If you feed baby in the night how often?

[Pinklilly]

Hi all,
i have a 6month old exclusively breastfed baby who is unfortunately a very poor sleeper and she wakes frequently. I’m quite happy to feed at night but I usually assess when the last feed was and try other settling methods if it’s been too soon. These methods take much longer but I know how strong the feed and sleep association is so I am keen to try other things too. I just wondered how often others feed?
I tend to settle with other methods if it’s been less than 3 hours since last feed, is this reasonable? Of course I know every baby is different I’m just trying to gauge.
this is my second baby but my first slept really well and would wake at about 6 or so hours into night so I was happy to feed. Whereas my second wakes 2 hours after putting down and hourly thereafter! I have sleep trained her and it was working so well and then one day it just stopped. But I’m still trying the settling methods from the plan.

so yeah in summary how often do you feed baby at night if you do? And if not what settling techniques do you do?

My nearly 6 month old is formula fed and has a bottle at 6:30... then usually around 10 and then 3/4... he just seems always hungry! In between I try shush and pat, some rocking or singing. I'm the same as you and try to leave at least three hours between feeds but sometimes you know they just want food.....

Yes and he wakes around 8:30/9 .. really grumpy and I have to settle and keep settling until he kind of wriggles and grumps his way through till 10 when I give up and feed him. Not sure what to do to get more sleep tbh

When you say exclusively breast fed do you mean no solids yet? They are probably getting hungry between feeds if that's the case. I bottle fed & at that age moved onto hungry baby milk. Not sure if it still exists. But it was thicker and kept them full for longer. If they are on solids could you introduce a couple of spoons of food at bedtime if you don't want to go onto formula?

@idontthinkimunresonable thats so helpful to read as sometimes you often hear that formula fed babies are sleeping “better” but clearly each baby has a different level of hunger. It’s not easy but hopefully each day that we do is another step closer to better nights!
the wriggling and grunting you describe- my daughter does the same but I’ve found that even though it wakes me up and I want to intervene it seems she settles better if I leave her to it. It’s noisy but she then calms and sleeps. But the cries I of course respond to I just try not to always offer milk!

@converseandjeans so my daughter has started weaning but is only really eating one meal a day (as she just started) and that meal is around 5:30/6 with bedtime at 7ish so I thought that was sufficient in terms of giving something before beds . I’m totally happy to feed at night I just think then feeds should be reasonably spaced but there is no guidance really as to what that is! I’ve chosen 3/4 hours based on her daytime pattern of drinking milk. Do you think food makes a difference to night wakings?

Baby 10 months old, eats pretty well in the day, and is breastfed. She'll wake between every twenty mins and two hours at night depending on whether she's teething, got a lot going on developmentally, got a cold or whatever. Normally only takes a bit of milk before she's asleep again. My oldest self weaned at 13 months and slept through from 18 months (was also a crap sleeper when younger) so I'm just waiting for her to get older and need less support sleeping.

@Littlepicklepie thank you for your insight. So do you offer milk at every wake-up?
good to hear about your eldest sleeping through despite being a challenging sleeper when younger.

I wouldn't worry about counting the hours feeds, just do what you need to do to get them back to sleep so that you can sleep too.

Is baby feeding regular good feeds during the day?

I'll give her 5-10 secs in case she's just shuffling around (we co sleep) but if touching her to let her know I'm there isn't enough then yes 😊

One of the befits of breastfeeding for me was how quickly they went back to sleep at night. It also releases sleep hormones for mum to help with going back to sleep.

@Pinklilly

Do you think food makes a difference to night wakings?

I'm no expert but would think that they need breakfast, lunch & tea. I can't imagine just milk is enough to keep them full at that age.

I think the current advise is that just breast milk (or formula) is all baby needs and completely meets babies full nutritional needs at 6 months

Yep, milk (breast or formula) is all they need. If anything, I found adding an evening meal made sleep much worse as my baby was then squirming trying to digest it 🤦

My baby is 6 months and breastfed and I feed every time he wakes. The only time I don’t is if I have put him down and he wakes straight away when I will then pick him up and rock him.
he was sleeping 2-3 hours and then waking hourly after that but the last few nights is doing longer stretches and I haven’t changed anything.
Some of the wakes he feeds for a few minutes and is put back down asleep and I am laying back down after only 8 minutes so for us feeding every time works.

Thank you everyone it’s really useful to read and encouraging that feeding on waking isn’t necessarily creating tough associations. I see the consensus is about doing what works to help baby get sleep and in turn me!

@Pinklilly
Definitely no right answers if I try and follow a book I just end up in tears casue that's not what baby needs. However i did start something at 5 months which seems to be helpful and that's giving baby cwtchy cloth / comfor cloth to hold when I feed in night. So he hopefully links the cloth to comfort not just boob. It seems to be slowly working as he now holds it through bars of crib and sometimes goes back to sleep on own!

In a very similar situation here OP. I am also trying only to feed every 3 hours and I seemed to be making some progress but last night was awful. She is capable of self settling as she goes into her cot awake at the start of the night and falls asleep quite quickly (with soother) and can also resettle herself sometimes at night after a very small amount (no more than a minute or so) or crying. But the wakings last night were so frequent, every hour. Her naps have gone to pot also, she's been refusing morning and evening nap and just doing 1.5-2 hours during the middle of the day which clearly isn't enough. As she is capable of sell-settling I am not sure if I should try something different or if this is just a phase and I need to ride it out with the help of strong coffee!

Should probably also add my baby is also 6 months and just started solids but doing blw so not sure how much is really going in at the moment.

@OrionNebula so it could be a coincidence but since this feed and reading people’s responses (thank you everyone) I’ve been being more responsive and less clock watching so feeding when I think it would be helpful. Not necessarily every wake up but not following any specific hours just trusting instinct and following her cues/needs. Weirdly she is sleeping better for it! I’m not sure if it will be short lived but it almost feels like me “delaying” feeding or trying to prevent an association only perhaps was not providing her with the right support she needed!

anyway I guess what I’m saying is trust your instincts too and see how you go if you do deviate from the 3 hour rule.
we are also weaning and doing blw but I do think she’s actually eating a decent amount- so maybe that’s contributing too!

@Pinklilly interesting! Funnily enough the last 2 nights she has started going 3 hours herself in the earlier part of the night. So having a feed at 6:15, down at 6:30, waking at 9:15, 12:15 & 3:15. Then after that she woke again at 5:30 & 6:30. I fed her at 5:30 and brought her in the bed at 6:30.

I guess I will just have to ride it out and hope she starts doing longer stretches soon!

I have a 7 month old exclusively breastfed baby (though she is now eating some solids too). She usually goes down around 6.30-7, wakes for a feed about 12.30, then (on a good night) again around 3.30. However, on a bad night (which happens a lot) she will wake every hour or two from 12.30 and we will be up for good around 5 am! Like you I try to settle her using other methods if she's only just had a feed. My rule of thumb is not to feed her again if it's been less than 2 hours since the last one, but sometimes that's the only thing that works. Praying things will improve as she gets older...