5 month old waking in night out of habit - any tips?

[rubyblue]

Hi, DS is 5 months old and wakes around 4am every night. He roots but often just takes 5 minutes so I think it's comfort (or thirst)rather than real hunger. If I give him a big feed at this time he doesn't feed at 7am. Last night he was wide awake and I gave him a dummy which he was happy with but in the end I fed him as was so knackered I just wanted to get back to sleep. Trouble is we are trying to switch gradually to formula in the next few weeks in advance of me returning to work so I would really like him to cut out the night feed.

Any ideas which have worked for you to break the association with breastfeeding at this time?
Ruby

you could try waking him ever so slightly a hour or so before his habitual 4am wake up time. This worked for us when DD was 3 and a half months. Apparently, it breaks their habit.

One waking at 5mo is brilliant, tbh I would keep giving him that feed and count your blessings!

PS I hope that didn't sound unsympathetic

Babies at 5mo still have very small tummies so it's not unreasonable for them to feed in the night -- even if it's 'just' for comfort/thirst. If you are switching to formula then can you and DP take turns to do the night feed?

One waking a night is good but I can understand your desire to drop it if you're due back at work soon. Do you do a dream feed before you go to bed? Also, switching to formula may make a difference anyway.

If he'll take a dummy without getting too distressed, try persevering with it for a couple of nights. I know all about feeding them just to get back to bed quicker (DS is 6.5 mo and I've a similar thing going on here but unfortunately he won't take a dummy) but think short-term pain for long-term gain!

Don't get me wrong, compared to what he was like only a few weeks ago, I am so relieved it is just once in the night! But, if it's a habit rather than hunger, then I would like to slowly wean him out of it. Will give the slight waking an hour beforehand a go and if all else fails and we're on formula then will have to nudge dh to share some of the feeds in the night.
We give him a feed at 10.30ish which he normally wakes for and takes a good bottle.
Thanks for all advice.

ruby, it sounds like your DS is ready and physically capable to sleep through the night without a feed.

Stop night feeds. If/when he wakes, your DH (not you, because he will smell milk) puts him back to sleep through whatever works - dummy, rock, cuddle, sing etc.

Very probably, you will have 1-2 bad nights and your DS will sleep through the night thereafter.

As Lola said, "short term pain for long term gain"

Apparantly a baby that age can get what he needs from a feed in 5-7minutes. At least that was what I was told when I attended a breast feeding group with my 4 mth old.

My ds was 9 months before I felt confident enough, or fed up enough to break his waking up in the night habit. I eventually did it by offering him a bottle of formula instead of breast feeding him, which he had a fit over. I had 4 nights of Hell and then he slept through. Such a difference to my life .

We started watering down our DS's formula - half strength. After a week or so of that, we started offering water only, or if DS really complained I'd add just one scoop of formula.

Within a week he started sleeping through. Wish I'd done it earlier!