After 6 months they are only waking out of habit...

[afrikat]

...nutritionally they don't need milk at this point

Where does this information come from does anyone know? It seems to be stated as a fact on things like What to Expect and Babycentre and I have been told it several times in real life. However other sites (especially ones more expert in breastfeeding) say the opposite - many babies need food (and / or comfort) way beyond 6 months.

My lb is 7 months and still feeds at least twice a night and I have faith he will sleep through when he is ready developmentally but I am interested to know where the habit 'fact' originates?

It tends to come from sources that babies should be fed 4 hourly and, if you're breastfeeding, for no more than 10 minutes at a time.

Do what works for you both the best.

There is no evidence, it's just an arbitrary point. I know some babies who do suddenly sleep through by themselves once they are weaned onto solids, but to me it seems unlikely a baby will go from feeding a lot to suddenly not waking up at all.

I don't know many adults who eat their evening meal at six and then don't eat a morsel or drink a drop until 7:30 the next day so I am dubious that every tiny six month old must be able to do it.

I think if you have a baby who wakes up once a night for a small bottle then you might be able to phase it out at 6 months, wheras if you have a teething baby who wakes up multiple times for a breastfeed to comfort them back to sleep then they will be waking up anyway and to refuse to feed them just means you end up rocking or walking them about which I didn't want to do!

Can you tell both my children had 16 teeth on their first birthday?!

Bollocks.

My 10 mo DS sometimes wakes once in the night for a bottle.

Last night, for example, he woke at 4am and had 8ounces of milk.

'Comfort' my arse.

Tbh I've been known to get up in the night for a snack so it's a bit much to expect my 7mo to go 12 hours...

DS is 6.5 months and started to sttn ie. 7pm to 6/7am about a month ago. He is exclusively bf and he just sort of naturally dropped the feeds gradually going from 4 feeds to 2 then 1 and that 1 feed got later and later then just stopped. Only just started blw and he's not really eating much so wouldn't say it's to do with "introducing solids" guess it just happened naturally. I think babies do it when they are ready like any milestone, crawling, walking etc there is no set month as they are all so different. I'm waiting for the teeth to appear now to ruin the blissful nights we've got!!!

Think it originally comes from ferbers solve your childs sleep problems. Personally I don't think its correct. Babies have huge nutritional needs and their tummies are still tiny. 12 hours is a long time with no food. Ds is almost 6 months and wakes sometime from 10-12pm for a bottle. If he wakes as doesn't want milk he'll spit it back out at me!