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April 2011 Moms
kgail11
member
No nightime feeds after 4 months?
kgail11
member
Just reading some blogs/etc and I've found more and more lately how pediatrician's say a baby doesn't need nighttime nutrition after 4 months. Does anyone totally agree (or disagree) with this? I can see how a 4 month old probably doesn't NEED to be getting a feeding every 2-3 hours (esp my 99th percentile chunko) - but I know mine still wakes up and goes to town once or twice still... but MAN would it be nice to get all night's sleep. (considering doing some controlled crying in the near future)...
Thoughts?
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Re: No nightime feeds after 4 months?
I did a little bit of sleep training after 2 weeks of the 4mw. She hadn't been eating in the middle of the night, but during the 4mw, she picked up one feeding anywhere between 1:30 and 4 a.m. Our pedi told us we should try to cut them out so she wouldn't be relying on them. What I figured out from the sleep training was that if she woke up before 4 a.m., I could change her diaper and put her back to bed without too much of a fuss (the first few nights I had to let her fuss/cry, but not for too long.. just a few minutes each night), but if it was 4 a.m. or later, there was no way on earth she was going back to sleep without eating.
Our 4 month wakeful seems to be slowly moving it's way out of town. Hoping it's gone completely by the time she turns 5 months this week lol.
I have heard this but my feeling is that my DD may not NEED to be fed at night but if she wakes up crying because she's hungry and she WANTS to be fed I'm not going to deprive her.
My DD goes to sleep between 8:30-9:00 PM. She usually wakes up around 3 AM because she's hungry and then again around 6 AM. The way I see it is I have two choices. I can either not feed her and try to get her to calm down and go back to sleep which could take a very long time and deprive me of even more sleep OR I can give her what she wants real quick which calms her down and she immediatly goes back to sleep which allows me to be able to go back to sleep. I might be up for 10, maybe 15 minutes at most when she wakes up for night time feedings.
People may disagree with me but this is what works for us.
Totally agree with this.
My DD STTN....she goes to bed around 8:30pm. Around 5:30am she is stirring in her sleep about to wake up. Before she fully wakes up, I give her a 5oz bottle. Once she finishes the bottle, I change her diaper & lay her back down in the crib. She will sleep until about 7:30 - 8am & she is up for the day.
But I am not going to let my baby go hungry....if she needed an extra feeding, I would do it.
I agree with this. There are times that DS falls asleep during his last feeding of the night. I'm not going to deny him if he wakes up hungry in the middle of the night.
Els started waking up at 2 AM for a feeding and I know she is hungry. She goes right for the boob and practically chugs. I put her right back into her crib when she is done. Total I'm up about 15 minutes total and that's with a diaper change.
I'm sure some babies don't need the feeding, but some babies probably do. Trust your instincts about your baby.
Mama's Gonna Buy You A Mockingbird
I agree with this. My DD doesn't wake in the middle of the night for feedings every night, but every once in a while (I'd say once or twice per month) she wakes up and you can tell she's hungry. We feed her during those nights even if she doesn't necessarily NEED it, but she's clearly hungry and it won't take too much to feed her and get her back to sleep.
I haven't STTN one single time since DS was born. He sometimes gives me decent chunks and I'll be shocked when I wake up, but since April, I've been up at least once, if not twice a night. And my opinion remains the same - I'm exhausted, but I genuinely believe the child is hungry and I will feed him.
I've always fed LO when she wakes up in the night... except for the 4MW weeks, she usually slept 6 hours, fed/diaper change, slept 3 hours, fed, then another 2 hours.
I started to worry that maybe she didn't always need the boob and maybe I was setting bad habits by always feeding her. Now, I feed her after the 6 hour wakeup but when she wakes up after the next 3 hours sleep, I rock her back to sleep. If she calms down right away she's just needing help to get back to sleep, if she arches her back and cries bloody murder, she's hungry. It means a bit less sleep for me but I'm hoping long term it will mean more and she'll stop waking and possibly STTN.
I think you need to trust your baby's cues and your instincts and feed when you feel they need it!
My pedi explained that when she or her partners state that a baby 4 months old or older does not "need" a feed in the middle of the night, they mean that they do not advise parents to wake a baby for a feed. The example she used was if a baby always woke at 4am for a feed, but then one night slept through that usual feed, she wouldn't recommend waking said baby. Of course if a baby woke on his/her own and gave hunger cues, then feed the baby. She also said that at that age, most babies have large enough stomachs to take large enough meals to last 10-12 hours. Also they should be awake enough during the day to consume a sufficient amount of calories that would sustain them until the next morning.
So maybe it would be more accurate phrasing to say "babies 4 months or older are capable of not requiring a nighttime feed." And of course all of us mamas know that just because your child is capable of something, doesn't mean they will do it!
That's a great way of clarifying it!! I would never DREAM of waking her up to eat, if she slept longer than normal... but I guess some parents would??
My pedi asked at our 4 month appt if DS was sleeping through the night yet and I just laughed. I told her he was still waking up every 2-3 hours to eat. She told me that had to stop and he was only continuing to do it because I kept feeding him. She said that as long as I knew he was getting enough during the day, he didn't necessarily need any at night. She suggested that when he woke at night, I should try giving him his paci, patting his bottom, or rubbing his back. I should also mention that we introduced cereal during this time as well, which keeps him fuller longer per the pedi.
We tried what she said and found that he began sleeping anywhere from 4-6 hours at a time. He will wake sometimes and if I try one of the things she mentioned, it seems to work. Once he wakes between 2-4am, I will give him a bottle. He then usually goes back to sleep for another 3-4 hours. Some nights he does wake up more often and wants to eat, but it is becoming less frequent. So, I think they can go longer without feeding at night, but I don't think they will always go completely without it. I just think 4 months is a good age to start trying the sleep training.
DD has STTN a total of 5 nights in her life and woken only once maybe another 5 nights. With those few exceptions, she's woken 2-4 times each and every night, and almost every time she wants to nurse. Sure, sometimes I try rocking with a pacifier first and sometimes that works, but if it doesn't and she truly wants to eat, I let her eat. We've also tried having DH rock her back to sleep sometimes so she gets used to not nursing every time she wakes, but honestly it's often just easier for all of us to let her nurse for 5-10 minutes and konk back out. So I wouldn't let a pedi tell me whether/when to completely stop nursing her at night. If we get to a point where I can't take it or think DD needs more consistent sleep, we might try harder to reduce the night feedings, but I don't plan on even thinking about it until well after 6 months... probably closer to a year.
My daughter has never STTN and I said I wouldn't deprive her.
Mama's Gonna Buy You A Mockingbird