How to stop night feeds

[laura2023]

My baby wakes up at 4am for a bottle every night, it's become habit rather than hunger now I'm sure.

If his last bottle is 6pm he'll sleep straight through til 4am so we've tried giving him another bottle at 9/10pm or making his evening one later but he still wakes up at 4am regardless and won't settle back to sleep until he's had a bottle.
We've tried just picking him up for a cuddle but no luck.

Any ideas appreciated!

How old is your baby?

Depends on age.

How old is he op? If he’s older than 6 months and you’re sure it’s not hunger then you could offer water at that time! That’s what I did with mine but he was well over one and still waking for one feed, we felt the same that it was habit.

In the same boat here op so following with interest. Though mine's now a toddler and wants to use me as a human dummy rather than a drink! 😫

Sorry, age would've been helpful 🙈
He's only 3 months so fully understand that night feeds may still be a necessity for a while yet but he's comfortably going 8-11 hours earlier in the day (say 5pm - 4am) so I just want to shift that block of sleep back a bit. Or at least make sure the waking is actually hunger because it seems odd that he'll wake at 4am regardless of whether his last bottle was 5pm, 10pm or somewhere in between.

At 3 months he probably still needs that 4am feed.

With respect, I think you need to alter your expectations of a 3 month old. Already sleeping a solid block of 8 hours is exceptionally fortunate at that age and there's zero reason to assume after 6 hours, let alone 11, that he's not going to be hungry. Why are you wanting to "shift the block"? If it's because of your own sleep then you need to capitalise on when he does sleep and go to bed earlier yourself rather than expecting to be able to change his schedule at 3 months old.

I think you've misunderstood my post.

I'm aware that sleeping for that length of time is pretty exceptional for his age and of course I would expect him to be hungry after that time.
However my point is that he wakes at 4am every single night regardless of how long it has been since his last feed. If it has been 11 hours, of course I'd expect him to wake up, but if it has only been 3 or 4 because we woke him for a bottle around midnight then not so much because I know he can, and frequently does, sleep for longer periods than that.

Of course I would continue to give him night feeds for as long as he needs them but I don't want to get into a situation where he wakes at exactly the same time every night out of habit rather than necessity.

A baby needs to be fed around every 4 hours. He’s waking up at 10pm and 4am because his last feed was 6pm. Those are normal times for your baby to wake up. Your 3 month old baby is hungry. 10pm-4am is a good stretch of time!

Your 3 month old shouldn't be going 8-11 hours without a feed. Your baby needs feeding every 4 hours at that age.
as the poster above said, you need to change your sleeping habits and go to bed earlier rather than trying to changing the sleep and eating habits of a 3 month old.

Lots of children sleep through at 3 months actually especially if bottle fed

If you want to wean him off the habit give a smaller feed for a couple of nights and then just water

Obviously it could backfire as his current habit is actually not that bad compared to what a lot of babies that age do- could be that if you break that habit he wills wake more/unpredictably

3 months is too early to be thinking about 'habits' or the future. Babies need regular feeding when young.

At 3 months he’s doing brilliantly , you just have to accept for now he wakes at 4am . It won’t last forever , but there really is nothing to ‘change’.

If your tiny baby is hungry, you feed them. You don’t need to expend energy wondering why they’re hungry and you certainly shouldn’t be trying to work out how to train them to get less food than they clearly need.

Their stomachs are still tiny at 10 weeks so yes baby will be hungry.

A baby of 3 months should not be given water, please do not do this

This is incredibly dangerous advice. Please do not give your baby water instead of formula, they don’t have any need for it under 6 months of age and it could make your baby poorly.

Please don't ever do this with a child under 1. Giving water to babies is very dangerous.

OP, just feed your baby the correct amount when they are hungry, they are tiny and sleeping very well already.

Once they are over one and eating 3 meals per day you can start removing night feeds.

He's not waking up at 10pm, I said we purposefully wake him up then for a bottle before bed.
If we don't he'll sleep through from 6pm til 4am.
It's not unhealthy for a 3 month old to sleep that length of time if bottle fed as long as it's them leading it.

I really think my post has been misinterpreted.

I am giving him as much milk as his asks for. But when he wakes at 4 it is the same time regardless of when his last feed was.
If his last feed was a long time before he'll drink the whole bottle but if it wasn't that long he'll stress until he gets a bottle then hardly touch it.
If he woke an hour later actually hungry that would make much more sense but he's waking at 4 even when he's not hungry.

They are leading it and asking for milk at 4. Because they are hungry. Even with a 10pm feed, baby still going 6 hours without food. So waking to be fed after 6 hours is perfectly normal. Baby is only 10 weeks.

If the bottle at 10/11pm makes no difference, then for now I'd stick to the 4am bottle. How much is he drinking?

It's not unhealthy for a 3 month old, good weight, formula fed baby to be sleeping 8 hours.
I'm not waking him every 4 hours for a feed just because that's what the internet says he "should" be doing.
And I'm not going to start going to bed from 6pm til 4am because that's ridiculous.

Health visitor and GP are very happy with his weight gain and the time he goes between bottles. As long as they say he's healthy and he seems happy then I'm happy too.

Meant to add that I'd stop the late night bottle and just let him sleep, but still give the 4am.

id just feed him for now. Things move pretty quickly and it could change again. God if I’d had 10-4 when mine was 10 weeks I’d have been ecstatic!