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Gentle way to reduce nighttime feedings/wakings?

CrazyMary77CrazyMary77 member
in Babies: 6 - 9 Months
What's a gentle effective way to wean baby off of nighttime feedings/waking? My LO will be 7 months on Saturday. She's been waking up twice a night to feed (exclusively formula). She also wakes 3 or 4 times during the night crying and is easily soothed with a pacifier. I have tried offering her more food during the day but she won't take it. She's not a great napper. She mostly takes cat naps and then starts getting tired early, usually around 5:30pm. I don't know what to do to help her sleep better overall, and I want to reduce her night wakings if I can. I appreciate any feedback!
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Re: Gentle way to reduce nighttime feedings/wakings?

  • rdbanksrdbanks member
    My DS is going through a very similar situation. Wakes 2-3 times a night. Not a great napper. I couldn't do CIO. I'm currently reading The No Cry Sleep Solution. It definitely sounds like a gentler way to go about reducing those MOTN wake ups/feedings, though from what I've read so far, it takes time and patience. Maybe check out the book and see if it might work for you?

    Wish I could be more helpful!
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  • MrsG071809MrsG071809 member
    I am also ready No Cry Sleep Solution - there are a lot of suggestions in it for getting them to take longer naps and reducing night feedings.  I am trying to get my mom to work on getting DD to take longer naps as I think that is our problem.  I know filling them up during the day is one of the suggestions for reducing night feedings.  There are also some techniques for helping them learn to self soothe when they wake in the middle of the night - we're working on these right now as well.  I can't vouch for results yet as we're just starting the various techniques (I actually am still not finished reading the book even), but I like that there are a lot of options and you can form your own plan based on what your LO needs.
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  • honeydew01honeydew01 member
    KatieKarasin said:
    My daughter was waking 3-4 times a night to eat (also formula) and I was able to get her down to once a night. You need to slowly reduce the amount of calories she is taking in at night so she will eat them during the day instead. What worked for me was making her the same size bottles, but cutting the formula down. So the first few nights I'd do 4oz of water and 1 scoop of formula instead of 2. Eventually I cut it down to 3 oz of water and 3/4 scoop of formula, then 2 oz water and 1/2 scoop of formula. This worked really well for me. I don't mind that 1 feeding because if I slept 12 hours I'd be hungry too, so I don't expect her to sleep that long without eating. However, I don't think she needs to eat more than once.
    I'm no expert but everything I've read indicates that you shouldn't mess with the formula/water portion..
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  • VPGIRL06VPGIRL06 member
    honeydew01 said:
    KatieKarasin said:
    My daughter was waking 3-4 times a night to eat (also formula) and I was able to get her down to once a night. You need to slowly reduce the amount of calories she is taking in at night so she will eat them during the day instead. What worked for me was making her the same size bottles, but cutting the formula down. So the first few nights I'd do 4oz of water and 1 scoop of formula instead of 2. Eventually I cut it down to 3 oz of water and 3/4 scoop of formula, then 2 oz water and 1/2 scoop of formula. This worked really well for me. I don't mind that 1 feeding because if I slept 12 hours I'd be hungry too, so I don't expect her to sleep that long without eating. However, I don't think she needs to eat more than once.
    I'm no expert but everything I've read indicates that you shouldn't mess with the formula/water portion..
    I think in regular bottles you do,  like don't give them too much formula per water if they aren't eating a lot BUT, assuming they are going to make up the calories in the day, I think this is a sometimes recommended way to cut out feedings. I could be wrong though, so don't take my word on it...definitely research something like that and talk to your pediatrician before you mess with the formula thing
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  • CrazyMary77CrazyMary77 member
    KatieKarasin said:
    My daughter was waking 3-4 times a night to eat (also formula) and I was able to get her down to once a night. You need to slowly reduce the amount of calories she is taking in at night so she will eat them during the day instead. What worked for me was making her the same size bottles, but cutting the formula down. So the first few nights I'd do 4oz of water and 1 scoop of formula instead of 2. Eventually I cut it down to 3 oz of water and 3/4 scoop of formula, then 2 oz water and 1/2 scoop of formula. This worked really well for me. I don't mind that 1 feeding because if I slept 12 hours I'd be hungry too, so I don't expect her to sleep that long without eating. However, I don't think she needs to eat more than once.
    I did just read this suggestion today, either watering down the formula or cutting back on the oz. I'm going to start cutting back for one of her feedings, just start with 1 oz less and go from there.
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