When dont they need night feeds?

[LittleDonkin]

My DD is 23 weeks and I dont know when night feeds are supposed to not be needed?

When she wakes at night I automatically put her on the boob assuming she is hungry.

Try and settle without feeding and see if it works. Don't think there is an automatic age when they stop, plus BFing might be for the comfort too.

I don't think my LO needs 3 feeds a night but unfortunately he thinks he does!

'usually' from about 6 months.although this is assuming they're having 3 meals a day including some protein.

Once DS got to 6m, i resorted to getting several sleep books out of the library. All of them said that at 6m, a baby no longer needs to feed throughout the night.

I found that knowing this made it easier for me to say "Ok, no feeds between bedtime (7ish) til 4am"

We have found that crying it out was what worked for us, only because going to him but not feeding him made him so much worse. He is in our room though, so i don't feel as though he is just being left iyswim?

He is now 7m, and has been gradually improving. He goes down well at 7ish, sometimes wakes once or twice in the night, murmers, maybe a little grizzle, then usually wakes around 4.30am when i do feed him, feeling that he has done a long enough stretch and will gradually (i hope) sleep for longer.

I hope that helps

I read that once they reach 16lbs they are capable, in theory, of going through the night (when going through the night is defined as 8 hours). Whether they do or not is another matter!

As fifitot says, BFing is as much about comfort as food so probably takes longer.

My ds is nearly 8 months and weighs 17lbs. He has 3 meals a day and 4 bottles between 7am-7pm but always wakes twice in the night once at around midnight and again at about 4am.

I have found that he can be settled without feeding once, but not twice and feeding him at 4am means he doesn't want his breakfast bottle at 7am so he has a bottle at 12am.

I think he may be able to go all night without a bottle but tbh I'm too scared to drop the midnight feed!

huh. My DS is 8 months, 21lb and usually feeds at 11pm, 2.30am and 5.30am or so. Quite often it's only once in the wee small hours rather than twice, and on Sunday night he slept 12am-7pm and I felt amazing. I'm really going to have to do something about this, aren't I?

Hi Woodlands

I decided (after DS had fed 6 times through the night again) that i would have to do something. He has been happy not feeding actually and it was such an improvement within a week.

Although teething has buggered it all up again!

I found The Sleep Book for Tired Parents and Sleep Solutions were very good books.

Good luck

My ds needed 2 night feeds til at least 6 months (after weaning at 22 weeks) - once he was eating 3 good meals including protein and having about 5 breastfeeds during the day, we cut down to 1 night feed (at 11pm). Now he's almost 8 months and I'm working on cutting out the 11pm one too.

Weissbluth (US paediatrician and baby sleep guru) says you should expect to feed a baby 4-6 hours after the last evening feed and again early in the morning between 4 and 5am up to nine months. And he's no pansy on sleep issues: he advocates cry it out as a sleep training method so is pretty hardcore.

Last night he woke up at 4.30 and I tried to settle him without feeding but didn't try very hard and eventually fed him on one side. He didn't seem all that fussed about it so I didn't offer the other side and put him back in his cot. He protested a bit for a while but seemed to drop off, but about half an hour later woke up crying again, so I offered him the other side - but he wasn't interested. As soon as he was nuzzled up to me he dropped off to sleep. So I just kept him in bed with me and went back to sleep. I think it shows that he doesn't necessarily really need milk, it's just comfort and reassurance he's looking for at that time.

My DS is 6 months. I BF and have just started weaning in the last week. He generally wakes around 4am for a feed, sometimes at 2am too.

A few months ago he was waking anywhere from 10.30pm to 1am and I was feeding him often 3x a night. I decided he didn't need this as the feeds were getting shorter and shorter (a few minutes each time). It took several weeks of settling him and re-settling him when he woke before he seemed to get the message and stopped waking earlier in the night. It is difficult to say whether he would of made this change himself anyway or whether my intervention helped him to wake less often

Books I have read say that you can think about dropping night feeds when they don't actually feed for that long i.e. it is habit and comfort rather than hunger and when they are not interested in their first feed of the day.

I think you just have to go with what feels right for you and your LO. Trust your instincts as we all know each of our babies is unique.