ok..it's my turn to wean the nightfeeds

[Tatumsmom]

Logan will be 8 months on march 12 and he is still having nightfeeds. We were down to one early morning feed a few weeks ago, but now he is waking at least twice. I never did a dreamfeed as it caused problems with dd when she was little and I didn't want to go back down that road. He was sleeping through to about 3am -5 am but nnow he is waking every 3-4 hours.....I always try to resettle first but in the end feeding him is the only thing that will get him back to sleep.

He eats well during the day, has four bottles of 7 oz plus three meals of solids(which he loves). I don't do very good with cold turkey so I decieded to water down his feeds that way he thinks he is still getting feed and I don't feel guilty

He is a big boy already 22 lbs and 28 inches long...so part of me feels he does still need the feeds. But I don't really know??? Last night was the first night and it went ok. He woke at 10:30 and I gave him a real feed, i decieded that anything before 11pm got a real bottle, he then woke at 3am and got a watered down bottle, and another watered down bottle at 5am. He then slept till 7:15 and took a full feed.

Just wondering if anyone had any experiance dropping nightfeds this way??? And if so how did you do it and do you think I'm going about it the right way!!

Thanks for any input!!

[mmom]

I don't think he needs to eat at this point.  If you are going to do it, make sure you REALLY do it though.  I would think rather than watering it down, you would offer less.  Every few nights it would be less and less, until it is gone.  I think Lolly once said go down by 3 ounces at a time?

[Tatumsmom]

thanks Kara, maybe I will offer less he only drinks 7 oz at a time so would I drop the feed to 3 oz???

[mmom]

That sounds ok.  I am going to have Lolly check, because I know the process should be slow.  I am not sure if you should give it a few extra nights.

[Lolly]

Popping on as requested

We got rid of my DD's nightfeeds around 8.5 months by reducing the amount she had. She was taking about 7oz at her waking between 12/3 am but she was getting enough in the day so she really didn't need that feed - she wasn't any good at a DF so we had stopped that when she was quite small. We reduced the bottle by 1oz every 3 nights (normal strength formula) and resettled, when she got down to about 3oz she slept through one night so the next night when she woke we just offered water. She wasn't too impressed, but drank a bit and we were able to resettle her, I think she woke for a few nights after that but only got water so gave it up.

I agree that you need to choose an option and stick with it, if you cave they will know! What are your LO's naps like? We had DD on a good nap routine and bed routine at the time so we knew she wasn't OT so there wasn't another reason for waking.

I think in your case if you know he has had good bottles in the day (28oz is good at this age, they only *need* 20oz with solids and the milk in solids counts to the 20oz) and has eaten well I would not feed at all until past midnight and then offer the reduced bottle, I wouldn't feed at the 5am waking either but resettle. If you cut the bottle by 1oz every 3 nights it gives him time to adjust gradually and he should take a bit more in the day so you may need to offer a bit more solids or make the bottles up to 8 or 9oz. You can offer some water if he wakes before midnight and at 5am but really if you are offering milk at these times they will keep waking for it.

What do you think?

Laura

[Tatumsmom]

Laura~ thanks for popping in!! I'm in a pinch for time but will reply better soon.