When did you nightwean an EBF baby?

[sunflowerandivy]

Hiya,
Baby is 7 months old. Chunky and EBF. Tried formula but baby not into it.
She's eating well for 7 months.
She can self settle at bedtime and for naps but generally feeds to sleep at bedtime as knackered in bed between 7-8 and wakes 1-2 times mostly but it's highly variable. Woke 5 times other night and then once next night. I feed her only if it's been more than 3 hours since last feed.
When did you all nightwean your EBF baby please?

DS was 12 months, I knew for sure feeding was a habit as he’d occasionally sleep through. He’d normally feed at around 1am and around 5am with sometimes another one in the middle (I started off strict about not feeding unless it had been three hours but after unsuccessful sleep training at six months I felt too guilty and we all got more sleep if I just fed him every time).

I would say seven months it’s still very normal to be waking at night to feed - especially if by “night” you mean 7pm-6am sort of timings. Unless she’s eating loads of solids already id be a bit nervous of totally stopping feeding at night.

Personally if you want to set up for long term good sleeping habits I’d probably prioritise weaning her off feeding to sleep rather than not feeding her at night. I did the pull off method where the second you feel that their not drinking properly but just sucking half heartedly, you put your little finger in and unlatch them. If they scream, put them back on but do the same thing again as soon as they stop again. Then once she’s got used to that you can transition to holding to sleep or patting to sleep or just go cold turkey and do some sleep training. He only fed to sleep in the middle of the night though, he could self settle for naps and bedtime which helped.

Although DS didn’t sleep through early, I’m so glad we got out of feeding and rocking to sleep as he now sleeps through perfectly and self settles for naps so at least I’m not trying to persuade a much more determined older baby to learn to self settle.

Once we were sure he was ready to night wean we timed his feeds then reduced the second one by one minute a night, then did the same with the first one. He just stopped waking up once we got down to 3 minutes and the other week when he did wake up in the night for the first time in weeks I offered him the breast and he didn’t want it, which is a big change.

8 months here. DC was eating pretty well but was losing interest in her morning BF and breakfast, so I felt pretty confident that she didn’t need the night feed/feeds anymore. I chose a night when she had eaten and BF really well through the day, and when she woke that night I just gave her a cuddle and put her back down. I expected her to kick off but I was really surprised how little she fussed! I think she woke 3 times the first night, and she slept through for the first time on the 6th night. We’re now about a month in and she sleeps through pretty consistently now.