Stopping night feeds

[agirlcalledvicky]

Hi was wondering what happens with night feeds and when and how they stop. My DS is 6 months old and BF. We started solids the BLW way about a week ago. He sleeps 7.30pm-7am with one feed at 3am ish and has done so for a couple of months now. In the night he'll feed for about 30 mins and is fast asleep by the end and I pop him back in his cot. However when he wakes in the morning he is not hungry and won't normally have any boob til his morning nap at 9am ish. I suspect he could go through til 7am without a night feed but have never tried not feeding him. Do night feeds usually fade out of their own accord or would you try not feeding him?

Stop feeding him at 3 am. As you are bf, your DH/DP should be the one who somehow puts him back to sleep. It will be hard the first few nights, then he will sleep through when his body adjusts to feeding at 7 am rather than 3 am.

I second what CoteDAzur says. We did this at 7 months. I would wait til he's fully established on solids (ie three meals a day) before attempting this, otherwise you can't be sure he's not hungry.

Do bear in mind though that once you've stopped feeding at night, you may get more uninterrupted nights, but it also becomes harder to settle them when they do wake because of teething or whatever. Wake-ups now (at 11mo) are less frequent, but can be pretty gruelling and long-winded! Sometimes I think back fondly to the days (nights) when a feed would send my dd back to sleep. It sounds like your lo is sleeping really well at the moment so you might want to stick with the status quo for a while to see if he drops that feed of his own accord.

Do it now, or you risk teething.

Also, your baby wakes up hungry at 3am because it is his habit to feed at that time. You need to change that habit, and that will only happen by stopping the night feed and letting his body adjust to the new feeding schedule.

I think we will try stopping the night feed but not sure whether to wait till we are further on with solids - as we are BLW that could take ages. Saying that he seems to be eating stuff already (nappies are changing!) and we are only a week in. He already has his two bottom teeth and the dribbling has stopped so hoping the top ones might be a while off yet? He does seem pretty good at sleeping at the moment and don't know whether to push my luck for a full nights sleep or go with it for a while longer. I suspect he will adjust to a 7am feed rather than a 3am feed but I don't know whether I am strong enough for a few hard nights yet!

Oh and sorry littleomar, he's not always been a good sleeper I promise! We went through a really rough patch from 13-19 weeks when he woke every hour literally (4 month sleep regression I am guessing???) but suddenly clicked out of it at 19 weeks. Thats why I don't know whether to tempt fate and go for a full night or just count my lucky stars and enjoy only one wake up!

vicky, I'm BLW too, and have the same issue (only with a lot more wakings! )It's hard to know whether they need to feed or not, isn't it?

cotedazur, how do you 'stop feeding'? Give them water first, or just refuse to give them anything? I'm not sure DD would go back to sleep with just rocking etc, particularly when it's about 4.30 am and such a long time since going to bed.

Offer water if you like, but ime, babies don't always go for it when they are expecting milk.

He will go back to sleep with rocking, patting etc. Eventually. It will be hard the first night, less so the second night, and easier the third. Then his metabolism will adjust to "no meals at 4:30 am" and he will sleep through.

There are (apparently) babies who sleep through on their own, but for the rest of us, there isn't much choice, I'm afraid.

I second Cote we just went cold turkey with the 3am feed. I was pretty sure she was waking from habit, rather than from hunger so I decided to cut it.

Night 1 she wasn't happy, night 2 she was less than impressed, night 3 she wasn't too fussed. She feeds better in the day now, both milk and meals. She was 6.5 months when we cut out that feed, she still has a feed at 10.30pm though.

Onl do it if you want to, that first night isn't very nice and if you are anything less than certain that you want to do it you will feel awfully guilty and give in!

It took three nights for us too. Really wasn't too bad. But for my own confidence I had to be sure she was properly established on solids. Didn't want to feel I was denying a hungry baby milk.

Yes, that's the tricky bit. Because we're BLW it's hard to judge how much she depends on the milk.

Hello potato!

Hello! Ha you've caught me giving jealous glares to innocent mumsnetters .