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Sleep

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Original poster

I don't know how, if, or when to stop night feeds?

40 replies

Candyfloss1122 · 05/01/2018 10:08

DD is 11 months old and formula fed.

She currently wakes once or twice for a bottle. She is an excellent self settler, does so for her naps and night time sleep.

When I go in if she wakes laying her back down just doesn't work, the only thing that doesn't a bottle which she drinks alot of...usually 6oz or so, and then she is straight back to sleep.

Obviously I want her to sleep through the night, but I also hate putting any kind of pressure on her, and I'm happy to feed her.

I just don't know if this is wrong? I read so many people writing about night feeding stopping at 6-7-8 months or so, and I just don't know when it will happen for us.

I should mention, she has cmpa, so I can't switch her to normal milk, and whilst her weaning is improving it is still slow in comparison to he baby friends.

Am I doing ok to keep feeding her and trust she will sleep through when she is ready?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

gluteustothemaximus · 06/01/2018 01:28

We haven’t night weaned yet and DS2 is 22 months

TBH though, he’s had the worst teething problems I’ve ever seen, which has also caused colicky symptoms. Months and months on end of screaming and pain, the only thing he takes comfort from is feeding.

I keep saying, this time will pass!

Do whatever works for you and you’re family. Best of luck with birth of second arrival!

BoomBoomsCousin · 06/01/2018 18:15

At about 8 months our DT were sleeping through except for waking for a feed around 2 am. On the advice of a friend, we started giving ours a bottle just before we went to bed (normally around 10:30) and this seemed to stop them walking in the night for the 2 am feed. We'd wake them gently, but just enough to feed them and they'd go straight back to sleep. It was great for us and it seemed to work well for them but it did make us a bit lazy about moving away from bottles because we'd got this sleep thing down (and with twins the sleep thing had been particularly hard) and didn't want to shake it up. I think we kept up the 10:30 pm feed for over a year - no idea if they actually needed it for that long or not.

Snoopyokay · 06/01/2018 21:57

I'm so glad to read some others are still night feeding

DD is nearly 2 and still has the bottle at night maybe 3 nights out of 7, nothing else will settle her - I tried water and she screamed like she was being tortured!

Clair1408 · 06/01/2018 23:21

I don’t think it’s something you can force ... they stop when there ready I have 4 girls & 1 boy all 4 girls stopped by 2 months the last one my boy is 5 months & still wakes once .. I ave tried everything I done with the girls & more he just won’t have it he still wakes ... keep going with what yr baby wants unless there up playing .. mine wakes at 4am for cuddles

wetsnow · 07/01/2018 08:35

Night weaned both mine at 10 months.
You know when they are eating enough in the day and they are ready.
Dd1 it resulted in her sleeping through.
Dd2 still woke regularly after night weaning so no guarantee it will help them sleep through anyway.

Try it if you think it will improve your life but there will be tears.

LoniceraJaponica · 07/01/2018 14:51

"Blimey...I stopped night feeds at twelve weeks. DD just drank more milk during the day then. It only took about a week to fully stop them.”

Blimey, that is extremely young to stop night feeds. DD was a small baby. If I had stopped night feeds at 12 weeks she wouldn’t have thrived. I think your post is rather unhelpful as 12 weeks is not the norm to stop night feeds.

Mummaofboys · 07/01/2018 15:52

My cut off would be 18 months, until then I think they are still babies and so interested in the world around them that the peace and quiet of the night feeds is needed. I have a baby with CMPA have you tried OATLY milk?

Kelz02 · 07/01/2018 16:52

My almost 16 month old breastfed lady still wakes around every hour and a half to 2 hours every night she always has some since birth and will only settle when fed by me so she won’t go back to sleep for my husband only me, I think it’s become a habit and I’d love to night wean or cut down atleast on the feeds but I just don’t know how to, she just gets to upset otherwise and just wants to feed back to sleep and she is genuinely hungry too as she doesn’t eat all that much and still will not drink from a beaker and never a bottle so I can’t just stop as I’m worried she won’t get enough fluids if I do, I’m just going with it. Be hoping she will eventually just cut down and start drinking from a beaker and waking less!! Please god please lol so fed up of being tired now!

