6 month old

[ChocolateMoose]

Briefly, my DS feeds (bf) about every 3 hrs in the day and has got himself into a regular routine of feeding about every 3 hours through the night too, so wakes up e.g. 9.30, 1am, 4am, 6.30. It's not too bad, but it would be nice if he'd get out of the habit and sleep for a bit longer... DH thinks a bottle of hungry baby formula at bedtime might be the magic solution. I was wondering if I try and go an hour or so without feeding him the first time he wakes (cuddling him rather than leaving him to cry in his cot, I mean) it might break the habit. Any advice from experience? Oh and we're doing BLW, solid food intake minimal as yet.

PS sorry if the title is a bit cryptic - forgot to change it before posting.

Hi,

I'm also trying to wean my DS (6 months) off one night feed at the moment. He would wake at 11pm and 3am - for the past 4 nights, I've only fed him at 11 and cuddled him back to sleep at 3am. He dropped off back to sleep quite quickly, to my surprise. Two nights he didn't even wake at 3, so I think he's outgrowing what was a habit and not a proper feed. It might work for you?

I decided the 3am feed was no longer necessary when I noticed he wasn't hungry in the morning. Does your DS feed well in the morning?

Funny you should say that - I noticed he didn't this morning. But he does tend to take a lot at night feeds, being dozy and not easily distracted like he is in the day.

I would tell your DH to give the hungry baby formula in the middle of the night and let you have a nice block of sleep. It will most likely make absolutely no difference to the night waking (research has proven it's a myth that formula makes them sleep better), but at least you'd only be up for two feeds instead of three.

You might want to try doing what you suggested and hold off on one of the feeds for a bit longer every few nights. Once you have that feed dropped you can work on another one. I doubt that more solids would help tons at this time since your ds is probably waking mostly out of habit of eating at night and getting his food then not because he is incapable of getting enough food during the day to make it a bit longer through the night.

You could also try offering a little less food at the first feeding every few nights.

This post might help, although I bet that habitual waking for food is probably the issue here:

www.mybabysleepguide.com/2009/01/night-awakenings.html

Hehe Ches. Thanks for the advice all, though I'll not be doing any of it for a little while - DS has been a bit grouchy for the last couple of days, difficult to settle for naps, and totally refused a bottle when I was out on Monday evening (just when we thought we didn't need to stress about that and he'd reliably take a bottle... grrr). Ah well - when he's back to 'normal' (do babies actually have a 'normal'?)...

tell your dh that instead of formula maybe he could get up and walk/rock/cuddle your baby to sleep. you'll soon know if he actually needs feeding as he won't settle.

Maybe try offering more food during the day. My DD is six months (EBF & we are BLW). This has helped our baby feed slightly less at night. Or maybe your baby is still needing the nutrients from your breast milk. What about water?