How to drop night feedings?! 8 1/2-9 months

GinEthansMom · February 2011

Hi!

Annie will be 9 months soon. She is a big ol' baby--95/95 for height and weight. She is a great eater and sleeps well except...she still has the same two night feedings that she's had since she was 7 weeks old. She's up at midnight and three. Not a huge deal in that she socks a bottle and immediately goes back to sleep but I would like to see her transition away from this and start to need to eat less at night. She isn't very interested in drinking bottles during the day which may contribute to the problem. We have tried sippy cups but is not interested. At night she'll drink 2x 4-6 oz. During the day she has 4 oz. at 6:30, 6 oz. at noon, and another 4 oz. around 3:30. She eats three regular meals of purees and first finger foods. I have tried offering bottles more during the day but she just won't have it. Thoughts or suggestions?

mrslafleur08 · February 2011

I'm in the same boat. I figure I just have to wait her out.

lilbugs momma · February 2011

It was a long process, but this is what we did. Addie would wake up at 1am and 5am religiously. I sat down with the nurse practitioner at our pedi's office begging her for advice on what to do she had these 3 tips: 1. Make her largest meal at night an hour before bedtime. ( we did barley cereal and fruit) 2. Place a water filled bottle in the crib in the same place at night. ( She explained that more than likely she isn't waking up for hunger- but for comfort) 3. Cut nap times down to 2x's a day for no more than 2 hours a piece. We changed our schedule around and Addie is now STTN ( 9p-9am most days) I hope they help you as much as they helped us!

Married2003 · February 2011

Every few days we lessen the once until he dropped to one feeding; and he eventually dropped the last feeding himself.

Dreamsicle23 · February 2011

I would try to consolidate to one feeding maybe around 1 or 2 am for a week or so, then decrease the oz over the next week. A baby that age & size definitely doesn't need 2 feedings per night and they need some of the night calories taken away so they learn to eat more during the day.

RedHeadedLeo85 · February 2011

At that age, they are no longer waking because they are hungry, but more out of habit or comfort. If your child hasn't learned how to sooth itself back to sleep, then you're in trouble. DD1 was like that. I just left a bottle in there with her. BAD IDEA! I would recommend the water in a bottle and some patience. Try giving her a blanket or a stuffed animal that she can associate bedtime with. She's going to cry and scream because your screwing with her schedule and what she's used to. After about a week, it will get easier. I wish you the best of luck!!

Also, try giving her an 8oz bottle, instead of 4-6 during the day.

Lisadf1230 · February 2011

We just broke the night feeding this past week. We had his 9 month check-up on Monday and the doctor said that he no longer needs the night feeding so we quit it cold turkey. Monday night he woke up to eat and we let him cry. I went in to check on him periodically and within 18 minutes he put himself back to sleep and has slept through the night every day this week. Obviously I know the CIO method isn't for everyone and I will admit it was hard but it worked great for us. I would suggest trying to break the night time feeding habit ASAP since the longer you wait, the harder it will be. You might want to try and offer another bottle before bed to hold her over throughout the night. GL!!!

jamdv3 · February 2011

I know Pper's have said that your baby isn't waking out of hunger, but i'm not so sure that's true. If your LO isn't eating enough during the day, then she IS waking out of hunger to make up for it. It's true that she doesn't NEED to eat during the night at that age, but that's ONLY assumign she gets enough calories during the day. You're going to have to wean her over the course of a few days if you want to don't want to force your LO to go hungry one night.

Here's what we did, based on teh book the SleepEasy solution:

If your LO wakes up at 12 and 3 EVERY night, set your alarm for 11 and 2--wake her up and feed her 2 less oz than she normally takes for the first night.

so for example if she normally drinks a 6 ox bottle each time, the first night, juts give her 2 4 oz bottles. the 2nd night, give her 2 2oz bottles. the 3rd nigth you could try and just skip the frist feeding, and only get up to feed her at 2--another 2 oz bottle, or get up at 11 and 2 and just give her 1 oz each time.

The purpose of waking her up while she is still asleep is so that she breaks herself o fthe habit of waking up at those times.

If she cries when you put her down after feeding her, let her cry. She will have enough to be satisfied but each day, she should naturally make up the missed amounts until after 3 nights she'll be able to go all night. In this way, you can let her cry knowing that she is NOT crying out of hunger, but rather because she's having to teach herself to fall asleep.

we used this method, and while it wasn't 100% cry free, it got our LO to go from waking 2x/night to nurse to STTN from 7-7 wwithin 3 days.