Am I night weaning too soon?

[amldaley]

DD is 8 mo old. Was EBF to 6 months. Takes very little solids still. Never was a night nurser until age 5 1/2 - 6 months. I just started night weaning her last week but resorted to a pacifier to do it. She sleeps well for 6 hours then restless with frequent wakings for another 4 hours - working the paci in her mouth and crying if she loses it.

Should I just go back to one night nursing?

(sorry for fragments...typing while pumping)

[AngelaS]

Mine quit night nursing by 4 or so months, so I don't think it's too early.

[Wife_and_mommy]

My DD slept *awesome* until 6m then woke nightly due to hunger. She stopped at a year when I started doing a before bed snack(yogurt).

FWIW, she still, at 5yo, eats like a bird, so hindsight being 20/20 and all, your descriptions sound very similar to her. If anything, I'd try adding another daytime feeding to see if that helps the nighttime hunger pangs.

Hth.

[pastrygirl]

I believe in child-led weaning, but thankfully my son stopped nursing at night when he was 11 months old. I would've kept nursing him at night for as long as he needed/wanted it, though. I'm just glad he stopped when he did, so that it wasn't a struggle. I don't know how I would've handled forcibly weaning him.

[amldaley]

My DD slept *awesome* until 6m then woke nightly due to hunger. She stopped at a year when I started doing a before bed snack(yogurt).

FWIW, she still, at 5yo, eats like a bird, so hindsight being 20/20 and all, your descriptions sound very similar to her. If anything, I'd try adding another daytime feeding to see if that helps the nighttime hunger pangs.

Hth.

She already gets 6 to 7 daytime feedings. Nurse at 5:30 am, 7:30 am, 2 - 3 bottles of pumped milk at daycare, nurse at daycare at lunchtime, and nurse once or twice, (or sometimes once, but for an hour straight) between 5:30 and 7:30 pm. I am not sure where to add another in and I can not pump any more than I am. Maybe I could squeeze in more evening nursing before bed.

[amldaley]

I believe in child-led weaning, but thankfully my son stopped nursing at night when he was 11 months old. I would've kept nursing him at night for as long as he needed/wanted it, though. I'm just glad he stopped when he did, so that it wasn't a struggle. I don't know how I would've handled forcibly weaning him.

She WANTS to sleep and when she does wake and I nurse, she falls asleep very quickly but wants to stay latched on. We nurse with a nipple sheild, so I can't let myself fall asleep while nursing for fear of choking hazard. She is so exhausted, purple bags under the eyes, etc - hence my original thinking of night weaning. Maybe I will let her nurse and see how it goes for awhile longer!

[AngelaS]

What time of day do you feed her solids? I always started feeding mine solids around supper time or just after. Then at bedtime I'd nurse them once more to tank them up.

I never 'forcibly weaned' mine. After they'd slept thru the night 3 or 4 nights in a row, I knew they didn't have to eat. So then if they woke, I'd just give them a quick snuggle, wrap them back up and lay them down like I did at bedtime. They were used to falling asleep on their own so it wasn't any big deal.

[pastrygirl]

Oops, sorry -- didn't mean to use such a strong phrase like "forcibly" -- I couldn't think of how to say wean without it being child-led. But yes, I got to a point where when he woke, he didn't need to eat to go back to sleep. I didn't deny him if he wanted it, but he stopped asking and was satisfied with just rocking or whatever we did. I can't remember now... it's a fuzzy memory!

[pastrygirl]

She WANTS to sleep and when she does wake and I nurse, she falls asleep very quickly but wants to stay latched on. We nurse with a nipple sheild, so I can't let myself fall asleep while nursing for fear of choking hazard. She is so exhausted, purple bags under the eyes, etc - hence my original thinking of night weaning. Maybe I will let her nurse and see how it goes for awhile longer!

I also used a shield for a while. Turns out my son had tongue-tie, but it took a few doctors to diagnose it. I was able to stop using it at 8 weeks, so I didn't worry about it being a choking hazard (it wouldn't have fit into his mouth at that point, but definitely would have at 8 months).

Could she be going through a growth spurt, and maybe needs a little extra for a bit? Does she wake when you unlatch her after she's done -- is that when she has a restless time? I worked to train Toby to not wake after I unlatched him, but it took a long time.

Have you tried white noise in her room? That was a lifesaver for us. If you're co-sleeping, then maybe that wouldn't work. My husband wouldn't be able to sleep with white noise.

[sste]

You mentioned the paci. Do you think your baby would do better without it at night? For some babies, the paci falling out (which it inevitably does when they start to nod off) wakes them up. Also, how long is she crying at night? Have you tried letting it go for 5 or so minutes? For us 5-6 minutes was just nocturnal wakening, little bit of disorientation and it was best for us not to go in. Much beyond that we went in and rocked or sometimes fed - - but it was pretty rare that our baby just didn't fall back to sleep within that 5-6/7 minute window.

Also, I hear posters about child-lead weaning and in an ideal world that is great. But if you are someone who needs a good nights sleep to function or are a dual-career couple, it may just not be possible. For me and DH, that would have been child-lead unemployment! We just kept an eye on the height-weight curve, which was fine. We noticed that DS switched on his own to taking in more milk/calories during the day once we stopped going in for brief crying outburts (which we did around 6 months).

Not sure if any of this relates to your situation but FWIW . . .