Going cold turkey on night feeds - any success stories?

[jessi0343]

My nearly 12 month old DD has never slept through. She wakes every 2-3 hours for a breastfeed. Usually it's only a 5 min quick feed then she falls back asleep. We've tried not feeding and instead just rocking and this can take hours, so I ve kept b'feeding in order for everyone to get the most sleep.

In a week she'll be a year and I want to stop the night feeds. She takes a sippy cup of milk fine during the day, and has 3 big meals and snacks so I know she's not hungry at night, it's just a comfort thing. My dh and I want to go cold turkey on the night feeds with dh going in to comfit her - we don't want to do CC - and dh has taken time off work in prep for this.

Are we doing the right thing? Anyone have any success with dropping night feeds and have you found this to help your baby sleep through?

We've kind of tried with some success... DD's in her own room and I decided I couldn't be bothered getting out of bed and sitting in her room to feed her. DH instead got her and she will go to sleep quite quickly lying on my chest while I'm still in bed. Unfortunately it's really uncomfortable for me so once she's asleep DH takes her back to her cot or sometimes I managed to turn onto my side with my arm still round her. I then find myself waking 2 hours later asking DH to put her back
So, not entirely a success but she tends to be waking up less, other than teething, etc. and I will give her BF if she's not eaten well during the day or has had a big stretch of sleep and I think she might be hungry.

Good luck. We should be more dedicated about just sending DH in to settle.

Not tried at that age sorry jess, just the fact that half of all one year olds still wake in the night put me off taking away the one thing that was guaranteed to get them back to sleep.

Have you read up on night weaning, perhaps on kellymom or asksears?

I found a painless way to night wean which was reducing the time of each night feed by 1 min every other night

So, yr DD feeds for 5 mins, so do that for night's 1 & 2, then night 3, reduce it to 4, then night 5, 4 mins and night 6, 3 mins

It works - but yes good idea to get your DH involved whatever you decide

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! Ruby, will try what you suggest first, thanks

I managed for DS1 when he was about 6 months old. We did CC and I went cold turkey on night feeds. We only had 45 mins of crying iirc and then DS1 slept through.

I'm now failing to be able to do it with DS2 who is now 6 months old. I keep getting mastitis.

My story is very similar to Scrubbers. At 7 months DS was feeding hourly through the night and I just couldn't cope anymore. We did CC and it only took 3 nights. First night he cried for 45 minutes then slept through, second night was 25 minutes and third night was not even 5 minutes. Since that day he has slept through (barring teeth and illness) and he is now 20 months old.

He does like early mornings but we can't have it all!

PS not trying to say you should do CC by the way as I know you don't want to do that, just sharing our experience as we had tried every other method going. Its not for everyone, I understand that :)

I went cold turkey on night feeds three weeks ago. Had to do all the resettling myself as it's unfair to ask DH to do that during the week. Pretty tough at times but interval between wakings has gradually increased (previously up every 2 hours). DD slept through for the first time last night!! Might just be a one off but at least I feel like a human being again!

I think you're doing the right thing but what's important is, do you? If so, I think your plan is sound. Getting DH to do settling is a really good idea as he won't smell of milk which can really rile a child who has always been fed on demand in the night! Of course, it's not always possible if theyre working as daisy says.

The method of settling is important and you may need to experiment to find what suits you. There is shush/pat, pick up put down, gradual withdrawal, may be others I can't think of. Good luck.

Night weaned DD at 12 months. She was getting me up once a night but I was back at work and found it hard for ME to settle afterwards so was knackered. DD was a total boob monster but had always taken ebm from a cup and later dairy. DH went in for a week with a cup, grumpy at first but would drink after a while. After a week, she decided she couldn't been arsed with the cup or DH and slept through. Dropping bf totally at 18 months has been much harder and my previously always asleep by 7 pm child is still chatting away now and no manner of nap adjusting, lavender massages etc will shift bedtime!

