream feed. If he wakes up (around 5ish) we found that feeding him would thrown him off his morning milk and then the rest of the day was tricky. For this reason we have tried to just give him water if he wakes. This does seem to work.

He is still fed 3hrly during the day (and has just started some solids, I know, I know...), so he is getting nearly 40oz over 6 feeds.

I think you sound like you're doing the right thing (as for me, I'm wading through treacle!)

The only way I got my son off nightfeeds was by saying NO and absolutely NO.
He was 1.5yrs thoough, slept through within a week and has done ever since