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To drop night feeds or not?

2 replies

teacher123 · 09/10/2012 13:08

My DS1 (5.5 months) has been a pretty rubbish sleeper from day 1, and although things are massively improving with him now able to nap at home in the day and self settle at night, we are still a long long way from sleeping through. I saw the HV today and she said that as he's 91st centile and feeding every 2 to 2 1/2 hours during the day he should be able to do 12 hours at night without a feed. This surprises me as the HV I saw 3 weeks ago told me to under no circumstances drop night feeds for a good few months yet...

At the moment on a good night he goes to sleep at 6pm, wakes for a feed at 11ish and 3ish and then up at 7. At night if he wakes sooner than 4 hours since his last feed i go and give him a pat, and he usually goes back to sleep again. He usually has a maximum of 2 hours sleep in the day, a nap in the morning at 10am and a nap at 1pm. But now the HV has got me thinking, should I be pushing for the magic 12 hours? He's ebf apart from a little bottle of formula at bedtime. Am planning to start weaning in the next few days.

How do I know if he's hungry?!

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Iggly · 09/10/2012 23:06

If he doesn't settle without a feed then he's hungry... Keep patting and if he sleeps, great, if not then feed. You could try reducing the length of feeds at night so he slowly adjusts by feeding more in the day? (if you just dropped cold turkey, it would be unpleasant for both of you). Maybe keep the 11pm one to be sure?

teacher123 · 10/10/2012 09:12

Well, he must have listened to the HV, last night for the first time EVER he slept from 6pm-2am, then had a big feed. Woke up at 4 as was cold so changed his growbag and then got up at 7.15!!! He did whinge a bit at 5.30 but I left him to it and he went back to sleep!! Am amazed! He's never ever done that before!

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