How do we drop night feeding?

[Gabi1023]

Hi all... currently our 8m/o LO has a DF around 10:30 / 11pm and then she usually wakes up around 3 or 4am and she wants to eat.  She is BF and we are doing our best to get her interested in solids.  Some days she will eat solids and she loves whatever we feed her, some days she wants nothing to do with them.  She eats well on the breast, but every night she gets hungry.  If we try to get her back to sleep without feeding her (BF) it turns into a battle but if we BF her she is happy and generally goes back to sleep.  How do we go about getting her to sleep through the night without eating?  Seems like a long time to go for an 8 m/o without eating. 

THANK YOU

[PaulsMom]

Hi there! 

Sounds like she's doing not too badly.  Some babies this age will still need a night feed.  At this age, milk is still a very important part of their diet so I wouldn't worry too much if she doesn't eat a lot of solids on a particular day.  Her appetite may vary from day to day.

If you are interested in dropping the nf, decide if you want to drop the df first or the nf.  Sometimes the df may disrupt sleep.  To drop the df, typically you should try to ensure she has more calories at other feeds (hard to do when you are bf, I know).   However you can try to get some extra calories and milk in at meals (eg. Milk in a sippy, milk in cereal or any purees if you are feeding them).  Here's some more info on dropping the df.
Cluster & Dreamfeeding FAQ's - Starting, how to do it, stopping & problems

If you want to drop the nf, there is a gradual process that you can follow rather than doing it cold turkey and using an alternative method to settle.  Here's some info.
How we stopped the night feeds with a 9 month old

HTH

[Gabi1023]

Great information, thank you.  It sounds like the DF is definitely the first we should eliminate.  When reading the link it says that if breastfeeding, we should cluster feed to ensure our LO gets more calories.  Can you please clarify how this works?  Would she BF like every hour between her post PM nap BF and her BT BF? 

Thank you

[Gabi1023]

...Also, this suggested method is saying to eliminate the DF in 3 day increments by adding more ounces to the daytime feeds, and mentions cluster feeding for BF babies.  So if we cluster feed to get rid of DF, is this also done in 3 day increments?  What is recommended as far as increasing caloric intake in cluster feeding?  How do you increase the intake from day 1 to day 20 through cluster feeding? How do you do this?  If cluster feeding, our LO will only take so much at each feed, so won't she max out pretty quickly? 

[PaulsMom]

Given the age of your Lo, this is what I would do....  Ensure she's getting 4 full milk feeds plus 3 meals of solid food.  I'm not sure what your routine is like but I would assume bf at wu, around noon, around 4 pm, and before bt with meals roughly 1 to 1.5 hrs after those feeds.  Since you can't tell how much she's getting when bf, I would try to make sure she's getting full feeds and then try to add expressed milk or formula to meals however you feel is appropriate depending on what she's eating.  You can do breast compressions while feeding which should help keep the milk flowing.

Then with the df, I would time how long you normally feed her and then reduce the number of minutes she's on the breast.  If you normally feed from both sides, you can try to keep her on one side first and then start to reduce the feed time in 3 day increments.  Once you are reducing the length of time of the df, try to provide more calories at meal times whether it be with added milk to the meals or higher cal foods (eg. Avacado, etc). Does this make sense?

[katie80]

Hi there, just jumping in to add my two cents. I agree with PaulsMom and wouldn't do a cluster feed at this age, but rather try to add in calories to her meals throughout the day.  She may naturally do this as you drop a feed as well.  I dropped the DF when my DD was 9.5-10mo (she wasn't getting another NF) and gradually brought it back from 10:30-9:00pm.  Then, I just dropped it and started pumping at 10pm.  I got 2-3oz each time and I gave her those in a sippy cup at lunch and/or supper to add to her milk intake for the day.  I did this for about a month and then gradually added an oz of cow's milk every week or so, until she was taking a sippy of cow's milk around 1yr.

I know pumping isn't all that convenient, so it may not be an option you want to consider, but just thought I'd share that it worked well for us.