Do I need to start being proactive re:night weaning DD (6 months)

[Dreemagurl]

DD (6.5 months) has never slept through the night. She can self settle pretty well (unless teething or overtired) but seems to need at least 1 or 2 feeds at night. She's small but solid - 16.5 pounds, and getting some solids through the day now (BLW) and I'm just wondering if I should be more proactive about getting her through the night without feeding, e.g. giving her water (which so far she has been very offended with!) or getting DH to attempt to cuddle and resettle. She's not a habitual waker, i.e. it's a different time every night. Sometimes she goes through till 2, has a good feed and then through till 7. Other times she wakes at 12 for a feed and 5 and then wakes at 7-ish. The problem is she never seems hungry at 7, so I'm wondering if I'm creating a vicious circle of feeding her at night so she's not hungry in the day, she takes less food in the day and makes up for it at night IYSWIM. Has anyone been down the same road? Should I just wait for her to drop the feeds herself? TIA

does it bother you? if so, you could look at trying to night wean her (although it might be easier in a few months time when she needs less milk overall anyway). If it doesn't bother you, it won't be doing her any harm and is probably just the way her biological rhythmes work (that's my theory not a scientific one!). she probably won't be hungry at 7 if she fed at 4 but you could always just give her breakfast a bit later. I never eat the minute I wake up either but I haven't been snacking through the night!

Hi there, DS was like this, still having 2 feeds a night at 6.5 months. By about 7.5 months I'd had enough but didn't have the confidence to completely night wean. I stopped giving him the second feed and he'd still wake up around 3 or 4 but I'd settle him back to sleep, or if really struggling bring him in with us, and he'd be hungrier in the morning. This went on for another few months, then around 10 months I'd had enough (again!) and decided he MUST be able to go through without a feed - he's a good weight and health visitors had been telling me he shouldn't need feeding at night since 6 months. To get rid of the last night feed I dropped it by 1 oz a night until he was down to 2 oz, then stopped completely. At the same time I also instituted an 'all night in your cot' rule and would just stay shushing and patting until he went back to sleep, without picking him up. The first few nights this could take 30-45 mins, but after about 10 days he was sleeping through from 7 - 6\6:30.

So, for us we needed to be proactive with the night weaning and just did it when I was confident he was ready. Hope that helps...