If your toddler used to reverse cycle...

MikesFLGirl

When/how did your DC wean from night feeding? DS will only take 2-4oz of EBM in the sippy cup while I am at work. He does take in quite a bit of solid foods and has started to wean himself some during the day. When I am home, he really only nurses to nap and at bedtime. But during the night, he nurses still ALL NIGHT LONG; like nurses every 2 or so hours. I've given up on trying to "force" EBM. He will shake his head "no" if he's not hungry or doesn't want EBM. My MIL has tried every bottle, sippy, cup, etc. and DS will only take a little BM and water( we started giving water b/c he would get dehydrated when I was at work). So...if your toddler was a reverse cycler, did they just eventually start nursing less at night?

ashleyhuney

Oh this sounds so familiar  DS reverse cycled from about 4 months when I went back to work.  I was able to get back to him at lunch which helped but DCP (wonderful, sweet AP mommy) was only able to get a few ounces into him.  Short answer is yes he eventually starting nursing less at night.  I followed the No Cry Sleep Solution and over time he realized that he could go back to sleep without nursing, I think part of the problem was he was now conditioned to always nurse when he woke up.  But of course I always fed him because I was worried he wasn't eating enough, so round and round we went.  He was off bottles about 10 months and was more open to drinking EBM in a straw sippy.  He was eating a ton of solids by then too and with the NCSS starting sleeping longer until he stopped waking at all.

MikesFLGirl

ashleyhuney:

Oh this sounds so familiar  DS reverse cycled from about 4 months when I went back to work.  I was able to get back to him at lunch which helped but DCP (wonderful, sweet AP mommy) was only able to get a few ounces into him.  Short answer is yes he eventually starting nursing less at night.  I followed the No Cry Sleep Solution and over time he realized that he could go back to sleep without nursing, I think part of the problem was he was now conditioned to always nurse when he woke up.  But of course I always fed him because I was worried he wasn't eating enough, so round and round we went.  He was off bottles about 10 months and was more open to drinking EBM in a straw sippy.  He was eating a ton of solids by then too and with the NCSS starting sleeping longer until he stopped waking at all.

This is me lol! DS is very long and lean. All of my friends have pudgy babies and so I worry that he's not getting enough milk (even though I know that BF babies are usually leaner than FF). I've read and re-read NCSS and can't find anything too too helpful. We co-sleep, so I can sleep and snuggle him, but I think that he just sees that as an invite to the all night buffet. The sucky thing is DS was only waking 1x/night when I went back to work at 12weeks, now he nurses all night long. Uggh...I love that he "holds out for mama" but I wish that he would take more EBM during the day.

racampbell1

MikesFLGirl:

This is me lol! DS is very long and lean. All of my friends have pudgy babies and so I worry that he's not getting enough milk (even though I know that BF babies are usually leaner than FF). I've read and re-read NCSS and can't find anything too too helpful. We co-sleep, so I can sleep and snuggle him, but I think that he just sees that as an invite to the all night buffet. The sucky thing is DS was only waking 1x/night when I went back to work at 12weeks, now he nurses all night long. Uggh...I love that he "holds out for mama" but I wish that he would take more EBM during the day.

This probably doesn't help, but I am in the EXACT same boat and not sure what to do either ... we bedshare with DD, so she smells the milk and its over.  We've tried having DH snuggle and cuddle her back to sleep instead of me nursing her and she just gets mad and worked up, not to mention wide awake.  Its exhausting and worrisome  too, my DD was in the 25% for weight at her 6 month check (down from 50% at her 4 month, which really stressed me)  I'm curious if anyone else has had this issue and dealt with it successfully.  I've tried the Pantley Pull Off from NCSS and for us it didn't work, she just wakes up EVERY time and we end up turning a 10 minute nursing session into a 30 minute one!   

ashleyhuney

MikesFLGirl:

ashleyhuney:

Oh this sounds so familiar  DS reverse cycled from about 4 months when I went back to work.  I was able to get back to him at lunch which helped but DCP (wonderful, sweet AP mommy) was only able to get a few ounces into him.  Short answer is yes he eventually starting nursing less at night.  I followed the No Cry Sleep Solution and over time he realized that he could go back to sleep without nursing, I think part of the problem was he was now conditioned to always nurse when he woke up.  But of course I always fed him because I was worried he wasn't eating enough, so round and round we went.  He was off bottles about 10 months and was more open to drinking EBM in a straw sippy.  He was eating a ton of solids by then too and with the NCSS starting sleeping longer until he stopped waking at all.

This is me lol! DS is very long and lean. All of my friends have pudgy babies and so I worry that he's not getting enough milk (even though I know that BF babies are usually leaner than FF). I've read and re-read NCSS and can't find anything too too helpful. We co-sleep, so I can sleep and snuggle him, but I think that he just sees that as an invite to the all night buffet. The sucky thing is DS was only waking 1x/night when I went back to work at 12weeks, now he nurses all night long. Uggh...I love that he "holds out for mama" but I wish that he would take more EBM during the day.

Man, have I been there!  DS woke ONCE from 6 weeks to 4 months.  I went back to work and he was up every flipping 90 minutes.  We didn't co-sleep because I would have gone nuts - he latched the entire time we slept together and I couldn't get a wink of rest.  I remember being so gosh darn tired that I almost fell asleep several times on my commute.  I even didn't have any caffeine until DS was 7 months old, I was nuts!

