how do i not feed in the night??

[sebsmama]

DS is 11 months. He is perfectly capable of sleeping through the night - did it every night until about 2 months ago and occasionally does it now.
But most nights he wakes up once if not twice and the only thing that works is if I feed him back to sleep (he is BF).
Some nights he feeds to sleep at the start of the night, others he settles himself (after a lot of fussing and crying, but he does do it).
As he can sleep through the night - does this mean that he is not hungry when he wakes up and is now doing it out of habit? I am so tired when I go into him that I take the easy route and just feed him, but I really want to try and stop especially as I don't really want to continue breastfeeding much past a year.
What should I do? I got DH to try going to him and offer water but he just cried and cried till I went in (DS not DH).
Anyone got any advice? How do I wean him off night feeds and should I - maybe he really is hungry?

I think getting DH to do the offering water thing is the best approach - if you try and settle him, he'll smell milk and want it. Although if he settles straight away after a feed and only wakes once, I personally would be tempted to carry on with that for a bit.

You could try a dreamfeed at 10/11pm if he'll take it so you know he has had enough to eat and then give water for the rest of the night.

FWIW, I have a 2.9yo DD who still sometimes gets hungry in the night if we've had a busy day and she hasn't eaten much so I don't think you can say there is a point at which they are absolutely not hungry although it is also perfectly reasonable not to feed them (it just might make for a more difficult life in the short term!)

We night weaned DS at six months. Basically DH took over all the night stuff - I didn't go near him, DH would cuddle him, comfort him, offer him water (which he always refused) etc.

It was pretty hard, took just under two weeks and there was a lot of crying (and DH was knackered!) but after that he would sleep through almost every night until 5am, when I'd feed him. He was a happier baby afterwards as well (in the day I mean) - seemed better for being better rested.

DS1 got the message after just a couple of nights. Think there was a test match against the Australians in Oz so DH didn't mind getting up so much because he could check the score and listen to some cricket!

I would guess that he is not hungry, but teething, and nursing dulls the pain.

You could try a bottle, sorry I know it's not ideal to introduce a bottle at this age, but he might adapt - or a dummy.

Ds1 was th same but when he began taking cow's milk/formula from a bottle at 16mo I gave him that at night instead.

Ds2 won't have cows milk and is still bf at nearly 3 so I am getting rather desperate...they need some kind of sucking thing or comfort, and he won't settle with a dummy either.