Does your 10 month old night feed?

[MSWR0319]

DS is 10 months. He still eats at night. I don't think he needs to, I think it's for comfort or out of routine. I was just curious if others this age still ate at night. I really want to sleep train, but if he needs to eat I won't. He usually eats about 4 oz around 11, which I'm ok till giving him but then he gets up about 3 and only takes a couple ounces so I think it's just routine.

FWIW, he's almost 23.5lbs and is 30" long. He was BF till 6 months when he self weaned so I EP until the last month when we've weaned to Elecare because of supply issues and my health from the MSPI diet.

[Melaine]

He nurses all night long. It's awful, I've got to get him out of it but I just haven't had the chance.

[LMPC]

At that age, DD was still nursing at night...multiple times.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Gosh yes. Both boys nursed till around 18m and they nursed at night up till the end, at least once/ night. Here's my theory...there are days I am extra hungry. Who is to say a baby doesn't have days like that? How am I really to know they aren't really hungry? It might be a growth spurt, they might not have eaten enough that day or maybe they do just want the comfort.

[Katigre]

At that age, DD was still nursing at night...multiple times.

Ditto for all my kids.

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[Philly Mom]

No. DD did not eat past bedtime. I would wean your DS off. If you know how much he is getting during the day, I would just try to give that during the day if it is a hunger thing. By 11.5 months, DD did not eat past dinner.

[MSWR0319]

How did you determine if they woke up because they are hungry or because they're just waking up? Did you wait 15 minutes and if they didn't fall back asleep feed them? I don't want to be stuffing a bottle in his mouth just to get him to go back asleep if that's not really what he needs, but I don't want to be depriving him either.

[jbbhb]

Mine does not most nights. I usually give him 15 minutes of fussing before going in there. If he really screams then we will rock him, if that doesn't work then I will nurse just for a few minutes to calm him. He's huge so clearly doesnt need the calories :)

[mommylamb]

DS1 slept through the night without waking to eat starting around 5 months. He was an awesome sleeper. We had no such luck with DS2 until he was at least 9 months. But by the time he hit 10 months he was sleeping through the night nearly every night.

[Philly Mom]

We would wait 15 minutes and she would calm down on her own. If I were you, I would just give less milk every night. I knew that she was eating plenty during the day.
ETA: I don't think most kids need to eat at night especially if I see what they are eating during the day and they are healthy sizes.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Sometimes I'd send dh to try and soothe. If he could get baby settled without food, great. Only worked like 25% of the time.

[MommyAllison]

My 15 month old still nurses several times at night, and in our family that's actually pretty good! ;) We night wean by their second birthday, but til then it works for us.

[okinawama]

DS1: no, he wasn't feeding at night.
DS2: yup, he was, but I genuinely don't believe he actually needed it for nutrition, we just did what was easiest to get him back to sleep (and nursing didn't always work either).

[Multimama]

DS2 wakes up 2-3 times a night to eat and in my book that's amazing. My first was like Melaine's DS. Uggh.

[BabyBearsMom]

No. I give her a bottle at 10 and then she sleeps until 6. She hasn't eaten in between since 6 mos. the same with DD1 except I had to sleep train her. DD2 chose to sttn on her own.

[edurnemk]

DS was still night feeding at that age. Our Ped said up until 6-7 months it's a legitimate need for babies but by 9 months it's just habit.

Ferber explains in his book that you feel hungry when you are programmed to be hungry because you are used to eat at that time. So, yes, they do feel hunger, and to stop them from waking up from hunger at 2 am, you have to eliminate that programming. So he suggests gradually reducing the amount you feed them by 0.5 oz every 3 nights or so. When you get to just an ounce or so, they'll stop waking up because the amount is not "worth it" to wake up for and they'll stop feeling hunger at that point. We did that and it worked like a charm. Of course, first make sure the he's getting all the milk he needs during daytime.

[Liziz]

No, mine did not. I fed her right before bed at 7pm and she didn't eat again until ~5am (which unfortunately is when I get up for work, so "morning" for us here). She stopped needing to eat at night ~8 months. We knew it was just comfort not hunger because she'd go back to sleep just fine if DH went in to her. If it was me, she'd always want to nurse, but clearly didn't need it b/c she was fine with DH. Like a PP said -- when she would wake at that age (and still now), we now give it 15-20 minutes before going in....she usually calms herself and goes back to sleep.

[chottumommy]

Both of mine nursed couple of times at that age. DS2 nurses couple of times even at 19 months. But I'm fine with that. We cosleep so I don't wake up for the feedings and I love him nuzzling up to me. When we transition him to his big boy bed at 2 we'll stop the night nursing.

[psimpson3-5]

Your son's size sounds very similar to mine. My DS used to consistently wake up around 3AM-4AM. I know he was doing it out of habit. He would also have difficulties falling asleep if he didn't completely fall asleep while nursing. Once we used the Feber method to help him fall asleep, the 3AM-4AM wake up also stopped for the most part. If he did wake up we again followed Feber's instructions and he would eventually fall back asleep.

However, DS also has been sick quite a bit over the last 3 months. The 3AM wake up started again. We felt so badly for him bc he was ill, so I nursed him back to sleep. As a side note, my milk supply has suffered greatly bc of this and I've started a very slow and gradual transition to whole milk one week ago today; thanks to BBB members suggestions on a recent post I made in this forum. DS is 5 weeks away from his 1st bday. Nonetheless, recently for the past 4 nights, he's only woken up at 3AM once (Wednesday). He has a very bad diaper rash this week, so we changed him and I did nurse him back to sleep.

If you haven't tried already, I'd suggest reading Dr Feber's book and implementing the technique. It's not easy to do at 3AM - but if you're strong and seriously stick to it, it will work.

For us, it's been hard bc DS is sick a LOT. To add to our problems, recently DS will refuse his pacifier and clamp his mouth shut. I recently posted about this in the Sleep Forum. Thankfully as I mentioned, over the past 4 nights he only woke up at 3AM one time. It seems as though his sleep is improving. Fingers crossed!

[Hemlock]

He nurses all night long. It's awful, I've got to get him out of it but I just haven't had the chance.

:yeahthat:

[Green_Tea]

DS was still night feeding at that age. Our Ped said up until 6-7 months it's a legitimate need for babies but by 9 months it's just habit.

Ferber explains in his book that you feel hungry when you are programmed to be hungry because you are used to eat at that time. So, yes, they do feel hunger, and to stop them from waking up from hunger at 2 am, you have to eliminate that programming. So he suggests gradually reducing the amount you feed them by 0.5 oz every 3 nights or so. When you get to just an ounce or so, they'll stop waking up because the amount is not "worth it" to wake up for and they'll stop feeling hunger at that point. We did that and it worked like a charm. Of course, first make sure the he's getting all the milk he needs during daytime.

This, exactly.