As far as BF babies being leaner, it's the God's honest truth.  DS has such a skinny butt that he could wear size 9 month shorts in disposable diapers!  But he nurses, eats a mountain of good whole food and the dr. says he is as healthy as a horse.  So forget about the other babies, if yours is healthy that's all that matters.

As far as an all night buffet I can't really help since we couldn't co-sleep for that very reason.  Are you sure there's nothing in NCSS about co-sleeping?  I was just skimming the NCSS for toddlers the other day and there was a section on co-sleeping - something about doing the PPO and turning them over.   

MrsAmers

It improved for us around 10 months.  First, I was able to get him to start the night in his crib, which sometimes meant 3-5 hours of solid sleep at the start of the night before he joined us in bed.  And second, he started eating noticably more table food.

We've had a backslide the last week because of teething and a double ear infection, but right around is birthday we had a few weeks that he was averaging one wake-up a night.  And there were a sprinkling of nights that he didn't nurse at all!

Just knowing that he can do it has given me great peace of mind.  He's not drinking much from the sippy cup at daycare and my pumping output is diminishing, so I'm not going to force him to night wean all the way.  Besides, whenever DH tries to comfort him instead of me nursing him, about 50% he gets really worked up and mad.  So trying to night wean him would just be miserable for all of us - more miserable than me nursing him overnight!

MikesFLGirl

ashleyhuney:

MikesFLGirl:

ashleyhuney:

Oh this sounds so familiar  DS reverse cycled from about 4 months when I went back to work.  I was able to get back to him at lunch which helped but DCP (wonderful, sweet AP mommy) was only able to get a few ounces into him.  Short answer is yes he eventually starting nursing less at night.  I followed the No Cry Sleep Solution and over time he realized that he could go back to sleep without nursing, I think part of the problem was he was now conditioned to always nurse when he woke up.  But of course I always fed him because I was worried he wasn't eating enough, so round and round we went.  He was off bottles about 10 months and was more open to drinking EBM in a straw sippy.  He was eating a ton of solids by then too and with the NCSS starting sleeping longer until he stopped waking at all.

This is me lol! DS is very long and lean. All of my friends have pudgy babies /9and so I worry that he's not getting enough milk (even though I know that BF babies are usually leaner than FF). I've read and re-read NCSS and can't find anything too too helpful. We co-sleep, so I can sleep and snuggle him, but I think that he just sees that as an invite to the all night buffet. The sucky thing is DS was only waking 1x/night when I went back to work at 12weeks, now he nurses all night long. Uggh...I love that he "holds out for mama" but I wish that he would take more EBM during the day.

Man, have I been there!  DS woke ONCE from 6 weeks to 4 months.  I went back to work and he was up every flipping 90 minutes.  We didn't co-sleep because I would have gone nuts - he latched the entire time we slept together and I couldn't get a wink of rest.  I remember being so gosh darn tired that I almost fell asleep several times on my commute.  I even didn't have any caffeine until DS was 7 months old, I was nuts!

As far as BF babies being leaner, it's the God's honest truth.  DS has such a skinny butt that he could wear size 9 month shorts in disposable diapers!  But he nurses, eats a mountain of good whole food and the dr. says he is as healthy as a horse.  So forget about the other babies, if yours is healthy that's all that matters.

As far as an all night buffet I can't really help since we couldn't co-sleep for that very reason.  Are you sure there's nothing in NCSS about co-sleeping?  I was just skimming the NCSS for toddlers the other day and there was a section on co-sleeping - something about doing the PPO and turning them over.   

Didn't know that there is a NCSS for toddlers. Will be ordering promptly lol!

Sally J

Once my DS started taking more solids at 8 months we worked hard between 8 months and 14 months to move his calories from overnight to during the day.  We used NCSS to help him sleep more at night which made him hungrier during the day.  The other things we did that made a difference:

-Offered bm/food every hour during the day and then encouraged cluster feeding in the evenings.  Every little bit in during the day means less he needed at night.

-Have my DH soothe first for 10-20 min.  This basically moved the time between feeds 10-20 min at a time so that he was sleeping more and eating less.  Eventually I moved to not offering the breast until after 10, then after midnight, after 1 and so on.  Eventually I could wait until 3 to offer and that's all he would take, or sometimes not even until 5.

-Made his crib as comfy as possible to avoid wakeups in the first place.  Crib soother, blanket (that I slept on to get my scent on), pillow, white noise, lovey (that I wore in my bra for 2 days to get my scent on it), dressed him warmer (he loved being snuggled with me to nurse all night)

-We increased the nipple speed (he hated the slow ones) and heated his bottle just a tad warmer and these two things increased his daily oz from 7 to 11, and sometimes 14.

WannaBeHiking

For just the reverse cycling, I would imagine that your LO will start to nurse less at night once their main food intake moves from BM to solids. Since BM is still supposed to be the main source of nutrition until a year, you've probably got a few more months unfortunately where getting BM (or formula, for those who FF) truly is important. After that, you can worry less about BM and just about overall nutrition.

DS began nursing less (both overnight and during the day) around 11 months. This definitely coincided with a greater interest in solid foods, and it just sort of slowly transitioned from there. At 15 months, he doesn't often nurse at night, nurses during the day 2-4x/day, and eats 3 meals plus 1-2 snacks.

Hang in there! I would definitely keep offering EBM as much as possible during the day, he will take it from a cup or bottle at some point. I'm sorry, you must be exhausted!

ETA: Oh, and I have to disagree on the lean BF babies comments. DS is and has been since about 2 months, in the 95th percentile for weight. He's tall, too- but definitely had/has the pudge.