10 month Old - Nursing 3-4 times during night

hollywstuart

I am a working mom. My 10 month old is at daycare with bottles of expressed milk all day. He typically only drinks about 3 3oz bottles at daycare and eats plenty of solid foods. He loves all food! At night, I feed him dinner, then bath and nursing from me right before bed (around 7-730). He is then up around 10pm and every 2-ish hours until up for the day around 630am. He nurses every time he wakes. Is my supply low? Should I be able to comfort him differently? Any ideas on how to get him to drink more milk during the day? I am really getting tired of this, and I would rather not give him any formula. He has not had any at all yet....Thank you!

wintersong

He really needs more than nine ounces of milk at 10 mos...so it sounds like the night feeds might still be important for his nutrition. He may be reverse cycling...drinking more milk at night than day because he is smart enough to know when he can get his milk on tap.  Really until 1 year a baby's main source of nurturing should be bm or formula. Solid food just can't compare in terms of nutrition.

In all seriousness, my son also drank very little milk when I was at work and that's why I didn't make a serious effort to night wean. 

All this being said, your son is very close to a year, so iff you feel like your current nursing relationship is not working anymore ding be afraid to make changes. 

Thewizardofrhythm

I was in the same position as you a year ago. It's suuuuucked. What we did was swap nursing for water bottles one feeding at a time. It would take a week per feeding. We'd start with 5oz of water and decrease to nothing. By the sixth night he would wake but call out weakly for about 2 mins and then fall asleep. The entire process took a month. He naturally increased his day consumption of food and nursing to make up for the loss of night feeding. I also found I could pump much more because I was waiting longer between feedings. He has slept through the night ever since and I am one happy mama.  

crsanchez87

@Thewizardofrhythm  Did you use a straw/sippy cup or a baby bottle of water when you were weaning from the night feeds? We are off bottles for all day feeds so I don't know what would work best for night.

Thewizardofrhythm

We used a bottle but I imagine a sippy cup would work just as well. 

Thewizardofrhythm

another upshot, if you have a partner, they can do the night feedings too since it's not just boob.  

crsanchez87

Thanks!

hollywstuart

Thanks all! 

karlimonster

I can't remember how much my son got during the day (we supplemented with formula by this time), but at 10 months we stopped night feedings and he started sleeping through the night. Not sure if that's helpful. 

Sarcasm101

Thewizardofrhythm said:

I was in the same position as you a year ago. It's suuuuucked. What we did was swap nursing for water bottles one feeding at a time. It would take a week per feeding. We'd start with 5oz of water and decrease to nothing. By the sixth night he would wake but call out weakly for about 2 mins and then fall asleep. The entire process took a month. He naturally increased his day consumption of food and nursing to make up for the loss of night feeding. I also found I could pump much more because I was waiting longer between feedings. He has slept through the night ever since and I am one happy mama.  

At that age I would supplement with formula, not water. LO still needs the calories. 

Thewizardofrhythm

Sarcasm101 said:

Thewizardofrhythm said:

I was in the same position as you a year ago. It's suuuuucked. What we did was swap nursing for water bottles one feeding at a time. It would take a week per feeding. We'd start with 5oz of water and decrease to nothing. By the sixth night he would wake but call out weakly for about 2 mins and then fall asleep. The entire process took a month. He naturally increased his day consumption of food and nursing to make up for the loss of night feeding. I also found I could pump much more because I was waiting longer between feedings. He has slept through the night ever since and I am one happy mama.  

At that age I would supplement with formula, not water. LO still needs the calories. 

I think it depends on what the cause of the night waking is. If its hunger, then the formula will just perpetuate that. Since its a gradual process done over a months time, LO transitions the calorie consumption to day hours and the water satisfies the hunger feeling. Obviously there are exceptions to every case but if they seem to be doing that, then you're not depriving them of calories they need. However, if the night waking is for comfort nursing than perhaps switching to formula will stop it. But in my opinion it wont. At least it didn't for us. 

jordansinks

All of these comments are so helpful to me right now. My baby is 39 weeks old and she is waking up 3-4 times per night to BF. I work full time during the day while she is at a babysitter's house and I have noticed she doesn't drink much of my milk during the day while I'm away from her. So at night she must be making up for not drinking enough during the day. As soon as i pick her up from the babysitter she wants to nurse like every hour until i get her to sleep. Then she wakes up every two hours to nurse. It's exhausting...I think i am going to try having my Husband sleep in the room with her rather than both of us (since she sleeps in bed with us) and maybe she wont want to nurse as often since he can't nurse her?? We have tried getting her to sleep in her own bed and I can't do the crying out method at all....

marijaa333

We were there until he turned one. Then, I had to go on a business trip, and over those 10 days, dad handled all the night feedings (offered milk); now, at 14 months, he sleeps soundly for 10 hours and has been for the last four weeks. Miracles are possible! I wish you much luck.  If we go for baby #3, sleep training is definitely going to be happening earlier than with this one (I couldn't stand to hear the baby cry, now I see how silly I was).