Dropping the nighttime nursing..

jdreams76

DS wakes up once in the night to nurse for about 10 minutes and then goes back to sleep. My pedi says I should drop that now that DS is 18 pounds she said he doesn't need it.. Now my thought on this is he must need it if he is waking up to have it. But everyone else I talk to says it's just out of habit at this point.

DS sleeps with us and when I come back into bed he wakes up to eat. I lay down with him at 7:30p but then after he falls asleep I leave for a bit to get things done around the house and have me time for a little bit.

So my question is do I need to drop this feeding? And if so does anyone have hints on how to go about doing so.. If I do not feed him he will wake up I'm afraid and never get back to sleep without it. He nurses to sleep..

TIA

flutiefrostie

I think waking once to nurse is perfectly normal at that age. Plus 10 min is quite a while to nurse so he's probably getting a lot of milk- if he was only sucking for a minute or so and falling right asleep I'd say he probably didn't need it. If you want him to drop the feeding, I'd try increasing the amount you nurse during the day, but if you're okay with it I'd keep nursing at night. 

MrsAmers

If he's nursing for 10 minutes, he's hungry.  It is totally normal for a 5 month old to wake up overnight to eat.  Age and weight, IMO, don't determine what and when a baby needs to eat - a baby determines what and when it needs to eat.  If he's hungry, he's hungry.  I wouldn't try to wean him off the session until he's older or if he was just comfort sucking to fall back to sleep.

swilker

He probably doesn't need it but that doesn't mean it hurts anything either as long as you don't mind him waking up out of habit. 

14years

I agree with the pps that if he's really nursing, and it sounds like he is, I wouldn't do anything to encourage him to drop that session.  It's completely normal for a 5 month old to eat once overnight.  DS eventually dropped all night sessions on his own. 

Do you care?  Do you want to drop it?  If it's working for you, who cares what other people say?

Angela814

Personally I would keep nursing him when he wakes up. I don't think one night nursing at 5 months is a big deal. I nursed DD at night until she was 26 months. I read somewhere that night weaning can contribute to early weaning, and I wanted to make sure she nursed for at least 2 years.

ncbelle

I think at 5 months that is totally normal.  And I agree with the pp - if it's working for you, why mess with a good thing?

Another thing to keep in mind is nursing isn't just about hunger.  Sure he's physically capable of going without food - but nursing is also his comfort.  And I don't know about you but I can't go 12 hours without at least some water ;-)