Does my 10 month old really need to eat during the night?

[LittleEwe]

My son first slept through over a month ago after I gradually reduced his milk night after night. A few nights later he woke up in the night again and would not go back to sleep without milk ( we tried for an hour).
Then we spent another week gradually reducing milk to get another day or two. We repeated multiple times, sleeping through does not last more than a few days.
I'm confused as to whether he could genuinely be hungry when he stops sleeping through? Our is he too old to be genuinely hungry at night?

Well, sounds like he is genuinely hungry. Maybe it’s a growth spurt or maybe he needs an evening snack like porridge?

Yes, I’d try supper and see if it stops the night waking.

Is he eating well in the daytime?

He’s 10 months that’s still so little, too young to night wean, he still needs milk at night!

Not too young to night wean - as long as he’s eating enough in the day. Try porridge before bed as pp suggested.

I completely disagree with Rhino. It's not too young. But the problem you have is that he's still hungry, so that needs to be addressed, as other pp's have suggested.

I wouldn't night wean until well over 12 months to be honest. It's different if they naturally don't wake but if he's waking and taking milk it sounds like he's hungry

My 10 month old is currently waking up for milk; he’s previously slept through from six months. But now he’s crawling, cruising, going up and down stairs (9,000 times a day…) – needs the energy. I can’t get more calories into him in the day (I’ve tried!) but eventually he’ll get bigger and able to eat more per meal, and stop waking for milk. We’ve had one or two nights he’s gone through to 4am before needing a feed so when he’s not hungry, he doesn’t wake. The trouble is at this age they also get bored at meals because there are more exciting things to be doing, so they eat just enough then want to get down and play. This phase lasts for at least five years, judging by my oldest…

He's definitely hungry. My 13mo still wakes once a night for a bottle. He's extremely active so I figure he must need those extra calories

I don't think any of us can give a definitive answer! Some babies continue night waking until they're much older than 10 months, and will only be fed back to sleep. My sister was doing this with her 2 year old, and it was habit, not hunger. How much and at what times is your 10 month old eating and having milk during the day? It might be that a bigger feed at supper time will enable him to sleep uninterrupted. Or possibly he just isn't ready to sleep through. Is he walking yet? Or incredibly active? All these factors will contribute.

@Oblomov23 but as you say he is hungry and the most important form of nutrition is the milk…