BFing 5 month old at night, how often should I?

[kmejayden]

I know that you are suppose to feed a 5 month old every 3-4 hours. But at night, how often should he be eating? I co-sleep with him which I'm trying to put a stop to, and un conciously start feeding him to calm him down when he moves or wakes. From my guess its from 1-3 times a night. Until I succesfully start to do pu/pd and get him sleeping in his crib what should I do to make sure I dont feed him at night unless hes hungry? Its become such a bad habit I dont even remember doing it! Oh and how much should he be eating anyways? thanks!

[Vicku]

Hi there Welcome to BW!

1-3 times a night at 5mo is quite common so I don't think you have to worry too much about that. A good 'rule' that a lot of people on here go by is that if he usually goes 3-4 hrs in the day, he "should" be able to go at least that long in the night. In theory So you could try to keep an eye on the clock at NWs and only feed if it's been at least 3 or 4 hrs (whatever you decide) and try to resettle another way at other wakings. You could use shh/pat or rubbing his belly etc. Also does he take a paci? That can sometimes help them settle back without a feed for the other wakings.
PU/PD should only really be used as a last resort for sleep training, when shh/pat etc doesn't work. More info on shh/pat and PU/PD here http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?board=89.0