BFing Questions...

titantsmama · August 2009

At what point did you start to wean night feedings? How did you do it?

Jake is six months today. I am thinking he's going through the six month growth spurt as he was up to feed three times last night. On a typical night he wakes up twice to feed and at least twice to be soothed in some way- rub on the back, replace binky, etc. He's on solids at this point and "should" be sleeping better....right????

I know bf'd babies wake more to feed, but for how long. I am entering uncharted territory here with Jake as Ty was essentially weaned by now and on formula. I'd like to begin weaning Jacob but don't really know where to start.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

futrkingsley · August 2009

I have no personal experience with weaning at night. DS is still up a lot at night and I just got tired of fighting it so we nurse whenever he isn't easily soothed by patting, shhing, etc.

Having said that, my pedi urged me to night wean him, um, six months ago? His suggestion was to give him bottles of water to replace the feedings we wanted to eliminate. The theory is that baby will not wake just to get water, so they will be trained to stop waking. I never tried it so I have no idea if it works or not.

Sending good sleep vibes your way.

Celyn · August 2009

I didn't try to night wean until both kids were a year, neither really took to my efforts though (they both rejected water in a big way). With Ryan, the night feeds were the last to go when he weaned. Aaron still has two night wakings, or more, but he's so low on the weight charts and so intolerant of solids that I don't fight it.

eastbaygirl · August 2009

Dane is still waking for night feedings - but he barely nurses at all so I know it's out of habit and not because he needs the nutrition. From 6-12 months he's gone through spurts where he was up just once a night to lately it's been 3-5 times a night.

Because it's just a habit now, we're working on weaning him from the feedings right now. I've been reducing the number of minutes he nursed for a while and this weekend I started soothing without offering the boob.

My.ABC.Life · August 2009

We used to feed twice in the middle of the night... and are working to widdle it down to one. Most nights he only wake once (at 4 a.m.). That's how we knew we got drop the 1 a.m. feeding. Its hard though... DH has to go in and calm (does not take babe out of the crib). When I go in... I swear babe can smell the milk!!! If I pick him up... he roots immediately!

Kellina71 · August 2009

I cannot remember the age of Caden... but I do recall that our pedi did say that by 6 months they really do not need to BF at all at night. (I DO know I continued to BF longer than that anyway b/c of C's weight). Like Alison- my DH had to go in to calm C, but he HAD to pick him up. Going in and not picking up escalated C to all chaos.

We also did some sleep training before 6 months, and did some off and on after that after trips, after teething, etc.... when there were regressions. If you want more info about that, I can fill you in more. I really think that helped C learn how to put himself back to sleep on his own... you KNOW how awful our sleep issues were. Now he sleeps 8pm-7:30am AND he is happier. Anyway- the reason I bring that up, is that we used some of our sleep training techniques to help cut back on the number of feedings too. But if you are adamant against some Feberizing, then those methods won't work for you.

Kellina71 · August 2009

I didn't mean that last part to sound rude... I don't know if you are adamant against Ferber-izing. I just meant if people are against it- they wouldn't want to use our methods... but if you would like more info, I would be happy to chat more.

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