Did breastfeeding stop night wakes?

[Liv316]

Hi all!
My little one is 9 months old and my plan was to stop breastfeeding at 1 year old for a few different reasons. He still wakes several times a night and I feed each time he wakes.

So I just wondered had anyone done this and stopped breastfeeding successfully without too much of a fight? If you did, did it stop night wakes? I would also be quite scared incase I did stop and he still woke up as much as he does now.

Bumping because I also have a 9month old DS and have been wondering exactly the same!

It might for some but I stopped feeding DS at 16 months and he still wakes as many times in the night now as he did before. It is easier to put him down on an evening now though because he's not falling asleep on the boob and waking up when it's gone.

Made no difference with DC1. Still woke for bottles. Same with DC2. Still woke frequently for quite a few months after, had to cuddle back to sleep (was fine at not being offered a feed though).

It really does help to have another person take over night time settling for a week. My DH took a week off work. But I hadn’t stopped feeding altogether (just night weaned)

I night weaned at about 14 months. DH settled DD for maybe 2 nights and then she slept through (having been a horrible sleeper!). It worked for us.

Babies wake for many reasons at night, not just hunger. When you are bf you tend to stick them on the breast because it solves most reasons they wake. So if you stop bf you might not feed so many times at night but chances are your baby will still wake. Sleep studies show that what you feed your baby doesn't actually affect the number of times they wake and in fact bf mums tend to get more sleep, probably linked to a bf being an instant soother. You might find bottle feeding mums or bf mums who give a bottle at night tell you their baby magically slept with a bottle but sleep studies also show that when they compare mums reports on sleep with actual sleep data from recordings the bottle feeding mums under report wakings and over report sleep. Not on purpose, it is just their perception.

After all we wake too don't we? Thirsty, wake and get a drink. Need the loo, wake and get up and go, need to adjust the covers? Turn over? Bad dream? Loud noise? Bastarding early morning birds tweeting? The hum of the heating coming on? Cold? Hot? Just want to slip your arm round your partner for a cuddle?

When we wake for any of those things we wake, sort ourselves out and go back to sleep/lie there staring at the dark cursing the fact we can't get back to sleep. Your baby needs you to help them out for all those things. The only one that can't be solved by the breast is the toilet/nappy change.

I night weaned both mine at 9/10 months. At that age, feeding back to sleep stopped working.

I did controlled crying. It took 4 nights and they slept through from then on

DD was definitely waking for comfort and cuddles. When it was DH only offering those she obviously decided sleep was preferable! DD was (and still is) a bit of a Mummy's girl

Yes, was waking 3ish times a night + feed morning and evening. Stopped breastfeeding and slept through within the week. Thought it would be horrendous, was actually quite quick.

Thanks all. My main reason for stopping is not just because of night wakings but it is a reason why I would possibly continue as it is easier to get him back to sleep currently. So I wouldn’t want to stop and then regret it. Mainly it is because I find it incredibly difficult to leave him due to incase he needs a feed and I’m not there and therefore have little self care for myself. So it would be nice for him to be able to stay over at Nan’s every once in a while without me worrying about him needing a feed

I'm not sure if this helps your situation but we night weaned DD at 13 months and I still breast fed at other times so it's possible to do that without stopping feeding at other times if you want to.

I found 9 months a real borderline age in terms of leaving them, feeding etc. Eating some real food but not tonnes, still having a decent amount of breast milk but not reliant on it. If it's reassuring at all I found it changed hugely between then and 12 months as DD got better at eating.