Sashkin · 07/01/2018 17:09

DS was a massive baby and thers’s no way he’d have put up with me stopping night feeds at 12 weeks either! He goes to bed at 19:30 and sleeps through to 8:30, with a feed at midnight and 6am. No way would he have managed without food for thirteen hours at that age. Maybe the pp’s baby goes to bed later or wakes up earlier or something.

DS is only 9mo so I don’t feel any pressure to night wean. He only drinks milk at nap times and before bed now so he’s getting most of his daytime calories from solids, and I’d rather focus on encouraging that for now.

Maryann1975 · 07/01/2018 20:09

Op, my youngest is now 7, so night feeds are a distant memory for me, but if you are happy to be getting up to feed your baby during the night, keep doing it. Honestly, this period of your life won’t last forever, even though it feels like it at the time. It’s lovely to read that you trust her to know if she is ready to sleep through.

For the record dc1 slept through from 6 weeks, 12 hours a night, she liked her sleep.
Dc2 didn’t sleep, Tried all kinds of methods/patterns/routines/tactics and still he didn’t sleep! Woke to be fed every two hours at age 1. Even at 9, he needs far less sleep than his siblings.
Dc3 woke once a night until roughly a year, then started cutting out night feed, but still liked to wake occasionally for a cuddle until she was about 3.5.

They are all different and as long as what you are doing works for you and your baby, it’s fine and no one else’s business.

Chaosofcalm · 07/01/2018 20:16

My DD has CMPA but at the time it was incorrectly diagnosed as lactose intolerance. When she gets to a year old you can change to calcium enriched non sweetened soya or other milk alternative.

My DD was 13 months when she has her final bottle of milk durring the night. I found her need for milk durring the night started to decrease when she had three meals a day plus 2 snacks and supper. From about 4 months she would not have any milk before bed.

It sounds like she is waking up hungry so feeding her is the best thing. She will get there with weaning. I wish my toddler could self settle.

60percentofthetime · 07/01/2018 20:50

I've just weaned my 16 month old off his night feeds, but only because he was waking twice, drinking loads and refusing his food during the day.
I made him go cold turkey (he's a bit all or nothing and gradually weaning him wouldn't have worked), and gave him water when he woke. It took two weeks but now he sleeps through (for now)!
If you're happy still feeding in the night then that's fine, but I needed my sleep!

mindutopia · 08/01/2018 09:07

Just keep feeding her. It will be obvious when she's ready. Mine dropped night feeds at 9 months, but it's because she didn't want them anymore, not because we took them away. She would only take an oz or at most two and then go back to sleep. So I just started to try to settle her with a feed first and she happily when back to sleep and slept as long as she would have with a feed, so it was clear she wasn't really interested anymore. That said, don't assume dropping feeds is the key to sleeping through. Mine still woke once or twice a night until she was 3.5 before she started to routinely sleep through, so if you have something now that works, I'd keep doing it and get back to sleep so you both get as much sleep as possible.

grannytomine · 08/01/2018 09:20

If I wake in the night and fancy a drink/snack I can go and get one, baby can't. I went with what they were ready for. I breast fed and co-slept, one was still sleeping with me and feeding in the night at 3.

We are all different and so are the babies.

Caterina99 · 09/01/2018 13:47

Hi OP. My DS stopped night feeds about 5 months when we swopped fully to formula. I noticed he was drinking a full bottle at 4am or whatever and then wasn’t that interested in his morning bottle at 7ish. I cut down the nighttime bottle by an ounce every night ish and by about a week later he was fine without it and would settle back down with just his dummy. He probably slept right through from about 7 months.

Perhaps try reducing the amount in the bottle to see if that helps. They are all different though, and waking up to deal with a dummy is as much hassle as giving them a bottle if they’ll settle straight back to sleep after it.

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