Still bottle feeding 10.5 month old in the night!

[hana1978]

My DS whose 10.5 months now has never slept through the night and has always fed in the night.  I assumed as he got older it would decrease or the length of time would be longer.  It was every 3-4 hours when little, now its around 11pm and 3am - at one point it was only once at 4am and i thought we were on the road to finally ditching the night feeding but its got worse.  I have never fed him to sleep for naps or bedtime, he goes down without a fuss and puts himself to sleep most of the time - its just nighttime!!  He will take a 5oz bottle both times so im confused and anxious about doing anything to stop this as maybe he is hungry still???  I feel he shouldnt be as he has breakfast, lunch and dinner ( although he takes no milk and only a coupld of fingers of toast in the morning due to his 10oz in the night  )
I admit i havnt tried diluting his night feeds, i have tried water but he goes beserk if i offer him that.  Does anyone else still feed in the night at this age?  He will be 1 in just 7 weeks - surely it has to stop?
Any advice welcome.
Thanks x

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Hi Hana

Yes, I still feed in the night at this age    Although only once and it is often around 4.30 - 5am so my thinking is DS has done a long stretch without food up to that point.  I am breastfeeding so I guess practically it is a little easier for me - no bottle to prepare or anything like that.

I was going to suggest that you try to dilute the bottle  - I tried water for my DS for a while as well and he wasn't having a bar of it either.

Have you tried resettling at the first wake up instead of feeding?  And then only feeding at the second wake up? 

Yes - this feeding in the night WILL stop - eventually - even if you do nothing and just keep offering the feeds.  But there are ways for you to speed up that process - like diluting the bottle or trying to get a longer feed free stretch - if you wish to.

HTH
Jo

[hana1978]

Well that makes me feell a little better that you do it too  my DS was 9 weeks early so i guess hes really 8.5months but i still feel the night feeding should stop - he hardly wants anything at breakfast which is meant to be the most important meal of the day!
Anyway last night i fed him at 10pm when he woke then offered him diluted milk when he woke at 2.30am he took most of it and at 7am he took 5oz of milk which is a vast improvement!  Ill try gradually diluting his feeds more and more - im hoping it will work and not result in really early morning wake ups again   
Yeh we have tried to resettle - more so my DP than me as i dont have the patience  - he will try to shh him back - it very rarely works!
Im definately going to try and take steps to stop this - i feel 12 hours is too long so ill continue to feed him at 10-11pm which i dont have a problem with.
Anyway thanks for listening