MOTN feedings still?

erindawn · May 2013

So, my 13 month old still has a night feeding and often wakes up at 5 AM for another feeding. He then goes back to sleep for another hour or two. I have been trying to get rid of the night feeding by making it smaller and smaller but that is just making him wake up another time in between his normal night feeding and 5 AM.

Every book says they do not "need "to eat during the night and he's definitely not a small guy but I am unsure of what to do here. I thought it was just a timing thing and that he was used to waking up at 1:30 AM to eat but when I don't feed him or just give him water he just wakes up at 3 or 3:30 AM and still at 5 AM as well.

Should I force the issue and cut off the night feedings? And do some CIO? I am worried that I will be doing the 1:30 Wake up for the rest of my life! Or do I let it go and figure he will stop when he is ready to stop?

Karen1998 · May 2013

I had this problem and here's what I did. I kept the 11pm top-off feeding. I then gradually gave him less and less at that awful 4am one. Once he was down to eating nothing at that feeding, I quit picking him up when he'd wake up then. I'd go in and quickly soothe and tell him to lay down and go back to sleep. Usually, I'd send DH in to do it as he didn't associate DH with food. We did do a little CIO at that feeding, though honestly, he caught on pretty quick when DH would do the soothing. Once that one finally went away, we worked on the 11pm feeding and did a gradual extinction the same way. Though, I actually liked that quiet cuddling time, so I rocked and snuggled him for about a month after he stopped eating at that time. He eventually quit waking up then and we moved on to no night feedings. GL.

ABeautifulMind · May 2013

My DD is also 13 months and am in a similar situation. I know that DD is still hungry and not waking up out of habit. At her 12 month well visit our pedi recommended a high fat snack before bed to help with MOTN feedings.

We do the following: snack at 6:45pm (usually yogurt or cottage cheese) while reading books, nurse at 7:15PM, brush teeth at 7:30PM and then H puts DD to sleep after her teeth are brushed. It has helped immensely over the past 3 weeks! She has been going down at 7:30 on her own (which she has never done before) and sleeps until 5:30-6AM. The past two nights DD has woken up to nurse at different times, but she also has new teeth coming in so I attribute it to that. Personally I'm not for CIO, but you have to do what is right for your family. GL!

karinothing · May 2013

DS was like this at 13 months. However, at 15 months he basically dropped them on his own. Well, that is not entirely true. One night I waited ten minutes to go in there and then after that he stopped wanting to eat at night. I think they grow out of it eventually IMO. Now at 18 months he only wakes up once a week if that. He does still eat at night when he wakes up, but I think its a comfort thing. I don't mind since it is increquent.

mben1119 · May 2013

DS still wakes up to eat in the MOTN occasionally. I notice that night feedings usually coincide with illness and growth spurts for us. He STTN 95% of the time.

bluejetta · May 2013

We night weaned around 14 months. At the time DD was waking between 3-5am and not eating much. I knew it was more habit than anything and that she was getting plenty of food during the day. Though I believe, particularly with nursing, there is more to it than food so I didn't rush it prior to 14 months and she did gradually drop her MOTN feeds mostly on her own. I did what other posters did and just stopped feeding her, I went in and patted her back or sat with her a few minutes. It only took a couple nights and I figure she was ready since she didn't put up much of a fuss about it. It never worked for us to send DH in but it does for others.

ktpaladino · May 2013

I know you've struggled with your little fella always wanting to eat tons in the MOTN and to be blunt, I'd be so over it if I were you. You're right, he doesn't need to eat at that time. I think that at this point in the game youre enabling it and he's expecting it and taking advantage of it. If it were me I'd cut it out cold turkey and try to soothe him in other ways, and give the good ol CIO a try again if that doesn't work. (He's older now, so you might have more luck with the training than you had previously From what I can remember you tried Sleepeasy training and weaning but didn't have much luck.) I know, easier said than done. Be aware that at this age he is probably waking for reasons such as growth spurts or teething, not because of hunger.

M&M227 · May 2013

I decreased the feed and also pushed it back a half hour each night. We did CIO with checks until it was time to have the feed. After a while she stopped waking.

shotzie · May 2013

DD2 has just started sleeping 12 hrs straight [she's 16 months]. Prior to that she'd nurse once/occasionally twice at night. A few weeks ago, we started leaving a sippy of water in her crib. Now she'll drink from her sippy and go back to sleep [usually]. I drink water when I wake up at night, so it's not surprising if they need water/a bottle/to nurse if they wake up.

I understand the philosophy that they are physically capable of not eating at night, but I really think it depends on the baby.

TiffanyBerry · May 2013

At 13mo,DD was up tat leastthreetimes a night to nurse. And she was hungry at least some of the time. (She also wanted comfort, but I'm pretty AP, so I don't necessarily say no to comforting her in a way that works for her.)

But you will not be doing this for the rest of your life. Somewhere between now and college, it will stop, and chances are that it's sooner rather than later. You could certainly work towards cutting it out, if it is something you don't want to be doing any more. Maybe reduce the duration at the normal time for a while and let him get used to the idea of that going down and having to adapt to that?

blu-eyedwife · May 2013

karinothing:
DS was like this at 13 months. However, at 15 months he basically dropped them on his own.

This was us but my guy dropped it on his own at 14 months. He just stopped waking for it and started STTN without me doing a thing. And he since that time - over 5 months ago, he has woken up in the middle of the night maybe a handful of times, but never because he was hungry - it's been for reasons like mabenner implied -teething, illness, etc.

DataJane · May 2013

Our guy was still waking up once a night and at 13 months we decided we were sick of it. One night he woke up, we didn't have him his bottle, he cried for 10 minutes while we held him, then he fell back asleep and hasn't woken up to eat at night since. I think some babies might be hungry but most are still waking up out of habit. It might not work but it seems worth a shot to try to skip that feeding, if it doesn't work you can always go back to it after a few tries!

genekelly · May 2013

Karen1998:
I had this problem and here's what I did. I kept the 11pm top-off feeding. I then gradually gave him less and less at that awful 4am one. Once he was down to eating nothing at that feeding, I quit picking him up when he'd wake up then. I'd go in and quickly soothe and tell him to lay down and go back to sleep. Usually, I'd send DH in to do it as he didn't associate DH with food. We did do a little CIO at that feeding, though honestly, he caught on pretty quick when DH would do the soothing. Once that one finally went away, we worked on the 11pm feeding and did a gradual extinction the same way. Though, I actually liked that quiet cuddling time, so I rocked and snuggled him for about a month after he stopped eating at that time. He eventually quit waking up then and we moved on to no night feedings. GL.

This is what we did although DS kept that night feeding until ~18 mo. Good luck. For us, I didn't really care that the "books" said he didn't need to eat overnight. I still nursed ~3x a night until he was ~15 mo and then he naturally started to need less b/w 15 and 18 mo. At 18 mo, DS started STTN 3-4x a week so we decided to be get a routine going and stopped offering milk overnight. It took a while(~8 wks) before he started STTN every night. GL!

Unknown · May 2013

This content has been removed.

Want a personalized experience?

MOTN feedings still?

Re: MOTN feedings still?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards