Advised by HV to offer cooled boiled water in the night instead of bf. Anyone tried this?

[OovoofWelcome]

Hello,

DS, 5 and a half months, is a super-night-waker extraordinaire. Wakes about 5 or 6 times a night. We have got into the habit of co-sleeping from about 11pm onwards, to ensure that we all get some proper sleep.

My health visitor suggested I try offering him some cooled, boiled water, to slake his thirst in the night whilst discouraging the night wakings.

I don't know if I want to, I feel unsure about it. I can see it might reduce his expectation of milk, and am sure it won't do him any harm...I suppose I feel hard-wired to give him what he needs though, and it he wants milk/me, that's what he'll get. The night wakings are tough going though. And I do want to encourage him in feeling confident to fall asleep on his own.

Does anyone have any experience of this? Does/can giving water help with sleep?

HV also said that DS was the happiest baby she'd seen in a while

He's only 5 months old & if milk is still his only source of food, then I'd say stick with the breast feeding. Have you considered weaning during the day rather than introducing water (& all the hassles of a bottle at night). Night feeds are hard but at 5 mths I don't think he's playing you. Once he stats on solids the number of night feeds should decrease but both of mine woke at least once a night til they were a year.

Also don't forget that milk production is increased by night time feeds. Good luck & it'll be over soon.

I would pop over to the Breast and Bottle Feeding forum where the experts on there will be able to advise.

However, from what I know, I think the HV is giving you outdated advice. If you're EBF and he's thirsty, he should be getting his water from the breastmilk.

I did but not that young. I think Baby Goo was about 8 months and on solids.

It did work BTW.

Baby Goo was and the first night involved a lot of shushing and patting but by the end of the weekend she was SLEEPING.

If co-sleeping is working for you ATM I'd be inclined to stick with it. Maybe try to up your daytime BF. I know my baby was a nosey so and so, she didn't want to feed in the day in case she missed something.

We had to night wean ds at 12 months (9 corrected) as I was going back to work. Dh offered water and it worked with minimal fuss within a few days. Ds was a 2hrly boob monster before and I was knackered. We continued to bf for a further 6 months so it didn't affect that side of things at all.

I missed the age in the op. 5 months is very small to e worrying about night weaning. I know it's shit :(

Can I suggest an alternative? At 4.5 months DD began waking more and more regularly. I was sure she wasn't so hungry she needed to feed more often at night than in the day. We decide to teach self-settling at night after a month of no sleep. I decided I would feed her no more than twice in the night - when we started I would feed her not before 11pm, and then not before 2am (she was a 3hr girl in the day). If she woke between times one or the other of us would go in, sit next to cot, no touching no eye contact and just repeat a "sleepy phrase" every few mins. Worked well and wakings were back to 2 or 3 within a few days. We gradually worked on shifting first feed later in fact she did a fair bit of the shifting herself and by 7mo had dropped to one feed at 3am.

I did that toofififrog I had a milk curfew between 12 and 5 at first. I'd forgotten about that.

I just offered water in the night, but later - from about 9 months.

I did this at 12 or 14 weeks but he was feeding for about a minute each time so was pretty certain he wasn't hungry. I kept a bottle of formula at 11 until 7 months. It worked, he was happy with the water and stopped waking for it after a few nights. If he had become distressed at any point I would have stopped.

Thanks everyone I felt that he was too young and we should wait until he started on solids, at least, so it's good to read your thoughts.

DS only has micro feeds in the day and definitely does drink plenty at night, so he obviously needs it right now. I guess I thought the water might encourage him to feed more in the day, but shall wait and see how solids affect him first.