How to switch night feed for morning feed?

[hana1978]

My 7 month DS has been waking at 3am on the dot for a couple of weeks.  His bedtime is 7pm, last feed at 6-630pm and he goes round to 3am, first he wakes up singing then starts grizzling - im not 100% confident its not hunger as hes not a big eater so always feed him (hes never gone through the night, this long stretch is the best hes ever done) - he takes most of his 6oz bottle so im guessing it is hunger but i read in Traceys book that if they wake at the same time each night its habit and nothing else.  Should i try to settle him other ways, im not sure NOT feeding him will work.  I am exhausted at 3am and he does go back down until 6am no problem but then refuses his 7-730am bottle - so idealy i want him to drop this feed and take a full bottle at 7am - is this possible or should i just carry on as we are? 
thanks x

[Seona1973]

If you didnt want to go cold turkey there are a couple of options you could try:

1)start diluting down the 3am bottle over the period of a week or 2 e.g. instead of 6 scoops to 6 ounces start giving 5 scoops to 6 ounces, 4 scoops to 6 ounces, etc until you are giving only water. Your lo may be less interested in waking for a bottle if it is just water

2) start cutting down the amount you offer over the same time period e.g. offer 6 ounces, then 5 ounces, then 4 ounces, etc until you are offering only an ounce or two and then you could stop offering completely.

These 2 methods give your lo a chance to catch up on the missed calories during the day rather then leaving him totally starving in the night.

hope you find something that works for you

Seona

[hana1978]

Hi Seona thanks for your responce, i have heard of the Ferber method - infact i posted on here a while back and asked if it was worth a shot and people seemed to discourage the idea.  He is however 7months now and weaned so i think its ok - im going to try this tonight and see if it makes a differance.  I dont know if its also waking HIM up at 2am and feeding him to see if it a)breaks him out of the 3am habit (if it is a habit) and b) it will be 5hrs away from his 7am feed so he has more chance of being hungry for it.  Anyway im gonna dilute tonight - wish me luck !!
Thanks.xx