How Old Was Your LO When You Stopped Night Feedings?

patchen30 · April 2012

And actually, what is considered a "night feeding"? Is 5am considered night? Is it reasonable for LO to go from 6:30pm to 6 or 7am w/o feeding, or is that a pipe dream?

LO is 6 mo old, goes to bed at 7pm, and wakes for his first feed anywhere between 12am and 3am usually. If he wakes up at 12am he often has a second feed around 4 or 5am. Sometimes he's pretty hungry and chugs 5 oz, other times he drinks a couple ounces and then acts like "Lady, why are you holding that bottle in my mouth? Let me go back to sleep."

We did CIO and so he sleeps pretty well, but I think he's got a night feeding habit that's learned, and there's probably no reason why I can't stop feeding him in the middle of the night. I was going to wean him off using Ferber's method (i.e. increase time btwn feedings and decrease ounces offered until the feedings disappear) but I was curious what others experiences have been.

Thanks!

wille2b · April 2012

we consider 830pm to 6am sleeping through the night. but our foster baby didnt do that until almost 9 months old. he was waking up at least once in that time frame for a long time.

itsmevkb · April 2012

To start, I formula feed.

With both of my sons we were done with night feedings by 5 months and with my daughter by 3 months. That means they were sleeping from 7:00pm to around 6:00am without a bottle.

With my first I remember asking my pedi about it, probably at the 3 month appointment, and he said that by 6 months they should be able to make it through the night without a bottle and that if they were still waking for one it was more a learned habit than an actual hunger need. All my kids just stopped on their own so I can't help you with that part.

DH1972 · April 2012

We have 5 month old twin girls who go to sleep around 8 and will sleep until 5 or 6 a.m. before eating. They've been on that schedule for a while now, and I think all we did were these three things:

1. Stick to a strict feeding schedule to avoid developing a grazing habit.

2. Try to tire them out in some way before bed (bath time works like a charm)

3. Feed them as much as they would possibly eat right before bed.

Those were the major things I think, but we also didn't rush in there right away when the fussed in the night and they would usually fall back asleep.

DrVWife · April 2012

M started sleeping from 8 pm until 7 am at just under 4 months old. There have only been a couple of nights here or there that she has woken up in the middle of the night since then. FWIW...she is/was a breastmilk baby. (I EP'd and froze until she was 6 months old and we just used the last pack of frozen milk earlier this week.)

Mouseygail · April 2012

My pedi told me around 4 months that I was spoiling him by feeding him at night (yeah....I don't see that guy anymore...) anyways...I might have night weaned sooner than the 8 months that I did, but I had supply issues and wasn't convinced that he was getting enough milk during hte day until then. That was about when he started taking to table foods with gusto, so I felt comfortable that he was getting enough nutrition despite my sucky supply.

Nicole. · April 2012

I consider anything before 7am a nighttime feeding. We did dreamfeeds with both of our boys so we'd feed them around 10pm and then we'd all go to bed. By 8 weeks Jake was going from 10-7:30am and Luke was doing that around 13 weeks. They started doing 12 hrs (7:30-7:30) at 12 and 16 weeks respectively.

laura1 · April 2012

At 6 months, my DS still ate 2x. He was tiny, so I didn't mind. By 7 months, he was down to 1x, and then by 8 months he was STTN (7pm-7am). He weaned himself off of those feeds by himself. Good luck!

choco_lab · April 2012

My DS2 is about 2 weeks younger than your's and we are in the same situation exactly. Bed at 7, up between 12-2 and up again around 5ish. With my DS1, I cut out the midnight bottle after 6 months. My pedi told me it was now a habit and I needed to wean him off that bottle (I FF). So I started cutting back on the ounces and then put water in the bottle. It probably took 3 weeks to get to the point where he wouldn't wake up for that anymore.

Now.. with DS2, he takes a 6 ounce bottle in the middle of the night. I have no idea how I'm going to break him of this and/or get 6 ounces more into him during the day so he doesn't miss it. AND.. add in the fact that he's now teething and waking up even MORE at night? I don't know how I'm going to pull this off.

Anyways, you aren't alone. I CAN'T WAIT for him to sleep 7p-6a. Feels like a faraway dream right now.

ladychicago · April 2012

At 6 months old, Anna started sleeping 6:30pm to 6:30am - with no feedings. Before then, it was 6:30pm to 3am to 6:30/7am.

oooCarrieB · April 2012

LO was 9 months when she started sleeping through the night (7pm- 5:30am). I don't count 5am as a night feed since I'm up every day anyway at 5:30.

