when do babies drop the night feed?

73trix

My LO is just gone 5 months. Wakes once for ? a feed. Well he takes it anyway. When should I stop feeding him during the night? I've recently started a bottle at night as have started weaning him off the boob. He can take up to 7/8 ounces during this night feed. He sleeps 6-6 ( I know, very early but he doesn't nap by day and can't stay up beyond 6pm (or is like a wasp) and then he wakes around 2/3am for a feed.). I don't know when to stop this. Is it anything to do with starting solids? Thanks.

lainycool

73trix wrote: »

My LO is just gone 5 months. Wakes once for ? a feed. Well he takes it anyway. When should I stop feeding him during the night? I've recently started a bottle at night as have started weaning him off the boob. He can take up to 7/8 ounces during this night feed. He sleeps 6-6 ( I know, very early but he doesn't nap by day and can't stay up beyond 6pm (or is like a wasp) and then he wakes around 2/3am for a feed.). I don't know when to stop this. Is it anything to do with starting solids? Thanks.

I would say if you can push his bedtime back? He is actually sleeping for 8/9 hours which is great! What about a dream feed about 10pm and that might stretch him until morning?

highly1111

Mine started sleeping through from about 8 weeks but that involved a dream feed at about 10.30pm. If he has to go down at 6pm then definitely lift him 11ish.

Alternatively a little baby porridge before bedtime might do the trick.

fro9etb8j5qsl2

Our fella dropped the night feed at around 12 weeks. All his feeds were formula by then and I just decided one evening to not give him the 3am bottle. He whinged and cried the first few nights but I persevered and just kept replacing his soother and he soon got the message and picked up an extra bottle in the day to compensate. I thought that he would start waking earlier for breakfast (he was sleeping 8pm-8am) but he didn't so I was little worried that he was going 12 hours without food but I figured that if it bothered him he would be awake and crying.

contrary_mary

My lad dropped it just after 6 months. It had started moving later and later in the night and getting smaller and smaller and when he was waking for only an oz or two I dropped it. I bf him for the first few months and he was on multiple night feeds so to me that was great! He's still not sleeping through but is usually quick to settle back at night.

lazygal

Six months is the earliest for solids. I would not introduce baby porridge just for sleep reasons. One of mine stopped at four/five months. The other was six/seven months.

tinkerbell

Agree with lazygal, you're supposed to wait til 6 months for solids and waking up at night at 5 months is not a sign that baby needs solids.

OP - bedtime is too early but if you don't want to change bedtime you'll have to wake your baby up for a feed whenever you go to bed yourself?

pwurple

73trix, that's really good for a baby that age! 1 wake during the night at 5 months? Awesome!

Unless the baby is showing a huge interest in food (as in trying to grab it off your plates) then it's too early for solids as well.

I'm trying to see what the issue is here to be honest... is it that the night feed is too late? You could try 2 things...

1) Go to bed at 10pm yourself. That way you get one full cycle of sleep before a wake, so you won't feel so tired.

2) Dream feed. Pick the baby up when you're going to bed, feed. This doesn't always work, but it does for some people.


I'd also try to get the naps going again. Bizarrely, babies tend to sleep better at night if they get naps during the day.

ariana`

The dream feed worked a dream (excuse the pun!) with my 1st born, at 2 months he was sleeping 7pm-7am with a dream feed at about 11o'c. My 2nd got the dream feed but was still waking for a feed at around 4am so after 2-3 weeks i stopped the dream feed as it was serving no purpose, and at about 7mths i stopped feeding him at 4am (hubby settled him when he woke for a few nights so he wouldn't smell the milk off me), it took another 6-7mths for him to stop waking at 4am but that's another story, he wasn't hungry just in the habit of waking at that time and needed a bit of re-settling.

fall

Op every night keep your little one up ten minutes later and gradually you should push bed time back to seven. I was also a big fan of the dream feed and would feed my baby at eleven and they wouldn't even wake.
I find the advice on solids quite conflicting. I have been told so many different things by so many different people with the latest being that bottle fed babies can start solids before six months ( public health nurse said this. ) when I had my first it was common to start a bit earlier than six months

lazygal

PHN training seems very hit and miss, and some of the advice I consider rather out of date. I went with the most recent WHO guidelines for both of mine (one of whom was combination fed and the other of whom was exclusively BF with no bottles at all) which is to start when baby is ready, at about six months going on their cues, whether breast or bottle fed. I started one child at 24 weeks and my second at about 26 weeks. We did baby led weaning so no child specific foods like purees or boxed baby rice. They ate what we ate, minus salt, sugar and things like nuts and honey until we knew there would be no allergies.

