Water for night feeds? anyone tried this?

[pigleypudding]

My DD is 23 weeks now and still wakes 2 or 3 times a night. Usually around 3 hours intervals.
I know she can go longer as she occasionally goes 5/6 hours which is fab!

When she feeds she only takes about 3/4 ozs.

I read about replacing her milk feeds with a drink of cool boiled water instead. The therory being water is boring and after a few nights they dont wake for it.

Just wondering if anyones tried this and was it sucessful?
Worth a try or not?

worth a try

I think you gradually water the milk down.
Like 4 oz water and 3 scoops milk first night, then 2 scoops, then 1, then just water...

I did the method 2k9kids is talking about was very effective.
Give it a go - best thing I ever done.

yes. it worked wonders for ds1. in july, i would only give him water during the hours of darkness. took him a couple of nights to figure it out, and he thenslept through for a chunk of time.

Yes, worked for us. After DD slept throuh forthe firs night, thge following night when she woke for milk I offered her water. Only took a week or so until she decided not to wake up at all. She was about 5-6 months old.

Too young for that, I think. Maybe around 9 months, but right now waking 3-hourly is perfectly healthy (prevents SIDS) and normal. You can try to settle without milk, but I would not use water until much later.

We did. Similar experience to geisha. She was MAD first time but did settle back, and was fine.

i didn't do it til ds was nearly 11 mo. worked ok then, he still wakes for a drink but not as often.

personally i wouldn't have done it earlier, but then ds has always been a hungry little person at night

Hey pigley I am going to try this tonight!

oh let me know how it goes!

I havent tried it yet as DD's feeding is abit hap hazard at the mo but will do once shes back on track.

my question is the following:
Does the baby not reject the bottle the minute he/she knows that it's not milk and then you have to feed him/her milk anyway?
Or does he/she take a good amount, enough to settle him/her?
I am seriously thinking about doing this, but hesitating because it might mean baby not settling for longer through the night than it would take to breastfeed him.

My LO takes both bottle and formula happily (even tho he is b/f 80% of the time) if he refuses water it's because he wants the comfort of breast not the milk. IF he took the water then I would immediatly give him boob instead.

eisbaer- I think the idea is that they stop waking for it as its not milk and boring.
Im guessing they arent going to like the fact that its water and not milk and may well kick off.
I suppose it depends how hungry they are as to if a little suck settles them back or not. Obviously if they were sucking like crazy at the water then they really do need the milk.

It will prob take a few nights at least for them to drop the feeds completely ( if it works) As others say, you may have a few unsettled nights before you see any improvement (if any).

My boy takes formula and expressed milk from the bottle no bother at other times, but during the night last night he rejected the boiled water ploy, but wouldn't settle without a feed. so do you think that means he's not that hungry and just wanting the comfort? am thinking of anything just now as he's gone from five-six hour stretches during the night to feeding two hourly at night, but not during the day. And don't anyone DARE mention growth spurts to me as that would be during the day too!!! Can you tell I'm sleep deprived?

I keep getting told that if they napped during the day they would sleep better at night. REALLY? I HAVEN'T HEARD THAT BEFORE, I MUST AT ONCE STOP POKING HIM WITH NEEDLES TO KEEP HIM AWAKE DURING THE DAY. Arghhhh.

Eisbaer the answer to your comfort question is - I don't know. I think you just have to do what you think is best. Not helpful I know. Sorry.