When you have a young baby it's easy to get into the habit of feeding her at night when she wakes. However, if your baby is over 6 months old and is eating three solid meals a day there is no real reason for her to be waking at night for milk. Here are a few things you can do to try to stop her from waking:
by LucyFitzgerald
When you have a young baby it's easy to get into the habit of feeding her at night when she wakes. However, if your baby is over 6 months old and is eating three solid meals a day there is no real reason for her to be waking at night for milk. Here are a few things you can do to try to stop her from waking:
1- It's important to make sure your baby is getting enough food and milk in the day for her age and weight or she will continue to need a feed at night.
2 - Ensure your baby is getting enough day time sleep and napping well so you can be sure she isn't overtired at bedtime. An overtired baby may wake during the night and need your help to fall back to sleep. All the sleep training in the world won't be able to fix this.
3 - Teach your baby to go to sleep by herself from awake at nap times and at bedtime. The easiest way to do this is to set up nap time and bedtime routines which are consistent and predictable. This way your baby will know what is about to happen next when you put her in her cot to sleep. If your little one won't self settle without you helping her, you may need to do some sleep training to improve things before working on the night time feeds.
4- Does she feel safe? Creating a comforting, familiar, dark environment for your baby to sleep in is an important first step so that she always feels secure in her cot. If she still doesn't settle alone you may need to look at sleep training techniques, as she is likely to continue to wake in the night if she can't settle herself. Soothing music can help.
5 - Once you have all of the above in place, your baby may stop waking for night time feeds by herself. Give her a few nights to see if this happens.
6 - For a baby of 6 months or less, try introducing a last feed at 10:00pm. You should be able to do this while your baby is still asleep and this will help her to go for longer - hopefully until morning!
7 - If your baby continues to wake at night for a feed it is time to start eliminating the feeds one at a time. Start by pushing the feed time on, by waiting a little while before going in to her when she wakes to see if she will settle herself. If she doesn't settle go in and soothe her, telling her it is time to sleep, not for milk! If your baby has a dummy you could try giving it to her to help her settle. When your baby wakes again feed her as normal and then keep pushing the feeds back in this way every night until one feed becomes the next and eventually (hopefully!) the original feed merges with the morning one.
8 - If you find this very difficult, or if your baby becomes very upset, perhaps your partner could help? Sometimes dad going in makes things easier, sometimes not. It is often a case of trial and error.
9 - Drop the 10.00 feed. You can keep this feed until she is 7-9 months old, then you need to wean her off it. You may find that she does it herself by taking gradually less at each feed.
These key things, if consistently followed, will let your baby know that they need to sleep at night. If she does continue to wake during the night it may be worth trying sleep training techniques. As always, there is no hard and fast rule about what will work for you and your baby so it is best to read about different techniques before deciding what may work best.
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