Night weaning 6 month old

[Ebonycat]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience of night weaning a 6-month-old - whether it worked and how you went about it?

My daughter eats three meals a day (we weaned her onto some solids at 5 months because she was breastfeeding every 90 mins - sometimes I think there must be just water coming out...) and now breastfeeds 5-6 times a day in addition to 3 meals. She is average weight.

She always settles herself to sleep for naps in her cot and at bedtime in her own room without any help from me - basically I put her down, say "sleepy time" and that's it, she goes to sleep after a minute or two of shuffling and grumbling. Also, I know she can get herself back to sleep sometimes when she wakes at night - I always give her a few minutes before going in to feed her. So I don't think her night waking is because she can't get back to sleep without comfort feeding. She has also never had a dummy and won't drink from a bottle.

I am thinking about night weaning because she still usually has 2 wakings in the night when she won't go back to sleep without a feed (usually c.10pm and c.3pm - give or take an hour) but she is never hungry for milk in the morning. This made me think that she had just got into the habit of having calories at night.

She has once randomly a few weeks ago slept 12 hours without a feed on her own, but then the next night was back to waking twice.

If anyone has tried night weaning a similar age baby from breastfeeding I'd be interested to hear how you did it. Also, once weaned did it stick or did they go straight back to eating again at the next growth spurt?

She's very young to try and make her don anything. What exactly would this night weaning entail? To be honest I think you are doing everything you can or should now, by feeding well in the day, keeping to a good nap and sleep schedule, and giving her a few moments to see if she'll go back herself rather than responding too quickly. Maybe you could just offer her a bottle with some water at night to see if that discourages her wanting a feed? But I think you should wait and see for another few months really. If she did 12 hrs once, you will probably start seeing that happening more and more.

She's still pretty young.
If she's not hungry on waking in the morning, you could try and reduce the 3am feed - just feed from one side if you currently offer both, and see how she goes. Don't turn a quick feed and back to sleep into a big awake event tho.
FWIW, both mine dropped night feeds around 9 months.

She’s very young. The general advice now is waiting until after a year.

I’m definitely no expert, but it sounds like she’s genuinely hungry. If she can and will self-settle at other times, surely her not doing so when she wants the feed is because she is hungry and needs it?

I may, of course, just be totally jealous as I have a six month old that still thinks self-settling is nonsense, feeding every 2 hours at night is barely regular enough, and naps are for losers

I agree that she sounds genuinely hungry. When you say she’s on 3 meals a day is it just fruit and veg purée? Normally with early weaning it advised to only give these, and if so they don’t really provide any great level of calories, and milk is still the main source of calories.

It’s very normal for them to still need night feeds at this age as she’s still tiny and 2 wake ups for a 6 month old BF baby is pretty good IMO.

Agree with FortheloveofJames. Mine didn’t really eat a great deal (of carbs, protein, mixed meals) until around 8/9 months and even then it wasn’t 3 consistent meals. That happened around 11 months. No need to rush it :)

You could try cutting out the 3am feed. I have recently done this with my 6 month old, just offering water if she wakes between the 10/11pm feed and 5/6am. Took three or four nights to get her sleeping 10pm-5/6am. Worth a try anyway!

She is still a bit young and seems genuinely hungry.

I also dropped the 3am feed with my older two once they were on 3 meals, and then dropped the 11pm feed around 8-9 months. Neither went back to feeding in the night after that.

If she is having a proper feed during the night I'd say she is genuinely hungry. I feel your pain though because (formula fed) DS did exactly the same - taking in calories at night and then not bothered about milk during the day.

You say that she is not hungry first thing, but what are the rest of her feeds like during the day?

I ask this because not only was my DS not bothered about milk first thing, he got into the habit of not taking a bottle properly throughout the day. I did eventually night wean him at around 6 months because he was waking at least 4 times at night, wouldn't settle without milk but would only take 1 ounce max and then fall asleep on me. He then started being really grumpy during the day through tiredness and he was previously quite a happy baby so I decided to give some very gentle controlled crying a go. Within 1 night he'd stopped waking much at night, had proper feeds during the day and decent naps too. It was almost like he had muddled up his days and nights and needed resetting. That was about 2 months ago and he is has been sleeping through for the last month or so.

I think you absolutely can night wean at the right time but it does sound as though perhaps she needs it at the moment. If she's otherwise happy and 'normal' for her, she probably knows what she needs. Obviously there are big differences between a ff baby and a bf baby too which you and other posters will be much more knowledgeable about than I am.

She loves her solids but seems to be loosing interest in breast feeding during the day. I think she enjoys sitting at the table to eat with us but only takes the minimum amount of milk from me and bellows if I try and get her to take more.

She does seem to take a lot more milk at each feed at night. Last night 3 feeds and absolutely not interested this morning.

Can I ask how you went about dropping the feeds? Did you just refuse to feed and sit out the crying for a couple of nights?

I started gradually weaning both my DC off feeds at that age. I would cut out the 3am feed by offering a very small amount of milk (say, 50ml) in a bottle, then half the amount after 3 nights, then offer only water. Worked well with both of mine. There wasn't much crying at all, though they did take a while to go back to sleep. They stopped waking once I got to the stage where I offered just water.

I slept in the spare room and DH offered cuddles and water if she woke. First night she woke on and off from 3-5 when I fed her, second night she woke at 3, DH settled her and she slept til 6, third night she slept 10.30 - 5am. She now mostly sleeps til 5, and then I bring her into bed with us until we get up at 7, although the other night she shouted a bit at 3 but I just shushed her and she went back to sleep in a couple of minutes.

Sorry @Ebonycat forgot to respond.

I let him cry for 3 minutes, went in and settled him back to sleep with his dummy and my hand on his chest for 2 minutes, then stretched the crying by 2 minutes each time - so 3, 5, 7, 10, going in for the 2 minutes of resettling between each cry. We got to 10 minutes at his first wake up at 1am, then I didn't hear from him until 5:30am and at this wake up he went back to sleep after 5 minutes. The next night he slept 7-7 and has done ever since. I'm only awake now because I've got a tickly cough that's driving me mad!

Thank you all for your advice. We had a go this week with some mixed results.

Night 1. DH steps up to mark and managed to settle her at 1am and 4am. Then I fed her at 5am and she slept to 7am. Hungry in the morning for first time in ages!

Night 2. Pretty much like night 1 in terms of settling and feeding but DH now really tired. Doesn't wake up and when he does wanders around unable to remember what he's doing.

During the day DH is in such a tired grump that he is now sacked from late night settling duty and back to day time toddler duty. I get a lie-in - whoop!

Night 3. Baby had gone down with stinking cold. Bunged nose, running eyes- the full works. I figure she probably needs a drink so end up feeding her 3 times again.

Night 4. As above. I decide to give it a rest until her cold clears up...

Ha bless your DH tired after one night 😂
I'm envious of your self settling baby. My six month old has never self settled in his life and has also recently decided that day time naps make him sad!

Yep - I successfully sleep trained the husband. He settled himself and slept like a log last night!