20mo waking almost hourly for feeds

[Wolveryeti]

I do co-sleeping with our youngest (20m) daughter, who is breast fed. Unfortunately she has become absolutely unsatiable overnight - often feeding well, then drifting off only to wake up about an hour later to request another feed. We have tried different things:
-Coaxing her back off doesn't work - sne just starts shrieking and crying
-Giving her a good feed of solids before bed doesnt really change things
-She won't take a bottle (and essentially never has)

The only thing that works is handing her over to hubby at 4/5 am in morning in a different room to sleep in her buggy for a few hours. Not an ideal fix though as we are both cranky and tired.

Any input welcome - nighttime currently feels worse than having a newborn!

You need to wean her. That's ridiculous. Whatever benefit she gets from such extended breastfeeding is minimal compared to the cognitive and emotional cost of such disturbed sleep.

Maybe she's actually ready to wean? I breastfed much more infrequently by that age (twice a day) and would have continued for longer if DC had wanted. But both were ready to stop between 18-20 months.

At 20 months she doesn't need night feeds. It's just a habit now that you need to break. Get husband to settle her at night and consider sleep training.

Could she be teething or something? I let my DD bf at night until she was 2.5. I know she didn't need it for food, it was comfort/helped her get back to sleep. I don't think it's unusual for them to go through periods of feeding quite often even though they don't "need it" if your norm is breastfeeding and cosleeping - usually related to illness or something. However if it doesn't improve quite quickly you are definitely at an age you can wean and cosleep if you still want to, and my experience is that it will improve night wakes a lot. Lots of info online about it.

She doesn't need feeding at night, she needs sleep. It's as bad for her as you being up hourly. Go cold turkey - no feeding, just a drink of water and comfort and cuddles from you or DH. You'll have a rough couple of nights, then you'll be through it. She needs to be taught how to sleep without feeding. Good luck!

Are her back teeth coming through, if so, have you tried ibuprofen?

Agree with the others though, it's time to night wean.

I was BFing my own at 29 months but both were in their own room.

Sleep with her cot sheets, or if you want to move her tonight just put them in your bed for today before you put them on her cot.

This will give the cot the nice reassuring smell if your bed.

You might find that once she's in there, she wakes less for feeding.

If not, you could do some gentle night weaning.

*20 months

Its comfort not hunger. Put her thumb in her mouth 🙈

Thanks for all responses - v. helpful. We will look into night weaning and potentially sleep training.