Should I sleep-train 7 mo to stop night feeds?

[bclaremums]

Up until he was 6mo I was still hanging onto a rumour I had heard that 6 mo babies sleep 12 hours, 7pm - 7am - ha ha ha!

My 7mo DS isn't too bad - he sleeps from 6.30pm, and I feed at 10ish, 3ish and then at 5ish he comes into bed with me and feeds more and we get a bit more of a snooze.

The question is, now that he is eating 3 (hearty) meals per day plus daytime milk feeds, is he just waking for comfort not hunger, and should I now (gulp) train him out of waking up?

If so, what is best? a) Give him water, b) comfort him and put him back in cot without feeding at all, c) leave him to cry for 15 mins with a view that it will gradually shift the feed back until morning, or d)wait for him to outgrow it by himself?

Thanks for any thoughts!

Well I would, but most on here will say no- have a look through some old threads.

My son has the exact same sleeping pattern! He is 6 months.

The last few nights I've been feeding him at 11pm, then again at 5am. Missing out the 3am.

Seems to be working, he may still wake up, but only for his dummy. :)

Have you tried to resettle without feeding.

I am doing this with dd feeding her for the first night feed and then resettling for other wakings. This was after making sure that I could settle her for sleep without using the boob, which had been a problem.

She is eating better in the day for it, she started to skip this 2nd feed recently (3 days out f 5) and I thought I would encourage her along. She is only 20 wks, I did it reluctantly (previously had feeding/weight issues so was used to offering food at every whimper) but I realised her eating in the day would benefit, not to mention my and her sleep. Today for example, I fed at 7pm then again when she woke at 00:45 and at 4.40 resettled. She woke at 7am and didn't really want to eat until 9am, so possibly she doesn't need to eat at night at all but I'm not going to push it, I certainly dont mind getting up.

We did b) and our baby now sleeps from 7 until about 6am. No crying out. Took a few days to adjust his body clock. Get your DH to do it.
Good luck.

Are you breastfeeding?

At that age my DD, who LOVED the boob, started feeding every hour at night, and as each feed lasted 30 minutes I began to go crazed from lack of sleep (I was working during the day). So for two weeks DP would get up in the night every time DD woke and cried, and cuddle her, offer her water and then offer her a bottle of formula if she was still displeased. In a week she was down to one feed, at the end of two she slept until five.

Like your DS, DD was eating heartily during the day, I think that makes a difference.

Good luck! :)

Shouldn't need feeding at 3 and 5 surely?

I did it at 7 mths- we more or less went cold turkey. i gave a dream feed at 11 (which i also dropped after about 3 weeks)and then re- settled without feed until 6 am. It was surprisingly easy. Took maybe 5 nights of not much upset and had more sleep straight away as not up feeding etc. Give it a go now before teething those big molars kicks in. Good luck .x