I think that I needed to see her in the middle of the night for awhile since it was a hard adjustment going back to work and nursing and missing her during the day. Plus she did not ever want to take a lot of milk from the bottle during the day, so there was that reverse cycle thing going on.

But by 9 months, she was eating 3 solid meals and an 8 ounce bottle for lunch and I think it was a mutual thing that we were both okay to stop the night feeding. We didn't do sleep training. It just sort of progressed this way.

kme930 · April 2012

It was some time between 5 and 6 months that we weaned Will off the night feedings. He was regularly drinking 4-6oz in the middle of the night, so we just started making his bottles smaller: first 4oz, then 3oz, then 2 oz, then 1 oz, at which point he rolled his eyes and said - ugh, why am I even bothering to wake up for this!?!? And then he just stopped waking up for food. It was definitely a habit for him.

Dochas · April 2012

10.5 months. He dropped the night feedings one by one on his own. I can't imagine deciding for him that he was no longer hungry.

cbubbles2 · April 2012

Thanks for posting this as I've been wondering this as well. G is 6 months, goes down at 7:30, wakes to eat at 4, then up for the day at 7. I've been wondering if that 4am feeding is a habit or if he's legitimately hungry. It seems it's not unrealistic for him to be going the whole night without eating so I'll probably go down to nursing him on one side, then cut it out completely. Occasionally he skips that feeding on his own but then he's up for the day at 5-5:30 and it's rough on both of us!

Dragonfly1226 · April 2012

We fed P at 3 am until he was year old and started sleeping through the feeding on his own.

preheatedoven · April 2012

Ours were nearly a year before they gave up their overnight bottle and started sleeping through the night.

JM1977 · April 2012

We did CIO at 6 1/2 months, which cut down on the very frequent night feedings, but I think she still needed to eat at night when she did wake up. We haven't been the best about a good daytime feeding schedule, so I felt like it was unfair to expect her to not eat overnight. Now she usually goes down around 8/8:30 and sleeps through to sometime between 3:30 and 5:30 (she's now 8 months). When we first did CIO, she was only making it until 2:00 or so, so she's getting better. We usually just give her a smaller bottle when she wakes up and then she's back down. She rarely sleeps past 6:30. She is mostly fed with pumped breastmilk, but we give her half formula for her last bottle before bed.

Good luck!

UsedToBeGoldie · April 2012

8 weeks, for all 3 boys. We followed babywise and all 3 were STTN at 8 weeks... meaning, they had their last bottle at 10pm, and went until 7am for another bottle.

AimeeL85 · April 2012

Hey patchen!

DS was about a year when I finally was able to do away with the last night feeding. The last one wasn't as hard as I suspected it would be, he actually didn't mind, so I'm sure he didn't need it.

I went through phases of just automatically feeding him whenever he woke up (even after he was 6 months) just because it was easier, and trying all different things to get him to just STTN. We were always in a different phase with how many feedings he was having, what I was doing to minimize them etc. At 6 months I would bet he ate 3 times. The 5/5:30 feeding was the last one to go.

One thing that did work pretty well at the time I tried it, was to make waking up for a night feeding a little less pleasant for him. Instead of keeping the lights off and sitting in the rocker and nursing him, where he barely had to wake up, I took the "ok, you want to eat, i'll feed you.....but we're turning all the lights on and sitting on the floor" approach lol. I felt ok doing that because I knew if he was truly hungry, he was getting what he needed....and rather quickly he started waking up less, because I wasn't giving him what he ideally wanted.

Hope you get a bit more sleep soon!

deo · April 2012

We just stopped the night feeding at 10.5 months when he started STTN regularly. Prior to that he had been eating about 1 or 2 times a night (EBF).

LisaBRM · April 2012

Nicole.:
I consider anything before 7am a nighttime feeding. We did dreamfeeds with both of our boys so we'd feed them around 10pm and then we'd all go to bed. By 8 weeks Jake was going from 10-7:30am and Luke was doing that around 13 weeks. They started doing 12 hrs (7:30-7:30) at 12 and 16 weeks respectively.

I'd say we were about the same. Alana was doing 11-8 by 7 weeks and moved to 12 hour nights by 12 weeks. So, we never really did night feeds after 7 weeks.

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