Help me kick this night feeding.

F15Wife · March 2013

My daughter is still waking up to eat at night. I'm confident it's out of habit. She wakes up between 3-5 and I dont' give her a full feeding. I just give her about 3 oz and she rolls over and is back out for another couple hours.

I've tried the dwindling oz until there is nothing. She lays awake and cries until she's fed. I've tried giving her water out of a sippy, it infuriates her, I've tried CIO and my room is literally right next door and I'm a light mommy sleeper. If she's awake, I'm awake.

So, do I need to go upstairs for a week and sleep and just let her work this out on her own or has anyone done anything that's worked other than "they just stopped on their own?"

TIA

BTW she's 24lbs....by no means does she NEED food.

ktpaladino · March 2013

I'm also right next to the nursery so when LO is awake we are awake too! We did Sleepeasy at 5.5 months with a lot of success but when the teeth started coming the training went down the tubes. LO was waking 6-7 times a night on average again and I was exhausted. I'd always go in and nurse him back down because I could get him and myself back to sleep faster. So I suppose his waking habit was my fault because I was enabling it. Two nights of refusing to go in at all when he woke resulted in him STTN. The first night he woke 5 times and the second night 2 times, and every time he was able to get himself back to sleep in about 15 minutes or so. I do admittedly still dream feed him at 1:30 am because it seems he gets up later in the morning when I do this. I don't think he NEEDS the food but I do think it gets me an extra hour or two of sleep. I'm going to experiment with dropping the dream feed at 11 months, after we've had a few solid weeks of STTN. I would continue the CIO until she gets it. Unfortunately you'll be up as well as she learns how to get herself back to sleep, but its worth the few nights of sleeplessness to start getting full nights of rest

jennyelf · March 2013

LalaMama81:
theresat858:
If she cries until she's fed, she's hungry. Maybe try increasing daytime calories, but other than that.... feed the hungry baby.
What time does she go to bed vs when you go to bed? Maybe a dream feed before your bedtime would help.
This. If you've tried water and you've tried decreasing the feeding and it hasn't worked that means she is hungry.

This is our experience too. LO sleeps through the night most of the time, but if they didn't eat well enough during the day, and they wake at night and cry for more than just the typical 2 minute resettling cry, LO is not going back to sleep until they are nursed.

oliversmommy32912 · March 2013

I have to agree with everyone else. If you've tried those other things with no success then if I were you I would keep up with the night feedings and re-visit this in a couple of months.

Something we tried that seemed to work was giving a high calorie dinner and then a bottle right before bed (and sometimes a dream feed right before we went to sleep if we stayed up late). If we gave him veggies we would add butter. If he had fruit we would add coconut oil. We would cook meat in olive oil and add olive oil to pasta etc. We would make sure to include foods like avocado, cheese, etc. (Just make sure to chose healthy fats, not chicken nuggets lol!) It has seemed to work well for us.

F15Wife · March 2013

She eats 3 meals a day and has a bottle before morning nap, a bottle before afternoon nap and a bottle right before bed.

It just seemed odd to me that although her normal bottle is 5oz she's perfectly fine with 2-3 oz at the night time feed. I would have thought if she was hungry she'd still be wanting a full feeding and not just a snack.

Hmmmmmm

How many bottles a day is your LO getting at almost 1. She gets around 18oz a day. Is this too low still?

shannm · March 2013

I'm going to be the odd man out in this thread and guess that she is not hungry. My DD still wakes and I nurse her mainly because it is easy and I haven't had the energy to sleep train completely. She will eat but only for a few minutes and then she is up again in an hour or two. The waking is normal but unfortunately, my daughter would prefer a visit over putting herself back to sleep on her own. At least in our case, I totally think it is a comfort thing over being hungry.

oliversmommy32912 · March 2013

F15Wife:
She eats 3 meals a day and has a bottle before morning nap, a bottle before afternoon nap and a bottle right before bed.
It just seemed odd to me that although her normal bottle is 5oz she's perfectly fine with 2-3 oz at the night time feed. I would have thought if she was hungry she'd still be wanting a full feeding and not just a snack.
Hmmmmmm
How many bottles a day is your LO getting at almost 1. She gets around 18oz a day. Is this too low still?

My almost one year old still gets five 4-6oz bottles a day (7:00, 10:00, 1:00, 4:00, and 7:30) and three large meals. I think on average he gets around 25oz of formula. To be fair I do think he takes too much formula but he won't drink anything else and I worry about him staying hydrated. I have read that they should get between 16-24oz of milk a day when they're a year old. I'm kind of dreading the whole switching to wcm thing... I have a feeling he is going to need formula forever lol.

After re-reading your post and thinking about it for a bit I think you might be right about your LO not really being hungry and just eating out of habit. Have you tried waking her before her normal wake up time and doing dream feed? That way when she wakes at night you can let her put herself back to sleep without worrying if she's hungry. Once she adjusts to the dream feed and isn't waking on her own anymore then try reducing the amount in each bottle until you just don't go in anymore. Just tossing ideas out there.

