How long did you night feed your baby?

[chloechloe]

I'm interested to hear how long others night fed their breast fed baby. Did you choose to night wean? How? Did it work? Or did you wait until baby stopped of his/her own accord? How long did it take?

I have a 9mo who is currently feeding every 2 hours in the night and am torn between whether to night wean or just go with it.

I know from a medical point of view (supported by our Dr) that she doesn't need these night feeds. But it's not as simple as that is it? There are so many other issues at play. Despite my best attempts over the last 3 months she's not very interested in food. She won't take a bottle. BFing in the day is difficult and has to be done when she's hungry in a quiet dark room, or else she gets distracted by everything. Teeth are coming through. The temperature is falling and she has a cold. None of this is conducive to her eating more in the day.

On the one hand the constant waking is exhausting, I want to teach independent sleep and don't want her in my bed for another year! On the other hand, feeding gets us both back to sleep quickly without waking my toddler.

So tell me your experience!

With my first I night weaned her relatively painlessly at 9 months. She was going through an awful phase of staying awake for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night. Nothing would get her back to sleep, not even BFing, so I just stopped. With her being my first I was terrified of co-sleeping so I always put her back in the cot after a night feed, whereas with DD2 I learnt how to feed lying down and now we find ourselves here with her in my bed!

By 10 weeks I was down to a dreamfeed and by 16 weeks there were no night feeds at all.
the day feeds were all breast feeds and the dreamfeed was a bottle of formula.
I think you are aware of what's going on, your baby is reverse cycling and using night feeds to stock up then refusing to feed in the day (solids or BM by the sounds of it).
It will be a tough cycle to break, I would get in a sleep consultant if I were you although if you want something gentler and longer-term you could look up Jay Gordon's night weaning method.

Night weaned DD2 at 2 years. DH responded to any night waking after that. I was determined to do the WHO 2 years on demand recommendation. She is now feeding just morning and bedtime at 3 years. Aiming for natural term weaning overall.

DD1 was complicated. I really struggled and ended up using formula at 10 days. Then stopped bf at 3 weeks. Then relactated at 11 weeks. She had silent reflux which was controlled until 7 months. Complicated.

My long-term EBF son was 12h night weaned at 6 months. From about 3 months he was having one night feed, around 1am. I never managed a BF dreamfeed, he just slept rather than fed and didn't have formula. I never minded the 1am feed though (was nice to have a quiet, calm feed just me and him without his sister around).

He took to weaning incredibly quickly and a few days after being 6m he cut his first tooth. He woke at 9pm that night, we assumed teething pain an did dummy reinsert rather than feed. That wake up was his only one that night. So I took that as my sign he was ready to night wean and swapped sides of the bed with DH.

DH did dummy resettles for a week or so and he sleep 12h a night from them onwards.

I think critical to his early night weaning were:

• well established weaning with big portions and all food groups. From Day 1.
• not feeding to sleep. Having an established alternate in-cot settling method.

My son I mention above was DC2. DC4 was only ever breastfed at night, but she was mix-fed in the daytime from about 4-5 months old so not EBF. She stopped routine night feeds by 4 months. I continued giving ad-hoc occassional feeds until about 7 months, but not as the norm every night.

Again, we progressed quickly from starting weaning at 26 weeks and established a big solids diet very quickly. I also had an established alternate in-cot settling method from birth.

We night weaned our DS at one and thereafter he mostly slept through. However he's now 18 months and if he's ill or teething he'll still wake and want milk. Don't mind giving it to him as he goes right back to sleep after and goes back to sleeping though after once whatever it is has passed.

My 2.2 yr old still has milk if she wakes I don't see the harm, she only wakes if poorly or upset and it really settles her. I know it's not great but I'm a softie and it means she goes straight back to sleep with no fuss

My daughter is almost 11 months, she usually feeds once in the night (tends to be between 3-5am) and sometimes sleeps through without feeding. Over the past 2 months we have had a couple of lovely runs of nights where she has slept through ... then she has cut a tooth or learnt to stand up etc so all has gone backwards. Since she has managed it herself, its shown me she can do it if all is well so I am trying to stay patient and wait for it to become consistent on its own.

We gently sleep trained with PUPD when she was younger and thats how we achieved feeding once a night.

Stopped BFing at 13 months because feeding was every hour through the night.

Child didn't sleep through for another four years only and night waking because considerably worse for years, and I no longer had the boobs to fall back on.

Shot myself in the foot there.

I also have a 9mo. A month or so ago I deemed he was getting enough food during the day and I was also desperate to break a similar two hourly waking cycle. I started with the just after midnight feed, so still one feed between 10-12 and one between 3-5. I either lay with him till he was back to sleep, or cc (going in to calm on regular basis). Once that feed was sorted I stopped the 10-12 one. Now he goes to bed at 7 and wakes at 4-5 for a feed then back to sleep till 7. I'm not intending to drop this feed for a while because he hasn't put on any weight in the last 6 weeks, so will reassess next month perhaps.

I might weaned at 5.5 months, when I stopped bfing. She began sleeping through 3 weeks later 7-6. She is now almost 9 months and I haven't had to get out of bed to go to her room in the night for about 2.5 months. Sometimes she wakes and wriggles around but never cries in the night anymore.

I night weaned from about 16 months. I have no issue with babies up to 12 months, or over 12 months, BFing at night because I know I wake for the odd drink of water so I don't really buy into this 'they don't need it' thing.

I vaguely followed Dr Jay Gordon which doesn't recommend night weaning until after 12 months but you could look into his ideas or there are others. However, Dr J does recommend carrying on with co-sleeping so if you use his method, it wouldn't solve your co-sleeping problem in the next few months and you'd have a baby who wasn't going to sleep so quickly. Or you could have a baby who suddenly sleeps through and develops a love for their cot!

I have a 9 month old. From 6 months I cut out dream feed and just gave a dummy and cuddle instead. Now he sleeps from 7-6 with no wake ups, do whatever makes your life easier. Mine was easy to wean and would fall asleep within minutes of dummy and cuddle without fighting, if it had been more difficult I would have fed for longer! I must admit though that both of us are much happier now he sleeps 11 hours straight at night!

Thanks for all the replies, it's really interesting to read all the different experiences. I'm a little reluctant to stop the night feeds given that they get her back to sleep quickly. But I do wonder whether to try dropping the feeds one at a time might be a short term option with a view to night weaning at 12 months when hopefully she's got most of developmental leaps behind her.