Give me hope! Does weaning ever reduce number of night wakings in BF babies??

[Surfnicky]

My DTs are 24 weeks today (19 weeks corrected) and are excl BF. All is going really well but they are, as many do, starting to wake up more and more at night. Last night I fed them at 7:30pm, 10:30pm, 1:00pm, 3:30pm and 6:45am (although they woke earlier...I just let them chat for a while). Now I know it could be a LOT worse but it used to be a LOT better...i.e. one night waking (normally 3-4am) between 10 - 8am.

I plan to start weaning them in two weeks time, at 26 weeks, and would LOVE to hear of any encouraging stories whereby babies start sleeping more with the introduction of solid food. I know it may be a pipe dream but am hoping they might at least go back to the one night waking of a few months ago.

Not sure whether to post here or in feeding...

TIA

surfnicky first of all congrats on bf two ex for 6 months I found one hard! both of mine did wake less but not immediately
ds2 is nearly 8 months and was exc bf till 6 and he was as your twins are now 2 hrly night feeds (had been sleeping through before he hit 4 months)but now he has gone back to 1 night feed [fingers crossed emotcion] but this has only been in the last week so I think there may be light at the end of the tunnel but not straight away
also don't decrease daytime feeds ds2 did this a bit and started making up for it at night so I now offer bf very regularly through the day as well as food iyswim
good luck

Sorry, but both of mine were the opposite. They were sleeping through pretty much from 2 months but the minute I started weaning they started waking up again. Not sure why.

My DS stopped waking up in the night so much once he was weaned. Then when i concentrated and made sure he had plenty of protein in his evening meal he stopped waking up in the night all together. There is hope

weaning - I have a 26 week old BF baby - i've started weaning but everytime i put any food in his mouth (i've changed consistency and flavour) he gags and makes no moves to swallow. Any advise?

Food never made any difference to how much DS woke in the night. Sorry.

I think the consensus is that if they were sleeping through but have stopped then weaning may help - but if they have never slept through then it won't.

Sorry but weaning didn't make any difference to DD's night waking either.

Drem - start your own thread in this topic and ask your question! you'll get more replies that way. If I were you I would wait another week or two and try again. Or try baby led weaning.

surfnicky, it wasn't quite black and white with my dd but she is definitely sleeping better since starting very slow weaning process at 24 weeks. She is now 28 weeks and on 3 small meals per day and had her first ever night through on Tuesday. She also went from maybe 2-3 night wakings to 1 about 2 wks after weaning.

BUT she was unsettled in evenings after I started weaning to begin with so I pulled her tea forward to 4pm and made sure it was VERY digestible i.e pear or apple and not banana. She is not having any protein yet.

She is fully bf btw.

You might not notice a difference until yours are on 3 meals a day, I certainly didn't. But if they are waking MORE than usual then the need for food may be the reason.

I am extremely impressed that your DT's are exclusively bf at 24wks. I have 5yo DT's and I managed to bf them for 14 wks and then gave up with exhaustion (and crap advice ). Well done!!

good luck with the weaning and remember the MN mantra "food is fun until they're one".