F15Wife · March 2013

See, I'm so nervous about the dream feed thing. I feel like I'd be unleashing a monster byt waking a sleeping baby.

I really do think it's habit. She eats like a hog at meal times. For example, at dinner tonight she had half of a tenderloin of chicken, a large serving spoon of rice, 1/4 cup of corn and about half a roll. THEN and hour and a half later a 5oz bottle. The kid is not hungry!! hahaha

Alas, she will not go to kindergarten with a bottle stuck in her mouth and she will someday SSTN.

I tried the milk switch and it gave her the runs. Granted I kinda of just slammed it on her with a half and half bottle instead of gradually mixing it with 4oz formula 1 oz milk then going up to 2 oz milk and 3 oz formula and so on. Will try to re-introduce soon. I too feel like she'll be on the bottle and formula forever.

JWSchwarz · March 2013

theresat858:
If she cries until she's fed, she's hungry. Maybe try increasing daytime calories, but other than that.... feed the hungry baby.nbsp;What time does she go to bed vs when you go to bed? Maybe a dream feed before your bedtime would help.

This. Try to up the daytime calories first.

JWSchwarz · March 2013

F15Wife:
She eats 3 meals a day and has a bottle before morning nap, a bottle before afternoon nap and a bottle right before bed. It just seemed odd to me that although her normal bottle is 5oz she's perfectly fine with 23 oz at the night time feed. I would have thought if she was hungry she'd still be wanting a full feeding and not just a snack. Hmmmmmmnbsp;How many bottles a day is your LO getting at almost 1. She gets around 18oz a day. Is this too low still?

16 to 24 oz at 1 year is what my pedi told me. Plus water, three meals and a snack. It should add up to approximately 1,000 calories a day.

F15Wife · March 2013

JWSchwarz:
F15Wife:
She eats 3 meals a day and has a bottle before morning nap, a bottle before afternoon nap and a bottle right before bed. It just seemed odd to me that although her normal bottle is 5oz she's perfectly fine with 23 oz at the night time feed. I would have thought if she was hungry she'd still be wanting a full feeding and not just a snack. Hmmmmmmnbsp;How many bottles a day is your LO getting at almost 1. She gets around 18oz a day. Is this too low still?
16 to 24 oz at 1 year is what my pedi told me. Plus water, three meals and a snack. It should add up to approximately 1,000 calories a day.

Ok yep......she gets all that. I'll see if I can offer some more in there.

bklynbridecesh · March 2013

By 6 months of age babies can go up to 12 hours without feeding. You have created a trained night feeder. If you kept feeding yourself at 4:00AM, you would wake up at the same time every night to eat a snack as well. You do not have a newborn. You have a toddler. Their stomachs are not connected to the sleep wake cycle any longer. This is a habit you need to break if you are to get any sleep. Time to CIO and go sleep somewhere else for a weekend. After two-three days, it will work, but don't give in, or it will reinforce the continued wakenings.

ktpaladino · March 2013

F15Wife:
See, I'm so nervous about the dream feed thing. I feel like I'd be unleashing a monster byt waking a sleeping baby. I really do think it's habit. She eats like a hog at meal times. For example, at dinner tonight she had half of a tenderloin of chicken, a large serving spoon of rice, 1/4 cup of corn and about half a roll. THEN and hour and a half later a 5oz bottle. The kid is not hungry!! hahaha Alas, she will not go to kindergarten with a bottle stuck in her mouth and she will someday SSTN. I tried the milk switch and it gave her the runs. Granted I kinda of just slammed it on her with a half and half bottle instead of gradually mixing it with 4oz formula 1 oz milk then going up to 2 oz milk and 3 oz formula and so on. Will try to reintroduce soon. I too feel like she'll be on the bottle and formula forever.

In theory, dream feeding should not wake the baby. If u gently pick them up out of the crib they are groggy, and never even open their eyes. It works very well for us. Just make sure there is no talking/whispering or lights on.

slukd79 · March 2013

bklynbridecesh:
By 6 months of age babies can go up to 12 hours without feeding.nbsp; You have created a trained night feeder.nbsp; If you kept feeding yourself at 4:00AM, younbsp; would wake up at the same time every night to eat a snack as well.nbsp; You do not have a newborn.nbsp; You have a toddler.nbsp;nbsp;Their stomachs are not connected to the sleep wake cycle any longer. nbsp;This is a habit you need to break if you are to get any sleep.nbsp; Time to CIO and go sleep somewhere else for a weekend.nbsp; After twothree days,nbsp;it will work,nbsp;butnbsp;don't give in, or it will reinforce the continued wakenings.nbsp; nbsp;

Agreed. It's a learned habit.

bellc1980 · March 2013

Personally I think LO needs more to eat. Pediatrician told me 25 oz. formula + solids. DS has slept through the night since 6 mon...he stopped night nursing on his own. He was EBF until 8 months when I dried up He is 10 mon. now and gets 25 oz. of formula plus 3 meals of solids with snacks. He is a little piggie

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