Night feeds for a 6.5 month old

[mrsmugoo]

First off let me start by saying yes I know that it is very normal for a breastfed 6.5 month old to wake for a feed in the night. But also I've read on MN of Mums who still feed their toddlers in the night too. I personally wouldn't be happy with that and I'm just not sure where or how to draw the line on night feeds.

My question is - how do you know when to stop night feeds i.e when do they stop needing it and are only waking because they like it? My DS loves the boob and I'm sure he will continue to wake for it as long as he can get away with it!

He goes down at 7:30pm (goes down awake and self settles, always) wakes between 2-4am and after a feed will go straight back to sleep for maximum of 3 hours. If he wakes at 4 then he'll sleep to his normal wake up time of 6:30. if it's nearer 2am then he'll wake again around 5:30am and need another feed to get him off to sleep for another hour (usually in my bed by this stage). I struggle to get back to sleep after night feeds so I am often awake from around 3am all the way to 6:30am and I'm knackered.

The second feed is no doubt just for comfort, but it's either that or start getting up at 5:30am which I'm not keen on.

Last night he woke at 2am and it irritated me that he woke so early given he had a good day of solids yesterday and plenty of BFs so we tried to resettle him with a cuddle and some water and he just wouldn't go back to sleep and started to really cry, which he never ever does in the night. I fed him after an hour of holding off and of course he was straight back asleep.

Do I just carry on feeding him whenever he wakes? How do I encourage him to sleep through the night? I would really like to start getting some sleep at some point!

6.5 months is so young and if he's not drinking much from a sippy cup or doidy mug yet I'd be loathe to drop all night feeds.

How much does he eat/ drink in the day?

That does sound tough Mrs. Insomnia's rubbish. I do feel that its young to go for so long without anything to drink though. My ds is the same age as yours and still feeds loads at night, although i know i need to try and do something about this soon

Thank you for all your replies - it's good to get a balanced view on this.

I think what I've decided is that I need to wean him off being hungry in the night so last night I only let him have one side when he woke for his feed. I'll set a time limit and then gradually reduce over the next couple of weeks so hopefully by the time we do the room move we're in a strong position to drop the feeds. After a smaller than normal feed he took longer to settle back to sleep but he did it with no fuss and slept for the same amount of time.

He breastfeeds a lot in the day and is taking a small amount of solid food at breakfast / lunch / dinner but he doesn't like being spoon fed so it's mostly making a huge mess with finger foods and the odd weetabix being spooned in by stealth.

I think my sleep will improve once he's in his own room as creeping in in the pitch dark and silence and getting into bed without a wind down e.g reading isn't that conducive for sleep.

I'm really ready to return to work - being a SAHM is not the life for me so I would like to accelerate the sleeping through the night if I possibly can.

And yy to night wakings becoming a joint responsibility. My DH has never done one in his life because it's always been boob he's been waking for.

Hi mrs mugoo, think our babies are v similar age too. I'll just elain what we did/are doing.

We did sleep training at 6 months to stop the 3/4 wakes every night, dropping to 2 wakes that I was feeding for. I weaned dd off the second feed by reducing the bf then offering water in a bottle.

Tbh although people said she wouldn't bother waking when only water on offer she still did, so stopped water and just cuddles, then patting, until she was only crying a little and was stopping within 10/15 mins without me going to her. She now only wakes once for a feed.

Like you, I started doing a dreamfeed but gave up as I needed to get to sleep earlier.

Now she's dropped the 4am wake, what became a midnight feed is creeping later. I'm hoping this continues and I'm reducing the amount I give, so the other night was one side only.

I tried this when she was feeding at midnight and she just woke really unsettled at 5:30 but when the feed was 3am she was good til morning.

I def sleep soooo much better without dd in with us, not panicking when DH rolls over etc. can chat and read before bed. We ended up moving dd out at 16 wks as DH kept waking her whenever he shuffled about.

After two nights of reducing to one boob he then did 5 consecutive nights sleeping through until at least 6am.

We're in holiday at the moment and he woke at 4 last night but I gave him a tiny feed and put him back down but when we get back home I'll be stopping all feeds pre 6am as I know he is perfectly able to manage without!

Pretty sure last nights wake was just due to unfamiliar surroundings and being a little unsettled.

Woo hoo what a triumph!

Reading this with interest. My 7mo (just turned) sounds the same and I too find it hard to get back to sleep. One thought/question... Do you think babies need to be eating 3 solid meals before they can drop the night feed?

I wondered this too, but mine has (seemingly) dropped his night feed all by himself and he is certainly not taking in an amount of solid food that would have any bearing on his overall appetite - it's literally bits of sucked bread and the odd spoonful of something here and there at the moment.

In fact he slept til 6am this morning and yesterday he didn't even have solid dinner last night because we're on holiday and he fell asleep in his pushchair at dinner time and so we didn't bother,I just bf him when he woke instead.

I think it's bollocks that a 6 month old doesn't need night feeds, and have never seen any evidence that backs it up. It's entirely dependent on how much nutrition they take during the day. DD was a snacker and you could (and still can't) force her to take more than she wants at that moment in time, so the idea that she would tank up during the day and go longer a night was never a goer. It also depends on how they take to solids as well, surely? Most first weaning foods are quite calorie-poor compared to milk as well.

I found the 4am feed the hardest one to drop - by 4am she was actually hungry (or at least peckish). And just because she would do a few weeks of sleeping through without milk, a growth spurt could easily find her waking up hungry for a week or so.

At that age, given your baby isn't waking up every 90mins/2hrs needing the boob to go back to sleep, I would suggest that there is a need for milk, whether for thirst or hunger.

Dd seems to have decided to sleep through suddenly! She's got a cold and I guess was really tired at night, this week she's slept 7-7 twice, and twice woken at about 10:30 probably because I disturbed her going to bed then not again til morning.

Hoping it continues when she's better, but at least I know she can!