Strategies to increase time between night feedings?

[Anonymous]

I need some help from experienced moms. My 6 months old sleeps for 4-5 hours when he first goes to sleep, but after that he wakes up every 2-3 hours. If I feed him he goes right back to sleep, but if I don't he goes back to sleep (with help) but he keeps on waking up until I feed him. How can I train him to sleep longer? Should I try to get him to skip the 1am feeding, or some of the later ones? I don't want to do CIO but I need some sleep...

[Anonymous]

We had professional help from a sleep coach and what she did was slowly scale back the feedings at night, making sure to add the food to the daytime feedings. For example, reduce one of the night time feedings by one ounce and add an ounce to the day feed. Keep that schedule for 2-3 days. Then reduce the nighttime feed by another ounce, add to the day and keep it at that amount for 2-3 days. Repeat until the nighttime feeds are eliminated.
If you currently have two nighttime feedings, eliminate one completely with this method and then the next one. There may be a little crying it out, but just stay by the crib, rub the baby's back but don't pick up. At 6 months, they don't need to eat during the night if you're feeding enough during the day. Our nighttime feedings ended at 3 1/2 months with our consultant's help.
Good luck! Hope that helps. If you haven't already introduced a "lovey" it may be good to add that in to.

[Anonymous]

That sounds like a great strategy. How would you do it for EBF babies?

[Anonymous]

We are in the exact same situation as you, OP! Sorry, no suggestions, but I'm looking forward to seeing what advice others may have. DB is mostly BF at night also.

We're really hoping this gets better soon. Good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

My son is 9 months & I'm still feeding twice at night (occasionally more when he's teething badly & really needs the soothing). I am so tired all the time & would love suggestions too.

[Anonymous]

At about 5 months I instituted the 'dream feed' for both of my children. Right before I went to bed at about 11pm I would gently lift my babies out of the crib in a just-about-dark room, rock them in the rocker while stroking their cheek and they would nurse half-asleep. That would hold them until morning. Plus, I actually looked forward to this feeding rather than dreading the 2 am feeding. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

PP, was it hard to get them to skip the 11pm feeding later on?

[Anonymous]

It's much easier to do this w/bottle fed babies b/c you can follow PP advice and up ounces during day and decrease at night which is what we did with our twins and it worked perfectly. For EBF, it is just so hard to tell how much they are getting at each feed. My first DS (EBF) did the 5 hour then every 2 hour thing until about 10 months when I decided he was just nursing for comfort - we went cold turkey and it took 3 nights. How I coped until 10 months was to go to sleep when the baby did (7:30). If I could have stayed up (I would usually be way too tired) I would have tried the dream feed as I have heard this can help for EBF babies (and perhaps you can give a bottle of pumped milk to make sure baby is actually drinking?). Also, will you baby take a pacifier? You might try using that when he/she wakes instead of feeding (this unfortunately did not work for us but perhaps you will have better luck). To help manage through the sleepless night just keed in mind that this stage will pass....

[Anonymous]

For EBF babies, you would reduce the time you have the baby nursing gradually, by about 3 min each time.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks everyone! My son takes the pacifier, but he won't take it when he wants to be nursed. He complains if he wakes up without it, so I usually have to put it back in his mouth a few times a night (and at those times I don't like the pacifier all that much!). But at some point the pacifier just won't do it and I have to nurse him.

I have tried reducing the feeding time and he went back to sleep just fine, so that may help us too. Have others worked on 'delaying' the feedings so they get used to eat later and later? It sounds like a sensible strategy but I have no idea if it will work.

[Anonymous]

We did it with my EBF DD when she was 6 months. DH would go in with a bottle of water - just an oz or 2. Once DD realized she wasnt getting milk, she had no reason to wake up. We did this one feeding at a time, i.e. if she woke up 3 times a night, we just did it once to cut out that feeding. If you gave me a milkshake everytime, I would keep waking up too!