should my 6.5 month old still need night feeds?

[annette.xx]

Hi

I have been DF my LO at 11pm and just recently with illness and teething she has now started waking at random times in night....last night was 9pm, night before was 1am , nite before that was 2am etc....

some night she wakes twice...I always BF her when she wakes after trying to put her back down without fails!!

does she need feeds or do you think she is just comfort feeding?

Is this a bad habit to create? ...I really dont mind feeding her to get her back down...so is it ok to carry on?

she has been on solids for 4 wks and now has 3 meals per day;

BF at 7am,11am,3pm,6.30pm,11pm
solids at 8.30,12.30 and 5pm...

she seems to not want much milk first thing which makes me wonder if my night feeding is a problem?

If I comfort BF her now will this mean this will be really hard to break in the future?....Im also worried about dropping the dreamfeed in a month or so...I really dont think she will sleep from 7 till 7?

so many questions!

Annette.xx

[aimeeL]

Hi there! - tbh, I do wonder if your DD is comfort feeding more than she is really feeding out of hunger.  Of course all LOs are different, so it's not necessarily that black and white... but the fact that you've observed she's not as hungry first thing makes me think that she's getting too much at night and not enough during the day...

Unfortunately, I do think that comfort feeding can lead to a bad habit that will be hard to break... especially if you try a bit to put her down without BF, and then end up bfing - that might just teach her to cry longer and louder in order to get bf, ykwim?

Before the teething and illness, was she STTN besides the DF?

What have you tried to help her settle besides bfing at night?  If she's still teething, have you tried pain meds when she wakes? 

Keep us posted...

[JaspersMum]

Wow, there are so many posts like this around at the moment, for babies this age.  I can tell you my son went through the same thing just after he turned 6 months.  He was teething, going through a growth spurt, learning to sit up, crawl and pull up and so interested in the world during the day that he was just not eating enough, hence the multiple night wakings and the need to BF back to sleep (the only thing that worked!).  We got through it by medicating for the teething pain, allowing him to really get in lots of practice with the crawling, etc, trying to feed him immediately after a nap in a dark, quiet room and then accepting any night-wakings as part of the deal!  I too was worried about causing a bad habit, but 6-7 weeks later he settled down and was back to sleeping through the night.  Hang in there!

[annette.xx]

thanks ladies!!

so when she wakes and is flipping her head round like mad searching for the booby how else can I calm her down cos ive tried everything and it just doesnt work...she gets hysterical when I give her the meds!

and the best thing now is that im sitting her with the bloody swine flu!!...it came on a few days ago and I just thought it was a cold...it has progressively got worse and worse so much so that I think i must leave this site alone for a day or 2 cos I cant open my eyes enough to see the screen!!!!!! it hurts!!! 

if she gets it (which im sure she will) should I just BF her for comfort...cos I can barely cope with it myself so hows she gonna?....and just when shes over the other illness!

If I BF for comfort and the habit does form (I will try other things but I know in my heart how soft I am!!)...will she still be ok with weaning from the breast when she is a toddler?

must add before I go she slept through last nite! yay!

Annette.xx

[JaspersMum]

Oh god you poor thing!  If you are sick and your bub gets sick too all you do is look after yourselves the best you can and if that's breastfeeding throughout the night to keep bub hydrated then do it!  Worry about breaking habits later!!  Its not impossible!  Look after yourself!

[LizzieN]

Sweetie keep breastfeeding, it may give your LO enough immunity that she doesn't get it!!!!!  Just make sure you wash your hands as much as you can, and rest rest rest all the rest of the time....

I am sending you the biggest biggest hugs sweetheart, so sorry to finally see a post from you and it's that you've come down with swine flu!!

xxxxxxx Hugs
Lizzie