What age for night weaning

[eagle2010]

Just looking for experiences about night weaning for BF babies/toddlers.

Did you actively night wean or did your DC drop night feeds themselves?

My DS is 6mo and my GP has advised cutting night feeds to the first waking (usually about 10.30/11pm). She's advised that my DH should deal with other night wakings by offering first EBM, then gradually just water.

Personally I think 6mo is too young for this but we are currently in a situation where DS is waking every 1.5/2 hours and I am slowly going crazy from sleep deprivation.

I'm hoping things get better once the 6mo growth spurt has passed and DS is more established on solids. Is that wishful thinking?!! Will I actively have to confront the night wakings? Interested to hear experiences/thoughts.

Current research says some babies may still need night BF at 9m. My DD is nearly 10m and still has a feed at 4am! Over the last month she has dropped two other feeds so I'm happy to leave her to drop this one in her own time.

I could've written this. My problem is that dd will wake and not be hungry but still need to go on the breast for a bit too go back to sleep. It's exhausting. I reckon she needs maybe one feed after the dream feed but she's up nearly every hour

What age is your DD pinkr?

DS had always been a poor sleeper but in the last week it's gotten far, far worse. I'm praying it's the 6 month growth spurt and that he'll get better soon!

Same here! Up every single hour! I'n hoping once teething settles a bit there may be some improvement. DH works nights so I can't send him in. She wakes up and instantly begins screaming until I go in to feed back to sleep. She has cut down daytime feeds though, so I do feel she needs some night feeds to compensate. She's just too interested in what's going on in the day to feed. If you really are struggling for sleep though I don't think it could hurt to give this a try. You could always offer another feed when she wakes later in the night? Let us know if it works!!

We've just dropped all our night feeds at 10 months. It's not something that we had a game plan for though. She's naturally just started sleeping through. Well she does wake in the night but is capable of settling herself again so we leave her.

she's nearly eight months but she's Always been an awful sleeper.
sunny... What did you do to encourage her to go back to sleep

I did all the things they tell you not to do. I gave her milk. Each and every time she woke and just gradually it reduced.

Sorry - there was no magic bullet it just gradually started getting better and then it just stopped all of a sudden.

Four weeks ago I was losing the will. I was tired and all I wanted was just one nights uninterrupted sleep. She's now been sleeping really well for 4 weeks.

I wish there was some guidance I could give you because I know how tired you are. But it's amazing how quickly they start to grow up once they hit 9 months. Fingers crossed it gets better for you soon.

I wish I could try it but DH isn't on board! He thinks that DS must need feeding for a reason and he doesn't want to interfere with that.

He may crumble if DS continues to wake every 2 hours though!

We have teething/introducing solids going on too so it's probably not a good time to start anything like this. Now I'm longing for the nights when he woke every 3.5 hours :)

Do sleep trained babies sleep through teething?!!

sunny that does give me hope that things will improve with time!

Waking every two hours is probably a bit unnecessary. I wonder if you can compromise that you feed every other wake-up, or feed only after your baby really isn't going back to sleep? Sometimes, my husband can settle him back down quite quickly, other times it's clear that he is hungry.

I sympathise with you entirely - my five month old seems to wake most frequently between 1 and 4am, mostly sleeps quite nicely before and after. It's just the point if the night that I actually want to be asleep that he wakes to hang out.

We night weaned DD when she was just short of one. It coincided with moving her to her own room. She was quite happy for DH to come in and settle her with a cuddle or some water. Sadly, it made absolutely no difference to sleep, she still woke several times a night until 22 months when she magically started sleeping through. But it did give me a break!

I remember her dietician saying at 7 months to stop all night feeds, offer only water, and leaver her to cry "for a few hours if necessary". It seemed like pretty cruel advice to me.

There's no way we'll leave him to cry, it's just not something either of us are comfortable with. He's still so small anyway!

I think there's a lot of confusing information for first time mums about sleep. Everyone weighs in with their opinion and I feel very overwhelmed at times!

My GP also told me that feeding him in the night will rot his teeth which I'm not sure is true.

Currently living with PIL so no scope for DS to have his own room at the moment. I feel like we will just have to ride this out for a while and see how we get on! Interesting to hear other people's experiences though and always helpful to feel like I am not alone in getting up all night :)

Depends on the child, and the parent. Night weaning works for some, but for others it becomes too distressing for the child and parent. Different children are ready at different ages. I don't believe you can force a child to sleep through any more than you can teach them to walk before they are ready. Some will wake less frequently with gentle encouragement, some will scream the house down if they don't get food and cuddles.

It's only a problem if it matters to you. If you're happy to keep going with night feeds, it's nobody else's business but yours.