I did this with DD at 6 months. After talking to a friend who had bf all her DC and mentioned I was still doing night feeds she told me to stop and was really shocked! Anyway, I thought OK I'll try and from that night DD stopped night feeding. What I did though was go in and pick her up and put her in my arms how I used to feed her but just rock in the chair for a few minutes. She cried for about 2 minutes the first time(which seems a long time especially at that time of night!) and then she sucked her thumb and fell asleep.

She kept waking up though at the same times she had before for her feeds for a good few months just needing a cuddle and would stop crying the instant i picked her up.

However she didn't actually sleep though until she was 14 months old...

Cold turkey unfortunately was the only thing that worked for me. If you want to keep breastfeeding but only during daylight hours then your husband will have to deal with it (a) you'll smell of milk and b) you'll crack with tiredness. Takes a few days but generally works then. Helps with the guilt if you can sleep somewhere else and also they seem to have a sixth sense if you are in the house and scream louder and longer.
To be honest though, if you are feeding every 2/3 hours during the day too at 12 months, you might want to think about stretching out the time frames first and getting more solids into her. Your boobs will be fuller when it's milk time and she will feed better and not just snack.
I know that she's the devil incarnate for lots of people but I found Gina Ford really useful to give me a loose structure to aim for. I emphasize "loose" and also that it was about the only thing I found useful. My god but her weaning recipes are totally disgusting.

At 7 months my dd was still feeding once overnight, but would take quite a big feed, at around 1 or 2am. As she was refusing food and still feeding 3 hourly during day I was advised to stop feeding overnight. We tried sending dh in but that made her really cross, so ended up just not going in and letting her cry it out, which was awful.

The next night she didn't wake for the feed. Within a week she stopped waking for the 10pm feed by herself and started to sleep from 7 til 7. carried on bfing til 13 months, she never woke to feed in the night again.

I am happy to have come across this thread as I am going through this with my 7 month old who is still waking for 2 feeds each night. I am quite certain it is just out of habit so I think we are going to go cold turkey tonight and cut them out. I feel really harsh about it though.

Do you think it is ok to cut them both out in one hit?

She is bf and blw and she has had a really good dinner tonight (piggy!) so I think it is a good time to start. I was happy to go on feeding her when she was having a quick 10 min feed then falling straight back to sleep but she has started being more wakeful after feeding and playing followed by crying afterwards, which tells me it is time to stop.

She woke 2 hours early for her feed the other night and I thought I would try to make her stick it out until it was time, but she cried until I gave in and fed her an hour later, so I know it is going to be really tough and I am really really really not looking forward to the night ahead. DH is on a work trip for the next 5 nights so I won't have any help either. Hopefully we will have cracked it by the time he returns.

How is it going for you Jessi? Sorry to hijack your thread.

I have changed my mind. Already. Hopeless.

My DD is in bed by 6:30pm so I think it is too long to go all night in one hit. I think I will try cutting out her 10:30/11pm feed tonight and give her the 2:30/3pm one. This should enable us both to get some sleep hopefully. Then once she sleeps through until the 2:30 one I will try to cut that out too.

Does this sound reasonable? Or too wishy washy to be worthwhile?

I'd wake her at 10pm to feed her, and miss out the 2am. That way she's not initiating the feeds, which could be quite confusing if sometimes she can feed and other times she can't.

I night weaned my DD really quite early (just shy of 6 months I think) as she had been sleeping through and then started waking for 1 feed, then 2, then 3 and wasn't feeding in the day properly. After everyone in every coffee shop in town had seen at least one of my Massive veiny boobs I decided to give it a go.

DP was working away, so it had to be me. When she woke, I went in to her and picked her up gave her a cuddle and offered her some water. I settled her in her cot and left the room, she cried but not much for a while, stopping & starting and not sounding distressed, when i was about to go back in she stopped. She did that 3 times the first night, twice the second and once for a couple of nights IIRC. She was in her own room though, which I know is against recommendations and a very personal choice.

I went into it with the idea that I would give it a good go, but that if she wasn't ready I would carry on with night feeds and try again in a few weeks