12 months and night feeds

[happydays00]

My DD has always been a relatively good sleeper, and I feel lucky for that but, despite sleeping in her cot from 7pm - 7am- ish, she rarely does this without waking for a feed between 2 and 5am. She is not fed to sleep and will happily go down in her cot awake for both naps and bed time and settles herself to sleep quite happily with her dummy.

She has always been a bit funny about milk and won't take any milk during the day whilst awake but takes an 8oz bottle as a dream feed at 10pm and an 8oz bottle on waking (either in the night or upon waking in the morning). She eats a lot of solids during the day and snacks well but I'm wondering maybe if she is actually hungry in the night and that's why she is waking?

So advice needed really on how to cut out this night waking? She wakes and hysterically cries and as I change her nappy in the night I can often hear her tummy rumbling so I feel mean just offering her water..

I suspect it has become a habit. At 12 months she doesn't need to eat over night, and may end up taking more in the day if you stop the night bottle. You can either stop the bottle completely or water it down gradually. If you stop completely, pick a time when you can cope with some disturbed nights and then stick to it! Personally I would then comfort in other ways and hope after a few nights she will stop waking. I did this with DD at 11 months, although she was breastfed so I couldn't water down. Night 4 she slept through and then would only wake once or twice a week (big improvement on twice a night!)

Why do you change her nappy in the night?

If you stop the night feed, she will make up the calories in the daytime (assuming you always offer more than she will eat). So it's not like you are starving her.

bendingspoons I suspect you're right, and it is a habit we need to break

fate because she sleeps on her front and if she wakes crying I will change her as if not, sometimes the nappy cannot take another 3-4 hours of wee after a 3am bottle. We've struggled with it leaking up her front before which I've put down to her 2 x night bottles in relatively close succession.

Also - I'm afraid it hasn't always been the case that if I stop feeding her at night and offer her more in the day she will eat. She simply will not take milk in the day time and has refused this since about 6 months old. The only bottles she will take are upon waking (either 3am or 7am) and a dream feed at 10pm ish.

At 12 months old she doesn't need more than about 300/350mls per day. I would cut the amount in the night bottles with an aim of cutting them out altogether. Offer more food instead of milk during the day

I agree it makes sense to stop the night feeds. At this age you can give her her milk in food if she won't drink it during the day. A bowl of porridge in the morning will get a fair amount of milk in her.

We have had the same thing with our 14 month old. We recently swapped a bottle to a drink of water in a sippy cup and after 2 days, we cracked it. I think it was just habit for her. She still won't drink much milk in the day but is eating 3 good meals plus snacks, so I'm not worried.

Good luck