When do breastfed babies drop night feeds?

[JellyBert]

DC1 was formula fed & dropped his night feed by 4 months & was in a routine etc.

DC2 is breastfed on demand & very much as & when, no set routine. He’s now 16 weeks & no sign of dropping night feeds, in fact he’s gone from one feed between 7-5 to 3 these past couple of nights (we cosleep so it’s not too bad).

Do they drop night feeds or am I being unrealistic thinking I might get a full nights sleep in the next year? He doesn’t take a bottle!

It depends. Both of mine were exclusively breastfed. DC1 dropped Night feeds at 16 weeks and regularly slept 9pm-7am. DC2 was feeding twice during the night until 14 months .

When they stop breastfeeding.

Mine fed at least once a night till they stopped breastfeeding at 18-24 months

Even after I stopped breastfeeding in the day they still had night feeds.

How long is a piece of string?!
Obviously all babies are different.
It's probably the Four Month Sleep Regression.
It's up to you whether you want to continue BF on demand through the night or try reducing the night feeds.
In my experience (8mo BF baby who's been sleeping badly for months and atrociously for a few weeks) cosleeping and feeding to sleep is the line of least resistance, getting him to sleep any other way is much harder work!

Still bf x2 at night at leasr at 16m 😣

Every baby will be different. My DS dropped the night feed at 6months. My DD is still waking at approx 4am for a feed at 8.5months. I figure as she continues to experience more food and eat larger portions still will eventually drop this... but then I’m still not sure.... because sometimes she doesn’t have much at all, so I think it’s for comfort/reassurance etc x

Meant to say both BF xx

Partly I’ve found it depends on the baby and partly on your routine.
Both mine have been breastfed. One was prem and was only allowed to be fed (whilst in hospital) every 4hrs, I changed the routine slightly when we got home but by 3months she was sleeping through. My 2nd went 5hrs the night she was born and gradually longer but I used the same routine that had worked for me the time before. I intend to do the same this time but like I said every baby’s different and I can’t predict how they’ll take to it.
The routine that worked for me was feeds at 7, 11, 2, 5, 7 and dream feed at 10pm. I just stretched the natural times by 5mins early or later until they got to this. I found it meant they’d got enough through the day to last the night although during growth spurts there may be one about 2am ish.
I know a lot swear by on demand feeding but it wouldn’t work for me personally and I’d have probably not bf for as long if I didn’t get the sleep or be able to arrange my days. Both have always been happy and healthy, it’s not affected my supply or their growth.

4 month sleep regression is a killer. DS was up every 2 hours at least feeding.

Now he’s 15.5 months and for the most part still sleeps in bed with me and probably feeds 4-5 times a night.

Well I was naively hoping to get him in his own cot in his own room at 6 months

Don’t want to do any sort of sleep training until then but wondering if it would be OK to try to reduce them once he’s weaning ... it’s a whole new kettle of fish!

@Waddlingwanda it’s good to know you can set a routine while breastfeeding. It’s a killer on demand & whilst I’m happy to continue at the moment I would like some sort of routine come 6 months so would like to try a bit more structure! He’s been 91st centile since birth so gets plenty of milk & my supply seems to be good but it’s the ‘not knowing’ of bf I find difficult.
At least with formula you know what they’re getting & would hate to reduce feeds & him lose weight!

Night feeds had to be forcibly removed from both of mine, sorry - none of this spontaneous ‘dropping night feeds’ lark here. They were 90min to 2hrly round-the-clock feeders until well past a year old. Any attempts at gentle reduction were met with even less sleep and even more screaming, so both got the cold-turkey treatment on night feeds around 14mo (cue about three nights of screaming and having my face/hair clawed) then I pulled the plug on BFing altogether for each at 17mo. I would like to have gone on longer but I was shattered and couldn’t cope anymore with their crafty attempts at having a kip on the boob when I got home from work, thus cocking up any chance of a bedtime that could leave me with something resembling a child-free evening.

Well both of mine (bf apart from one bedtime bottle) had dropped all milk feeds apart from the bedtime feed by 10 months, so it just depends on the baby. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll sleep through though...!

Breastfed DS was sleeping through from 7pm to 7am with a 10pm dresmfeed from about 12 weeks.

DD didn't sleep through until 2 years (stopped breastfeeding around a year) and not reliably until 3

DD stopped BFing at night when she was 25 months because my milk dried up due to being 14 weeks pregnant.

Mine dropped around a year and still hasn’t ever slept through and she’s nearly 2!

My DD stopped day & night BF at 24 months.

Maybe thats why I dont sleep at night anymore

Both of mine stopped at 6 to 8 months with the aid of a little gentle sleep training. They definitely slept better when they moved into their own bedroom too. I carried on breastfeeding them both til they were 12 months ish.

Have breastfed two children
Ds1 dropped regular night feeds at 7 months but had the occasional one when unwell / teething etc until we stopped at 12 months . His brother was born a month later and he was sleeping through 7-7 from 12 months every night
Ds2 fed regularly at night until 12 months and once a night until 18 months when we stopped breastfeeding .
Still woke for a cuddle once a night until 2 years old .
Dd has been bottle fed from birth .
Slept 7-7 from 6 months. 21 months now and rarely wakes at night

Loveyoitimminchin - can you please share what sleep training you did? I’m trying to stop my 6 month old depending on me so much to get to sleep for naps. I often wonder how I’m going to get him to sleep when I stop breastfeeding (before 1year hopefully)

Both my BF kids had feeds in night, DD dropped at 27 months and DS still has night feeds at 19 months..