Question about night feeds

[SpookyRoo]

I co-sleep with my 11 month old and she wakes up every hour frequently throughout the night. She will latch on herself to get back to sleep and I don’t try to settle her any other way. I’m sure she isn’t hungry. She just does it for comfort and to get herself back to sleep quickly. This is what gets me the most sleep too. She goes to bed anytime between 7pm–10pm depending on her last nap/what we have been doing that day and wakes anytime between 8am–10am.

My question is - do breastfed babies naturally drop night feeds? Will she miraculously start sleeping for longer periods in between latching on until one day she doesn’t latch on at all or should I be doing something different when she wakes in the night?

Not in my experience. Especially if you're currently bed-sharing. I did something very similar to you with my first, as she didn't sleep any other way, and had to endure lots of crying to stop that practice when my second came along at 2 years. I now do this with my second too (18 months), and don't see an end anytime soon. I'm trying to see the positive - it's very snuggly when she's having a settled night.

@peckpeckpeck :( I was hoping to get 100's of messages saying 'ooh yes, it will all happen naturally, nothing to worry about' lol to make matters worse, she's started waking up earlier than usual so I'm feeling the tiredness even more now! How did you eventually stop with your first?

I think I explained to her the milk was going away. She was around 2 so could understand what I was saying. I remember she really didn't like it, but I just had to grit my teeth and persevere. She stopped asking for milk in the night quite quickly, but she still slept with me until her little sister was born, and she still woke up in the night and cried. But instead of needing milk to resettle, I had to adjust her sleeping bag. That was perhaps purely psychological - she just kept waking up, and felt she needed me to do something to help her back to sleep!

Best of luck and stay strong!

I made the mama driven decision to drop night feeds gradually at 17/18 months and baby began to sleep through.
Worth noting, there were no teething issues then- so baby wasn't using it to soothe pain anymore.
I'd have found it near impossible during teething.

Coincided with sleeping in own bed

My son dropped them, I didn't do anything. There was no sleep training or anything etc. Just kept feeding him when he woke up, he started walking up less, he eventually didn't wake up at all.