night weaning..

miamor · #1 February 7th, 2012, 06:42 AM

i'm not looking to do this anytime soon, but i was wondering what the recommended age for night weaning is..i was reading my baby sleep book and it just mentioned when baby is old enough to not need to feed at night, etc. i'm trying to arm myself with information so i can look out for the signs from him for when he may be receptive/ready to night weaning.
does that just vary from baby to baby?

mgm78 · #2 February 7th, 2012, 10:26 AM

I did not night wean DD until she was almost 2. She just really was not eating a lot of food and I felt that she could be hungry in the middle of the night (i am often, so of course she may be!) until she was eating more foods.

hollywoodma · #3 February 7th, 2012, 03:45 PM

My daughter is 17 months and she nurses maybe 2-3 times at night. Im sure she does it more out of shes thirsty than hungry since she only latches on for a minute or 2 then passes out again. I know I get up maybe 2x as well because I need something to drink. So maybe get your baby a sippy or cup in case they are thirsty?

TexasDreams · #4 February 8th, 2012, 10:46 PM

Ive never heard of this....i wont be weaning mine. If they are hungry or thirsty ill be letting them eat.

lunarmagic · #5 February 9th, 2012, 09:19 PM

Well. I think there's a big difference between an age when they don't technically need to eat at night and an age when they think they don't need to eat at night, lol. I waited a long time to night wean because I was nervous about it (she was 15 months), and that went really well so clearly she was ready for that. But now I'm done nursing and there are weeks when she'll wake up wanting to eat a snack in the middle of the night. So clearly she never got the memo that she's too old to eat at night....

JustLiz · #6 February 10th, 2012, 07:32 AM

Yeah I often get told that DS *shouldn't* be nursing at night anymore. I think people confuse the issue a bit. They *can* get through the night without eating I think between 4 and 6 months, meaning that they will continue to gain weight and do fine if you cut out night nursing. That being said, it's also totally normal for breastfed babies to continue to nurse 1-3 times per night past one year. DS is down to one nursing session a night. I may try to night wean him soon because I might want to travel a little and leave him with DH. If he's never gone a night without nursing I would be worried about leaving him. But, we'll see how it goes. It's up to you mama!

miamor · #7 February 10th, 2012, 07:53 AM

well, i dont plan on doing it anytime soon, but i wondered if some babies show signs of being receptive to it when they're down to 1-2 nursings a night kind of like lunarmagic explained...my son isn't even close to that. just curious as to how people decide it's time to try.

thanks, ladies!

-erin- · #8 February 10th, 2012, 08:15 AM

My DD kind of decided on her own, around 9-10 months, when she started sleeping all night. I was very happy with that since she had been getting up at night more and I was starting to feel too sleepy during my commute. If she hadn't decided on her own, I was going to start various methods (DH going to comfort her, etc) to try to night wean her shortly after then.

bookworm16_2000 · #9 February 10th, 2012, 08:27 AM

I never night weaned Allison, she would wake up at least once a night to nurse for a couple of minutes up to the day we weaned. Even now, she will wake up during the night to get a drink from her sippy of water in bed with her. Sometimes, she will even want a snack during the night.

andi2284 · #10 February 12th, 2012, 05:31 AM

With my first, I never night weaned. She had nights even around a year old that she woke up 2-3 times and over the next few months, that cut back to 1-2 times, then none and by about 16 months, she stopped waking up to nurse altogether. With my second, she continued to wake up a lot at night. When she turned 2, I became pregnant with our third and I was very sore, and decided it was time to push weaning a little bit. Even after weaning, she still woke up just as much in the night, but that slowly decreased over the next few months. She's still a poor sleeper, she just turned 3 and will wake up 1-2 times a night, most nights.

With my 5 month old, I plan to let her lead the way again. If she hasn't night weaned or at least cut down by 18m-2 years like my second, I will start to encourage it.