Nursing Addict

BlessedinMN

Hi all,

So I am looking for some advice on my 6mo son. We cosleep - he is a very cuddly (dare I say emotionally needy in the best possible way) baby and he just never could sleep any other way so we have accepted that. We'd like to have our own bed eventually - but his needs come first so we continue to cosleep.

This is the problem though: he still is ebf and snacks the entire night. I mean, every two hours if not every hour he is kicking me for a little snack. He barely eats anything and it's mostly just nursing for comfort. So what do I do in this situation? He refuses a paci from me and cries as soon as I put it in his mouth. Any ideas? I just am unsure of how to "wean" him while cosleeping. And just FYI - I always want to night feed if he's actually hungry so this might just be impossible to do.

Thanks :-)

ncbelle

I'd suggest checking out the No Cry Sleep Solution.  While I wouldn't suggest total night weaning at 6 months, there are some things you can do to limit nursing and to help him find other ways to sleep.  The NCSS has the "Pantley Pull Off" which is a pretty effective but gentle way to help move baby beyond that need to suckle back to sleep.

yeah.

You don't need to wean him at 6 months (most 6 month olds still nurse overnight) so you need to decide if it's really an issue (in which case co-sleeping might not be the play anymore) or you can deal with it for a few more months.

vvvvvfee

do you work f/t? your LO could also be reverse-cycling. my DS had a similar temperament (we also coslept and he was/is a frequent nurser), and there were some brutal periods where he was waking up a lot to nurse during the night. i never wanted to discourage him from nursing if he was truly hungry, and he was reverse cycling a little-- i tried to look at it that i'd rather have a couple of brief night-wakings rather than pump extra during the day to make up for the milk he wouldn't get if he STTN.

it's generally not recommended to night wean much before 12 months because your LO may actually need the additional nutrition. i suspect your DS would still wake during the night even if you weren't cosleeping-- so cosleeping is probably still the easiest option.

also, there's a wonder week around 26 weeks so if this is a relatively recent thing it could be developmental.

i've seen this article posted here before and found it to be a comforting/normalizing read on the subject: https://themilkmeg.com/why-the-milk-meg-would-like-to-burn-every-baby-training-book-in-existence/

hang in there!

BlessedinMN

Thank you for the advice!! I am going to get that book and see if there is anything in there that works - otherwise I will just work on getting through it! Thanks ladies - I tell ya sometimes there's just an issue that only Moms could help with!

vvvvvfee

p.s. the author of the no-cry sleep solution has a lot of info on her website: https://www.pantley.com/elizabeth/books/0071381392.php (also check under the advice section)

jesuisfatiguee

DS is 14 months and still nurses quite a bit throughout the night. I noticed it started to lessen considerably right around 12 months.