Upping day milk and decreasing night feeds - 9 month old

[Kst33]

Hi,

My 9 month old is still having 2 night feeds - and they seem like full feeds rather than just comfort but I could be wrong! So any tips on night weaning would be brilliant.

We feed 4 times a day - plus the two at night (both sides) but I get the feeling he doesn't have a massive amount at each one and not convinced he finishes one side before he wants the other side. Once he's had enough of one side - he won't go back to it - but will happily start on the other side.

Once a week he has expressed milk from a cup and he tends to only take about 3-4 oz which doesn't seem enough but perhaps that's just cause it's the cup though. But I do wonder if he's generally only having this sort of amount at each feed - which is why he's still on the 6 times a day.

Do people generally try and increase milk intake during the day and then work on the night weaning?
Or work on the night weaning for one feed and assume he'll start eating a bit more during each day feed?
And to increase - do you try and encourage him to feed for longer? Or start doing extra feeds? Or start giving him some expressed with his meals?

Typically he has a feed after the 2nd nap - say 5ish, then one before bed - 7ish and then one at 11ish.

The second night feed is any time between 2 and 4. I know it's not a great idea to feed more frequently than 4 hrs - but I find if I do the second feed more like 2ish - he does then last till the morning. And eats properly in the morning - whereas if we feed more like 4ish - he's not that interested when he wakes up.

So I was wondering about trying to bring the 2am feed a bit earlier and push the 11pm feed a bit later - so that hopefully they will combine and we'll be down to one feed. Is that something people tend to do? Or unlikely to work?!!

Any advice or tips would be great. Thanks very much.

Karen

[*Ali*]

What is his solids intake like?

Can you get more milk into him via those, like on cereals etc.?

I might start offering expressed milk in a sippy as an extra feed if you think that would go down well.

Also have a look at this sticky How we stopped the night feeds with a 9 month old

But bear in mind that Bf babies often need a NF until 12mo.

[Kst33]

Thanks Ali.

I'm not fussed about doing 1 NF for a bit longer - can cope with 2 for a bit longer if he really does need it. I was just worried we were getting into bad habits as it seemed a bit much compared to what others seemed to be doing.

I'll give the extra feed a go in the sippy cup. I'm sure he'll take it - I was just a bit worried that might reduce the next feed and my pumping is so rubbish it takes 2 days pump to get a full feed - so I was being a bit lazy not doing that!! But will give it a try for a week.

Thanks for the link. I've started trying the reduced minutes - he had 2 mins less last night and all good. Took a while to go back to sleep but that's kind of normal at the moment and more sleep / routine thing than a feeding. So I'll keep going with this for a week or so.

Solid intake - I think is ok. Hard to know how much actually goes in and gets eaten. He certainly gives it a good go but I don't get the feeling he's having tons and tons.

Thanks again for the reply and tips.

[*Ali*]

I hope it works