getting rid of the 10pm feed

[Pebs]

My 6mth DS has always gone down at 7pm with an 8oz feed and then we wake him at 10pm with another feed to see him through until 7amish. We now feel it's time to cut this late feed out and have been reducing this feed from 8oz to 3oz with success so far - DS goes back to sleep and generally sleeps until 6.30/7am. We will drop this to 2oz in a day or so when we are sure that he will not wake hungry, but where do we go from there? Do we just bite the bullet and leave him to sleep and see what happens? He is on 3 meals a day and certainly drinks enough milk throughout the day to not need this top up. Should I wait until he is on a wider range of foods as he is not having much protein yet? He is normally such a good sleeper that I dread giving it a go. How did anyone else cope with this? Any tips?

I always worked on the basis that if she was asleep she wasn't hungry. I would say that if he is getting enough milk during the other feeds, then drop it and see how he goes. I dropped it not long after weaning, as she very quickly went onto 3 meals and 3 bottles a day, with the bottles at the same time as the meals.

we just forg ot one night

us too - well DH used to do that feed and had one too many one night but DS didn't seem to mind and hasn't had that feed since. We were in pretty much the same situation as you and DS was only having a couple of ounces.

We kept on with 11pm feed till ds about 9 months as it kept him asleep till about 9am and that suited me - sahm - just fine. One night I just bit the bullet and stopped - he's been sleeping through till aobut 7.30am ever since.

we apprehensively dropped it around 6mths, after shrinking feed first as you are doing, and all went fine.

Ds went to stay at Grandma's one night by which time he was down to having only about 3 oz at 10pm and Grandma decided that she wouldn't wake him. She said that if he woke her at 5am or whatever she wouldn't mind and she knew that we were in the same boat as you Pebs, being nervous about what would happen. As it turned out, DS slept from 7pm to 7am that night and from them on the 10pm feed was history.

Go for it I say. You'll never know unless you try. Good luck.

one night i just did not wake him up, i did not sleep that night as waiting for angry cries, but bless him he slept through - decided he did not need his 10pm feed as he was a bit picky at breakfast as not hungry due to night snack, after dropping this feed he nows breakfasts like a king - we did it around 19 weeks

Thanks all. Great stories of encouragement. I will still be awake all night waiting for the protest. Should I reduce DS onto a 2oz bottle first to get it down even further or just try to cut it out now?

cut it aaaaaaaaaaart ( as htey say on eatenders)
the only possibllilty is that he may wake at 5 am instead
on which case re introduce it

Did exactly as you Pebs re bed 7, dream feed 10, sleep till 7. I cut the 10 out on his 7 month birthday and he didn't miss a beat, just carried right on until 7. I started solids at 6 months and by 7 he was eating enough to sink a battleship.

Just do it Pebs, I think it will work esp if he's on 3 meals and he's getting enough milk.
I felt like a new woman when I stopped giving a late feed!

Just do it!!!! You can blame me if he wakes up.

My DS is 5 1/2 months old. We used to give him a feed at 11pm but one night about a week ago we forgot, DS didn't wake and slept until 7am. Since then he's been sleeping 7pm - 7am.

Why not just try dropping it and see what happens? The worst that can happen is that he'll wake sometime during the night. In that case you can always reintroduce it. HTH.

Fortune favours the brave so try dropping the feed. I would try dropping it for 3 nights as DS may not go right through the first night. If he wakes up each night you know to reintroduce it. We dropped it when DD was 7 1/2 months but I was breastfeeding. I think we tried dropping it at a weekend night first as an experiment. The worst that can happen is your DS wakes up and you do a feed anyway - not the end of the world. Good luck Pebs. Sounds like you have a good little sleeper there.

I appear to have the only negative response! Mine is an 8 month old BIG boy! He loves his milk,sometimes he'll sleep through 7 to 7 if I don't feed him -other times he wakes up at either 1am or 5am. I then reintroduce the late feed, and he'll sleep, so I drop it and so-on and so-forth. We've been playing the on-off game for about 2 months now. The last three nights (totally unlike him), he's woken for about an hour gurgling and babbling from 1-2am - aghhh!
Good luck to you though - hope yours goes smoothly.