How and When Do I Night Wean My Baby?

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How and When Do I Night Wean My Baby?
Are you desperate for your baby to sleep through the night? Your baby still wakes up to feed at night, and you're SO ready to cut out those night feeds. But is your baby old enough to night wean?
Find out how and when to night wean your baby or toddler.
Tips for breastfeeding and bottle feeding from a Lactation Consultant, Nurse, and Mom.
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Transcription:
In today’s video, I’m going to tell you how to determine whether your baby’s ready to stop feeding at night. And more importantly, how you can wean your baby down, reducing or fully eliminating night feeds!
Check out the fun, interactive quiz on www.babysleepmadesimple.com, called ‘Is It OK To Stop Night Feedings?’ You’ll find the link just below the video.
Is my baby ready to night wean?
There are 2 factors which will determine if your baby is ready to stop feeding at night.
Your Baby’s Age
You need to consider is your baby’s age. If your baby is younger than 6 months, then chances are that they still do need to feed at night.
4-5 month old babies = 1-2 night feeds
6-9 month old babies = 0-1 quick night feeds
9+ month old babies = 0 night feeds
Your Baby’s Nutrition and Health
Are you pleased with the amount of milk and solids that your baby takes in ever day? Is your baby’s doctor or pediatrician happy with his overall weight gain, growth and health? Lastly, is your baby 6 months or older?
If you’ve answered yes to all three of these questions, then you can definitely start weaning down those night feeds. And hopefully, eliminating them!
Now I’m going to walk you through how you can do just that!
Start Prioritizing Daytime Feeds:
Feed your baby every 2-3 hours during the day, whether it’s milk or solids. Daytime is for eating and night-time is for sleeping. This will slowly teach your baby’s body and stomach that nutrition comes more often in the daytime so we can sleep longer at night.
Extend the Time Between Feeds at Night
If your baby eats really often at night, you need to gradually extend the amount of time between feeds overnight.
You’ll decide that your little one is going to go, say, 3 hours between feeds. Slowly over time, you can stretch it to 4 hours between feeds. And then 5 hours. Suddenly, here you go, you’ve weaned your baby down to 1 night feed.
Reduce the Amount of Each Feeding
A great method if you’ve decided you’re going to fully eliminate night feeds. You want to gradually reduce the amount of milk your baby takes each feeding, over 1-2 weeks.
If your baby normally takes 6oz/night feed, offer only 4oz per feed. 2 nights on, you’ll offer only 2oz per feed. Then, switch to offering only water in a sippy cup during the night.
This is a gentler than going cold turkey. Their body and their stomach get used to taking less overnight. They will naturally eat more the next day.
The Right Sleep Associations
The next thing you want to do is to give your baby the right sleep associations - the conditions or props that our babies need to fall asleep. You want to encourage independent sleep associations, that don’t require you getting up throughout the night and assisting your baby.
• White Noise all night long. It helps babies to fall asleep quicker, sleep deeper and for longer periods.
• Lovey/stuffed animal: Give your older baby or toddler a lovey or stuffed animal to cuddle in the night. When they wake up throughout the night they see that their stuffed animal is still there and they cuddle it and they fall back asleep.
• Sleepsack: Often we see, over time, that as soon as you put the baby’s sleepsack on, they start to yawn on cue and they know that sleep follows.
When you start to wean off your direct support of feeding, rocking or bouncing back to sleep throughout the night, your baby’s got these other great sleep associations.
Be Consistent!
Make sure you’re doing the same things in the same order, at the same time each night. Consistency is key when teaching our little ones anything! Especially when teaching them to sleep well.
Check out my detailed guide, 'Weaning Night Feedings', on www.babysleepmadesimple.com. You’ll find the link just below the video.