Author Topic: Totally eliminating breast feeding during the night - Your experiences (9months)  (Read 1367 times)

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Offline Palmira78

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There are a number of factors that prevent my spirited 9 months old baby to sleep through the night... and I know that over the time everything will improve, however one of those factors is the night breast feedings. For that reason, I have decided to eliminate them totally. I have checked with 2 pediatricians and both have confirmed that biologically my son does not need them.
After trying unsuccessfully reducing the minutes of each feed, I have decided to do it cold turkey. This was the way I did it with my eldest son when he was 18 months and it worked after 4 nights with lots of hugs and desperate crying involved. I did not and I will not leave my baby crying alone, but I will soothe him without nursing no matter how many hours it takes. I am confident that at the end he will be able to go back to sleep without nursing (like he does during his day naps).

Before I go ahead, I would like to learn about your experiences in order to benchmark some best practices. What did you do to soothe your LO's instead of nursing? How did you share the load with your DH? How many nights were needed for your baby to accept that no milk would be coming?

Your experiences and suggestions are very welcomed :-)

Offline michaeljacknnugg

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I haven't bothered, and I'm not going to. Yes he might be eating well during the day, but breastfeeding has other functions besides food. Pain relief, immune system support - my 10mo has had very disturbed nights over the weekend and needed to feed, and it turns out he was coming down with a cold. Not feeding him at this stage would have just made things worse.
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Offline Palmira78

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Before eliminating breast feeding during the night cold turkey, I have decided (thanks to some of the advices received) to increase his food intake during the day.
In addition, I will go for it once my nights have become more manageable. It will be less painful to wean my DS2 from 1 night feed or 2 than from 4, 5, 6....
I guess I will work to improve other aspects of his daily routine and I may go for it later on, when he is 1 year old perhaps. I know that breastfeeding is good for pain relief and comfort, the thing is that this is a "present" that cannot be shared with my DH, and I am quite tired.

Still if any of you would like to share your experiences I would very much welcomed them!!!

Offline Palmira78

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I just wanted to share that my husband and I, made a team and we eliminated breast feeding and any kind of feeding during the nights. On the following link I have explained it all with detail. The reason why this was posted in Night Wakings is because I think that eliminate feeding to sleep is a way forward in order to reduce the NWs.
Eliminated breastfeeding during the nights - Our experience

So far we have been 5 nights without any night feeds and the experience has been very successful. I still continue breastfeeding during the day, and my DS seems happy as usual.