When to stop night feedings?

desdemona39

I took DD to the Dr today, and she saw a different pedi who said that she no longer needs to eat at night- "she is big enough". I have always fed my child when she's hungry.

I have seen some of you on here state that at 11lbs, night feeds are no longer needed. Out of curiosity, where are you getting this info? I can't seem to find any support for this claim.

Kougl Wife to Be!

I have heard this as well but not from any decent source.  my LO still eats once a night around 2-3 and thats Ok with me.  She is nearing 16 lbs and started solids about 1.5 months ago.  As long as you are OK with when and how much your LO is eating I say you are fine. I suppose after we kick this cold I will try and stretch it out so she isn't getting up in the middle of the night anymore but thats more for my sake in the long run! 

mesmom2011

I feed my LO when she is hungry.  Whether it's "needed" or not is not as impotant to me as responding to my LO when she feels a need.

vanfox

I feel like night feedings are stopped when you as a parent feel like they should stop and things like 12 lbs, 6 months, etc. are for stopping people from sleep training too early. Most kids naturally drop feedings overnight on their own, given enough time, but sometimes that time is 3 months, sometimes it's 2 years. If it's not bothering you, it's certainly not hurting your LO.

hmontty

I stopped waking my LO to feed once she started sleeping through the night...which was at 6 weeks. Then again, she was 10.5 lbs at birth...  

Anyway, that was the advice we were given by the head maternity nurse at our hospital -- don't let the baby go longer than 4 hours without eating, UNTIL they are sleeping through the night, and in that case, don't wake them at night to eat.

EDT: I should say that if my LO were to wake up hungry for some reason, I would certainly feed her. She eats when she's hungry, and when she's not, she doesn't. After time, we have fallen into a sort of schedule naturally, but there are always exceptions. I never deny food.

tokenhoser

I don't need to eat 6 or 7 times a day, but I sure enjoy being able to eat when I'm hungry.

I am working on spacing LO's night feeds, but that's because he would prefer to do most of his eating overnight. I'd rather do the bulk during the day, so we're working to get night feeds back to 4+ hours apart. I don't have the goal of night weaning him at this point; I'm happy to get up once or twice for another 6 months if he wants.

RayRay007

hmontty:

I stopped waking my LO to feed once she started sleeping through the night...which was at 6 weeks. Then again, she was 10.5 lbs at birth...  

Anyway, that was the advice we were given by the head maternity nurse at our hospital -- don't let the baby go longer than 4 hours without eating, UNTIL they are sleeping through the night, and in that case, don't wake them at night to eat.

EDT: I should say that if my LO were to wake up hungry for some reason, I would certainly feed her. She eats when she's hungry, and when she's not, she doesn't. After time, we have fallen into a sort of schedule naturally, but there are always exceptions. I never deny food.

This doesn't make sense. How do they ever STTN if you are waking them? Anyway, I don't think OP is talking about waking baby to feed them, baby is waking on their own. A lot of sources say that by 6 mos. or so babies shouldn't need to eat during the night. As a pp suggested, I follow DD's cues. She's only waking once around 4 or 5 am to feed, and I stop the feed as soon as she stops actively eating. I don't want to encourage comfort nursing. But she does actively eat, so IMO, she's hungry and needs it. I bet she gets the most BM at this feed, as most other nursings during the day are pretty distracted.

kewltif

I could tell when DD was beginning to wake out of habit rather than hunger. She would barely eat her bottle and fall right back to sleep. I started offering her the pacifier first and a lot of times she'd fall back asleep for awhile. If she started crying I'd feed her. Eventually she stopped needing to eat at night, right at 3 months old.

desdemona39

I have no problems with the 1-2x she eats at night (she goes to bed at 9pm, and wakes for the day around 9am), and she usually falls back asleep rather quickly after nursing. She seems genuinely hungry for the first feeding around 3am, and if she wakes up at 6, it's usually to comfort nurse but that's not every day, and it's ok by me (extra baby cuddles!). 

It's good to know that DD isn't unusual, and other LO's her age and older are still waking up. I guess I just needed some confirmation of what I already know- that I'm not doing anything wrong by responding to my LO.

The whole 11lb thing just seems so arbitrary, but I've heard it so much and have no idea where it is coming from. Is there some sleep training book out there spouting this nonsense? Is there any scientific backing to this whatsoever? It just threw me off that the pedi said this to me (she didn't say specifically "11lbs" but she did say that DD has been big enough for quite some time- she is now 18lbs).

LadyXaverian

My DD started STTN between 8 and 10 weeks but then regressed shortly after she turned 4 months old (teething, 4mw etc etc etc). During that time, we did a little bit of sleep training for her, but nothing excessive. It didn't take long for me to figure out when she was just waking and when she was hungry. 

At this point, she wakes up probably 2 or 3 nights out of 7 to be fed before she wakes for the day. It's usually between 3 and 4 a.m. if it's going to happen. She's been asleep since 7 p.m., so 8 or 9 hours later, I can believe she is hungry. She also sucks back her bottle.

Since it's not every night, I'm hoping this random middle of the night feeding is on its way out. I may try to work with her on it by slowly making them smaller feedings when I am on Christmas holidays if she hasn't outgrown them by then.