Does my 9 month old need night feeds?

[laulea82]

Hello

Super tired mummy and daddy here. Our 9 month old ds has slept though a total of 4 times (til 5am). Weaning has been a bumpy road with days ranging from zero solids to huge meals. The last three weeks he has found his hunger and eats everything offered and more.
He's had a night feed every night and more recently now has two 8-9oz bottles overnight.
He has food about 630pm followed by 12oz of milk before bed. Then he's up 12 ish and 4 ish for a full bottle each time. He will kick off if we try to comfort him any other way.
We both have demanding jobs and a 3 year old little firecracker. The lack of sleep is getting to us. One get up we can cope with (just).
So - should we stop night feeds? How?
Thanks in advance

Dame that is what I fully expect!! I can but try. I need to try something. The wait and see approach does not sit right with me!
Might drop 1oz then wait til he's satisfied with that before dropping another oz. rather than doing it week on week. Then I will know I'm not depriving him.

Hate to break it to you but it's normal for a 9 month old to not STTN.

I know lifelong
As I said in my op we would cope ok with one night feed. But every 3-4 hours is exhausting us.

And I don't know anyone else who has babies who still have milk in the night at this age. Or maybe people lie!

Maybe they go to bed later so technically they sleep through as 'night' is midnight-6am? Maybe they lie- a lot of people do,or just blur the truth a bit! Honestly, most babies I've looked after/ known/ my own ds have needed feeding until at least a year old.

My DD is 15 mo, BF & still wakes 4 times a night. I have one mum friend who says her daughter STTN & therefore has no milk.

Ah maybe dame. There's no way he'd stay up past 730 he's pooped by then!
My vision is for one night feed and every now and again a sttn maybe before he's one. Or before Xmas. Just dreaming now aren't I. I started to feel better once I accepted it's just the way he is but I've gone the other way now like there's something which needs fixing.

You will look back when he's a thumping great toddler and realise how little he is atm. Just because he went through the night a few times doesn't mean he's capable every night just as we don't always sleep through.

I tried to word that as best I could without sounding patronising!

Ha ha dame. You're right. He's only done it 4 times til 5am and he was poorly and off his food so doesn't really count. I just don't think he's capable of sttn and is hungry. But I doubt myself cause everyone keeps telling me he doesn't need it and I should refuse night feeds.
He's already a strapping boy who weighs the same as our three year old!

He needs his grub! perhaps he'll be a rugby player?

It's perfectly reasonable for him to feed in the night BUT it is also reasonable to limit that, especially when it means he is so full he doesn't want to eat in the day.
Please don't feel that you can't gradually reduce his milk at night. Yes, lots of people like those above continue feeding at night but lots of people gradually discourage it.
Some babies stop if their own accord, some don't. If he's big and strapping, (like mine was at this age), I would hesitate to gently cut down the night milk. He won't starve, he'll increase his daytime intake!
Take care.

Sorry should say wound NOT hesitate !

Thank you. We are gradually reducing. He's back on one night feed since last two nights. Think / hope the two feeds was a spurt of some sort. So last night offered 7oz rather than 8 and he didn't notice. Gonna wait for a while til he's happy with this.then reduce to 6. It might take 2 months or longer and it might not work at all.
So tired all the time. It makes me teary some mornings at work I have to pretend I'm ok.

I found I could reduce every 2-3 nights and she didn't notice!
Once she was on one feed, I never gave a second again, just water and a cuddle.
I had to try something as I was losing my mind.
Once we night weaned, she slept through 2 or 3 nights a week (woke early for milk - think half 5) but having a continuous block of sleep restored my sanity.
She's started reliably sleeping through since about 15 months...

Just wanted to say sorry about mentioning the watering down formula. Ignorant advice as I never actually had to do it as DS was bf in the night. Realise now, gotta be careful of what one advises, I has just read it somewhere , really really sorry :(

Just for the record when I night weaned my DS between 9 and 10 months he made up for the milk he didn't have at night in the day therefore getting the same amount of milk pretty much, nutrition wise. I just wanted him and I to get more sleep and for him to get used to not needing it in the night and needing it in the day ;)

that your LO does guzzle quite a lot so a gradual process may be better. He loves his milk doesn't he x x good luck x x

Ours still feeds loads at night at one year old (but is underweight...)

If you've got two feeds to do via bottle then the obvious solution is you do one and dh does the other ?

Have you tried giving the milk in a cup rather than a bottle?? I think this may help you to see if this is a need for food rather than a comfort thing.

Thanks thehubbles. That's what we do. Or let each other have a full night. DH and I share the load 50/50 bit still have early starts for work.
He's definitely not underweight!
Two 7oz feeds last night. I guess we just have to ride it out.

And yes might try a cup. He will have milk in a cup in the day but much prefers a bottle and quite frankly he drinks a bottle so much quicker it means I don't have to wake up as much to give it him.

Hello everyone

So we are back on one night feed and have been reducing. He's now ok with 4oz in the night.

So. Do I keep reducing or do I stop completely?? I'm sooooo tired.

4 oz is very little, I'd keep reducing - you're nearly there! Not long to go!

So update. We're still doing 4oz but he's going longer. He now gets up about 3-4am then has his 4oz and up for the day at 7. Actually given other people's situation this isn't that bad so I'm going to stop complaining.

Oh and he's got bad nappy rash from constipation and constipation from too much milk. And he's nearly 1 😝

Our little boy is 9months old and is still having two nights feeds. Glad to know we aren't the only ones! He has 8oz at 7pm and then wakes at 10/11 and drinks 6oz and then 2am and drinks another 6oz and then up for the day at 6/7ish where he drinks 6oz. He has 3 meals a day and he eats so much food! On the odd occasions he has slept through or just had the one feed but not very often our best nights are when he wakes around 12ish for a feed and then sleeps through until 6am. I might try slowly reducing the amount of milk in each night feed and see how we go! Good to see a positive story to it.

Also on another note my dd4 has cmpa and was on pepti 2! So much more common now to see others on it aswell

Soooooo... ds is now 12 months old!
He now sleeps through about once every two weeks. Still has 4oz in the night. Tonight I will NOT be offering milk in the night just water. Must stay strong. Wish me luck.

How did it go op?