Dropping 4am feed with 5 month old

[Nickname1980]

My LO is five and a half months old and I think I have him in bad sleep habits. During the day, he only naps if sleeping on me, or walking in the buggy.

At night, he falls asleep if his dad rocks and sings to him, and it takes about an hour. This is at around 7:30. He wakes up a few times between then and when we go to bed, but can be patted and sushed back to sleep. He then wakes for a breastfeed at around 1am and another at 4am and up for the day at 6am.

I'd really like to drop the 4am feed. Any advice? Or is that normal at his age?

I'd have thought he's quite young to be dropping breastfeeds. I would wait to drop night feeds until he is well established on food. Surely his calorie needs can't have dropped?

He's not on solids yet - I think I hear from a lot of friends that their babies are sleeping through and it's making me wonder if I could persuade mine to as well!

Is he waking out of habit at those times or genuinely hungry? Have you tried to settle him without a feed?

Are your friends babies bf? It's less common for a bf baby to sleep through at this age IME.

If it makes you feel better my bf 6 mo old wakes 3 or 4 times a night to feed at the moment!

Ive been trying to see if I can persuade my dd 4.5 months to drop her second night feed. I've been giving her less every few days (bf so less time on the boob) and am now down to just 5 mins on 1 side, less than half a feed. I'm going to keep going then see if she'll settle with cuddles and no food.

Afaik babies generally take more during the day I'd they drop a night feed.

3month old here..has a feed about 8ish...sleep..we wake to feed at 11am...sleeps through til 6.30am.

I think it is habit by 5 months!

No, not all people who say they babies sleep through are making it up. 5 months is not too young to sleep through at all. This is my second who has slept through by about 7 weeks. He definitely wakes in the night, but I don't feed him so he self settles.

When my 4 month old learnt to self settle we experimented with leaving him when he woke up in the night and we found that given the chance, he would drop off back to sleep with no crying by himself after a few minutes of wriggling about.

He didn't grizzle for food until between 3-5am when previously I'd been feeding him every single time he woke up as it was the only way I had of getting him back to sleep but he didn't really need it.

I do find it quite disturbing to have him waking up and thrashing around the cot all night so I am going to move him into his own room soon!

Something like half of 5 month olds sleep an 8 hour stretch some of the time - so while some babies are sleeping through at this age it is certainly not the norm.

Personally I wouldn't try dropping night feeds until they're on solids, though if I were you I would work on sleep habits generally and see if it helps.

I have an almost 5 month old who tends to feed 7pm, 11pm, somewhere between 2-3am and again between 5am-7am.

My almost 5mo does almost the same as Fledermaus's - 7, 11, 2-3ish, and 5-6ish. She used to go through from 11 till about 5 till she hit about 16 weeks. Hoping she'll go back to that soon!