Sligo1

fall wrote: »

Op every night keep your little one up ten minutes later and gradually you should push bed time back to seven. I was also a big fan of the dream feed and would feed my baby at eleven and they wouldn't even wake.
I find the advice on solids quite conflicting. I have been told so many different things by so many different people with the latest being that bottle fed babies can start solids before six months ( public health nurse said this. ) when I had my first it was common to start a bit earlier than six months

fall wrote: »

Op every night keep your little one up ten minutes later and gradually you should push bed time back to seven. I was also a big fan of the dream feed and would feed my baby at eleven and they wouldn't even wake.
I find the advice on solids quite conflicting. I have been told so many different things by so many different people with the latest being that bottle fed babies can start solids before six months ( public health nurse said this. ) when I had my first it was common to start a bit earlier than six months

Agreed. Advice is so conflicting on this topic. Apparently bottle fed babies may start solids at 4 months, while breast is recommended 6 months. The absolute earliest 17 weeks. If you look at a lot of the pre prepared meals, baby porridge etc the packs all say 4-6 months. Started my breast fed baby on solids at 6 months but she had no interest at all really until about 7-8 months. My son who was comhination fed started earlier.

Sligo1

I know this is off topic but is actually a pretty good article referencing various research on why not to start solids before 6 months. WHO and a lot of other health organisations do not recommend starting before 6 months even for formula fed babies. As far as I'm aware tho our HSE still advocates starting solids between 4-6 months. This article recommends that these guidelines are now in need of updating.

http://kellymom.com/nutrition/starting-solids/delay-solids/

lazygal

My anecdotal experience is that the baby food sector has informed a lot of HSE and PHN advice. It seems to me that because those who manufacture so-called baby food have an age of four months on the box, the PHN system follows suit. Unless I was medically advised by a doctor to start solids earlier, I would hold out until at least six months.

Sligo1

Yea that article I posted above which iterates WHO and unicef guidelines recommends current guidelines which state 4-6 months be updated to 6 months. I would say most parents in the community will be guided by the 4-6 month guidelines which HSE goes by as these guidelines are the ones stated on the leaflets etc handed out by the hospital when they are discharged and by the PHNs when they are visited at home.

lainycool

I wouldn't even want to start weaning before 6 months, Bottles are so handy, I did the pureed food on my 1st little guy and I have to say it was not an enjoyable experience!
My new little fella is 17 weeks on Monday and it will be the same story, He will get food from 24 weeks!
Food under 1 is just for fun :-)

73trix

fall wrote: »

Op every night keep your little one up ten minutes later and gradually you should push bed time back to seven. s

I wish I could but it a a battle to defer til 6. I hate it that he goes down so early but he doesn't really sleep by day so exhausted by about 5pm. I'm hoping that when the clocks change it will be 7th so a bit more "normal" !.

Marz66

Will he sleep in the pram or car during the day? I'm still doing this with my fella so that he gets his nap.

Mine is still on 2-3 night feeds. To reduce them, I picked him up but didn't offer food til I was sure he was hungry. Sometimes he settled back to sleep on my shoulder. Sometimes I changed his nappy, he rubbed his eyes and was happy to be put back in the cot again. Maybe it depends on whether he's actually hungry. If he is hungry, could you try fitting in an extra feed during the day so that he might not be hungry at night. Another tip I read is to offer a short feed only (give more if he's actually hungry). If it's only a short feed he gets, over time he might not be inclined to wake up for it.

Moonbeam

Mine did at 6 weeks,I fed them myself during the day but gave them a bottle at bed time.

73trix

Marz66 wrote: »

Will he sleep in the pram or car during the day? I'm still doing this with my fella so that he gets his nap.

Mine is still on 2-3 night feeds. To reduce them, I picked him up but didn't offer food til I was sure he was hungry. Sometimes he settled back to sleep on my shoulder. Sometimes I changed his nappy, he rubbed his eyes and was happy to be put back in the cot again. Maybe it depends on whether he's actually hungry. If he is hungry, could you try fitting in an extra feed during the day so that he might not be hungry at night. Another tip I read is to offer a short feed only (give more if he's actually hungry). If it's only a short feed he gets, over time he might not be inclined to wake up for it.

sometimes. Maybe the smaller feed is an idea. Open to all ideas.