How to wean night feeds with a BF baby?

[malenka]

LO is almost 8 months old and I'm so over the night feeds! He has already tripled his birth weight and is just shy of 20 lbs! My ped says that he shouldn't need to eat at night anymore.

He still wakes every 3-4 hours at night to feed - it's not a comfort thing, he's HUNGRY! Our night routine usually goes something like this: final BF at 7 and off to bed (sometimes falls asleep at the breast, but most often falls asleep in his crib). He then wakes between 10-11 for DF and then again sometime between 2-4. The problem is that he's not hungry for his morning feed, which leads me to think that he's getting his calories at night instead of during the day and I'd really like to work towards switching this. I know BF babies sometimes need a night feed until they're 9 months, and that's ok, but I'd like to drop down to one feed instead of two.

I've been reading tips on how to do this with bottle-fed babies (increasing the amount of water mixed with the formula/reducing the # of oz given at night and increasing by that same amount during the day) but have to idea what to do with my BF baby. Do I just reduce the amount of time I let him nurse at night? He won't take a bottle, so EBM is out of the question...

Has anyone gone through this? Any advice? TIA

[anna*]

There's a difference between 'being hungry' and 'needing to eat'. At 9 months my LO was waking every 2 hours saying he was 'hungry', but there was no way!

Anyway, first I'd try letting him have a full feed at 10-11, and then reducing the number of mins you let him nurse for at the next feed. I'd go pretty fast, cut it back by a couple of mins every night. Once you've got it down to 4-5 mins, then start to settle him without feeding. Then you can do the same with the 10-11pm feed.

[*Ali*]

If you think he is genuinely hungry you could try to up the amount of milk he gets during the day.
Do you offer both breasts? And even the 1st breast again?
How often are you feeding him during the day? If it's more often than every 4 hours he may be a snacker and extending the time between feeds could mean he takes more at each one and therefore more overall.
Is he taking much in the way of solids?

[Tay]

Funny enough the same thing is happening to DS, he takes the DF (EBM) but then he wakes up between 2am and 4am - and again, like your LO he doesn't seem too hungry for his 7am feed. Last night he woke up at 2.20am and DH got him resettled but he woke again at 3.30am screaming for a feed (and fell right back asleep after it).

I did try cutting the length of his feeds at night for a couple of nights but felt a bit guilty - but with the suggestions from anna I think I'll try again. Let me know how you get on Malenka and I'll also keep you posted.

[malenka]

Cadie's Mum: he eats every 4 hours like clockwork, both breasts and I've tried to get him to take more at each feed but he gets full and then isn't interested. He's starting to get more interested in solids, which I'm offering three times a day, but I wouldn't say he's taking in too much - 1-2 oz at a time.

Thanks for the suggestion Anna, I wasn't sure which feed to shorten first, so I'll try the middle of the night one which is the one I'd really like to get rid of anyways  

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one going through this! Wish me luck, I'll keep you posted on how it goes

[Tay]

Malenka, I had decided not to give DS the DF unless he woke up for it, so the last two nights he did, at around 10.30/10.45pm, but last night he slept right through to 2.20am!
Fed and fell back asleep until 6.30am - and fed at 7am: he took a proper full feed.

I think I might try this strategy for a while to see how it goes.
xxx

[malenka]

My LO is waking for the DF and then again several hours later for another feed. I keep going to bed hoping to wake up and it be morning, but since that's not happening, I think I'm going to have to train him out of the night feeds.

Hopefully we'll all have some luck (and get some sleep) soon!

btw, last night I started reducing the amount of time I feed at his NW and I only fed him for 10 min. He slept through the rest of the night fine and woke up fairly hungry this morning. Tonight I'm going to try 8 min and see what happens

[Tay]

Did he feed better in the morning?

[malenka]

We had a rough night... he didn't go down until 10 pm    Then because he was so OT, he was restless. He woke at 12 and I fed him for a few minutes, even though I knew he wasn't hungry but because I was too tired to do anything else     He woke again at 2 but I managed to settle him fairly easily without BFing, even though that's what he *wanted*. When he woke again at 4 I fed him for 8 minutes and he went down without a problem and slept until 8. This morning his BF was pretty good, but he didn't have any interest in solids - except for smearing them on his highchair 

I'm hoping to get him back on track today and hopefully have a better night tonight because I really want to tackle these night feeds.

How about you Tay, any luck with your LO?

[Tay]

Actually yesterday was a very interesting day - we went out for brunch in my sisters so he didn't take his morning nap until 11am!!!!! I know, but he slept for 3 hours straight, and didn't sleep anymore the rest of the day. We put him down just before 7pm and I gave him a bottle of EBM (and pumped).

Anyway, he didn't wake up for the DF (second night in a row he doesn't) and woke up at 12.20 for a feed, he then slept until 6.20am.

I think I'll be keeping this up and going to bed earlier everyday to catch up on sleep.

Malenka - why didn't he go down until 10pm?
Have you ever tried giving a bottle of EBM for the last feed to see how your LO would react?
xxx

[malenka]

I don't know why, but he just won't go down at night. It looks like tonight is going to be another fight... I've already been at it for 45 min! I'm guessing that he's OT...

I haven't tried a bottle of EBM... maybe I should but I haven't had much luck with bottles (I've tried water and formula) but he just chews on the nipple. I'd hate to pump and then have him not drink it iykwim.

It sounds like your LO is doing well. How much did you feed him at 12.20? Are you planning on cutting back the amount at that feed and seeing how it goes?

[Alison_3]

Hope you don't mind me jumping in here....I was just going to start a thread similar to yours!  DD is 8 months old and waking 2-3 times a night for a feed.  Usually at the times you mention and then sometimes at 4:30-5:00. 

She only weighs 15 lbs. so I am not sure she could make it the whole night, but thought we would be getting a little bit more sleep here! 

[malenka]

Welcome! Join us and let us know how it goes. There's strength in numbers...

[~ Vik ~]

Just wanted to jump on with a link that you might find helpful:  http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/weaning-night.html

TBH, I never actively weaned night feeds - I just felt that he would drop them when he was ready.  We were still doing one feed at night (well, usually in the wee hours of the morning) until around 12mo, when he just stopped waking for it.  Other than when ill or teething, he has consistently STTN ever since.  So I don't have any BTDT advice for you, but that link above has some gentle ways to try and prevent night wakings and encourage less nursing at night.  Hopefully something will be helpful for you

[Lissybits]

Ooooh, thank goodness it's not just us
Leo is 9 months (today!) and we're still doing 2 night feeds
Usually at 12 ish and then at 4 ish.
I would REALLy like to drop one of these since I am absolutely knackered but I simply just haven't got it in me to sleep train or anything drastic like that.
I was hoping he would just start miraculously start STTN one day - HA! Who am I trying to kid?

I like Anna's idea of reducing the amount of BFing time - Just hope it won't back fire and result in him waking up more cos he's not as full
What are the chances that he is genuinely hungry?

Thanks for the advice, girls