May 2013 Moms
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night weaning stratergies

I'm curious if you night weaned what strategy did you use?   I've been reading up on it but I'm getting all different tips and some are conflicting. I've been told to do something like a Ferber method, where you wait a few minutes, go in and rub their back then leave and repeat the process at certain time intervals.Then I've read that will never work because going from frequent night feeds to none won't be successful. Another suggestion was to dream feed before each wake up this way you control the feedings and try to shift the calories to the day. Replacing with water was another suggestion.

My LO is 8 months eating anywhere between 24-30 oz a day on top of 3 food feedings with snacks. He wakes up anywhere between 3-5 times a night for a feeding.  Do I really need to shift those night calories to day?

Re: night weaning stratergies

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    @nech0606   How did she react to getting less at night? Would she fall asleep after? 

    I'm wondering how my LO would react if I cut his feeding short. I BF at night so I would have to time our feedings and I guess cut them short by 5 minutes? Maybe I could give him BM or formula at night this way I know that I'm actually decreasing at night. 

    Thanks for the advice. I feel like I've had an information overload with all my sleeping training info. While I think he needs some of the Ferber type training, I feel that going cold turkey on the night feedings might not work.
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    @nech0606  I stopped nursing him to sleep and have been  putting him to bed awake. That's been working really well for us. The first time it took 45 minutes of crying but now it's down to 5 minutes.

    He's definitely filling up. He only comfort nurses when he's sick. He latches on and passes out in less than 5 minutes. During his night feedings he latches on and eats between 15-20 minutes. 
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    so what i did to wean off night feedings took two weeks, but we're down to one a night . First switch your LO to bottles makes this much easier. At night give your LO bottles only for two nights and record how much they eat at each feed and what time. there should be a relative pattern. Also if they are consuming 4-6 OZ  at each feed at night this will take much longer.

    The next night reduce the amount in the bottles by 1/4 of an ounce at each feed and pick one feed and reduce it by 1/2 an ounce. do this for three nights in a row. then reduce it again, again for 3 nights, then again. The feed where you are reducing it by 1/2 ounce should be small enough that LO is making up for it during the day. drop this feed and use a pacifier or pu/pd to get the baby back to sleep. then pick another feed and reduce by 1/2 an ounce until you can drop that feed. does that make sense. I left one feed because she seemed to need it.

    You have to make sure that you are feeding extra during the day. even if you have to sneak in an extra feed. 

    if you are breast feeding, you have to shorten the amount of time you feed for (which is why bottles at night make this easier).

    you can read about this if you google the bb whisperer. she also says that if your child is waking up at the same time every night it is likely out of habit and not hunger. however since they have learned to eat they are drinking less during the day and therefore need it. which is why you slowly drop the amount they eat and then teach them to sleep through that wake up. 

    good luck. it takes persistence but it worked well for us.
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    Thank you so much @LaxMOM44 !
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    Thanks Lax we're going to try this starting tonight. He's taking about 2oz every night at 3am on the dot. He's getting a ton during the day so I don't think it's hunger. I'm hoping we can slowly drop that off and maybe try to go without it by the weekend.
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