How did you nightwean your 1 year old?

[sunflowerandivy]

Hiya. My 12 month old is breastfed. She's 85th percentile, has a fab diet and is completely healthy.

Currently she is teething and is very effected by this. She's also got a chest infection so am not planning on Nightweaning until this bout of illness is over.

She is not breastfed to sleep at the start of the night or for naps, she self settles in her cot easily without any fuss. But... she wakes 2-3 times a night still and I breastfeed her as she goes crazy. She also wakes a lot at 4-5am and feeding back to sleep feels like only way to get her to
Go back. She has slept through the night (7pm-6am) 4 times in her life.

I'd love some guidance on how I can do this, please.

I night weaned around 14 months and did it very slowly. I bought a groclock and spoke to her a lot about how we were going to use the clock during the night. When I fed her I'd tell her she could feed if she wanted to but that she didn't need to etc. after a couple of weeks of talking, I set the clock for 3am - which was just before her usual first wake up time. When she woke up and the clock was on I'd feed her and tell her she's done so well to wait for her clock etc. every time she slept until the clock went on, I moved it later by 5 minutes. If she didn't make it, we'd talk about the stars still showing and that she could have cuddles. I then didn't move the clock time. It worked a lot easier than I thought it would.
If there was something like illness or bad teething, I'd sometimes feed but I'd always tell her it wasn't going to happen all the time and was only to help her etc. She definitely understands a lot more than I gave her credit for.
The night weaning improved her sleep so much - I'm sure it was giving her a sore tummy. Other things have affected her sleep but she very rarely, if ever now, asks for milk during the night - she's now 20 months.

There's lots of ways to do it - and many people who'll tell you to just co-sleep and keep doing it but it's only the right thing to do if it's right for both of you. I still feed, but I wanted to stop night feeding, so I did.
Good luck!

Jay Gordon method.

Essentially cuddling instead and sticking to your boundary.

@LGBirmingham I've read about that. Did it really work for you? I've heard mixed results.

@notthebloodyfootballagain thanks for advice. Was thinking some kind of glo clock light as a signal

My DH took a week off and did 3 nights in a row. I slept in another room, door firmly closed. DC settle better with him as he doesn’t smell like milk. Sleep improved over the coming month/s and started sleeping through.

Our situation was exactly the same as yours - same age, same wakings, breastfed, could self settle.
We waited until he wasn't teething/sick. Then we just stopped all night feeds cold turkey. DH went in when he cried (as he didn't smell of milk). DS was a bit shouty, but not upset so long as DH didn't leave him. He was offered water.
It took three nights, and then DS slept through. We did it while DH was off work, and he just had a long lie in the mornings to catch up.
It was pretty easy.
Good luck!

Yes it significantly improved sleep. It's not a magic ticket for permanent uninterrupted sleep but mine first slept through a few weeks after night weaning with this method. Now unless he has an ear infection (which he really suffers a lot with) he either wakes up once and goes back to sleep or sleeps through. The one wake I think is because I never progressed to a full night, I think Jay Gordon suggests you aim for a seven hour stretch. I just went for not offering a feed until after 4am and I stop him feeding and he goes back to sleep rather than feeding to sleep. That 4am feed has become more like 5:30 now. I probably could have done the whole night and he would likely sleep through more often, however we would definitely have more days with early starts and I'd prefer to give a feed than start our days at 5:30.

You really do have to stick to your boundary though and be prepared for lo to not be that happy about it. If you want it to work long term you have to keep it going even when lo is ill/teething etc... I think a lot of people night wean and then revert back to feeding when their baby is unsettled for whatever reason, which just means you have to go through the whole process again.

Dr Jay Gordon