Night weaning the nine month old...

[dayxday]

Someone please illuminate this for me. I have no idea how to do it or when to start. Any advice or ideas?

[Dahlea]

Honestly, that's too young. Why are you wanting to night wean?

[LadyCatherine185]

Originally Posted by Dahlea

Honestly, that's too young. Why are you wanting to night wean?

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[annettemarie]

I've always waiting until my babies were old enough to at least kind of understand day and night, between 18 and 24 months. Personally, I believe that a nine-month-old still have a biological need to nurse during the night. I'm not sure how you'd nightwean a 9-month-old except to just sort of cut them off. That doesn't seem very gentle to me.

[MountainMamaGC]

Instead of nightweaning try cluster feeding in the evening as much as possible. My DD started to wake more at night when she got more active in the day. She was too busy too feed in the daytime and was making up for it at night. Try nursing a bit more often in the evening and see if that helps.

[dayxday]

Originally Posted by Lydiah

Instead of nightweaning try cluster feeding in the evening as much as possible. My DD started to wake more at night when she got more active in the day. She was too busy too feed in the daytime and was making up for it at night. Try nursing a bit more often in the evening and see if that helps.

Thanks for that Lydia. Re: the other posters, I didn't write that I was interested in night weaning--I'm happy to nurse him whenever he wants. Just curious as to what the deal is, like when people usually do this.

Honestly, I read something online along the lines of, "at this stage, you should start weaning...yada, yada, yada...they should be sleeping through the night...and so on, so forth." So, I'm like, really? Am I missing something?

Anyway, just asking.

[mamabutterfly]

nak...

you're not missing anything. read different books, lol

(only half kidding, try Dr Jay Gordon or Elizabeth Pantley for ex.)

[Burnindinner]

My pediatrician was all "there's no nutritional reason for a 9 month old to bf at night" blah blah blah. Some books say only 50% of babies sleep long stretches of sleep at that point, and most nurse at least 1 or 2 times overnight.

DS is just about 11 months. He bf's still pretty frequently overnight, but I haven't tried to get him to stop yet.

[StrawberryFields]

Originally Posted by dayxday

Thanks for that Lydia. Re: the other posters, I didn't write that I was interested in night weaning--I'm happy to nurse him whenever he wants. Just curious as to what the deal is, like when people usually do this.

Honestly, I read something online along the lines of, "at this stage, you should start weaning...yada, yada, yada...they should be sleeping through the night...and so on, so forth." So, I'm like, really? Am I missing something?

Anyway, just asking.

Yeah, I dunno. I think that 9 months is such an odd time to recommend night weaning, myself. For my babies that was the time of life they were most in need of night nursing! Too busy to nurse well during the day, but not eating enough solid food to sustain themselves either. I believe they were genuinely hungry at night when they woke to nurse!

I can't remember exactly but I think my kiddos were somewhere around 15-18 months when I nightweaned. I was pregnant both times too though so that was a big driving force for me to start the process.

[Zimbah]

Just to give another opinion... I started partially nightweaning my DD at 9.5 months. I cut down the amount of time I let her bf for in the night, starting by limiting each feed between 10pm and 4am to roughly 10 mins a time. Did that for a week then reduced down to 5 mins, then 2, then 1, then if she woke between 10 and 4 I brought her into the bed for snuggles but no milk. That resulted in a blissful 3 weeks of her not waking up until 4am. Then she had a cold so I went back to feeding her whenever she woke, and now I've just started again with restricting the night feeds. She has cried very little throughout this process and I feel like a human being again. If you're happy bf'ing throughout the night then there's no reason to stop, but if you're not then at this age I don't think there's any harm in trying to reduce it.

[dayxday]

Originally Posted by Zimbah

Just to give another opinion... I started partially nightweaning my DD at 9.5 months. I cut down the amount of time I let her bf for in the night, starting by limiting each feed between 10pm and 4am to roughly 10 mins a time. Did that for a week then reduced down to 5 mins, then 2, then 1, then if she woke between 10 and 4 I brought her into the bed for snuggles but no milk. That resulted in a blissful 3 weeks of her not waking up until 4am. Then she had a cold so I went back to feeding her whenever she woke, and now I've just started again with restricting the night feeds. She has cried very little throughout this process and I feel like a human being again. If you're happy bf'ing throughout the night then there's no reason to stop, but if you're not then at this age I don't think there's any harm in trying to reduce it.

Great advice, Zimbah--and thanks to all of you mommies for your insights! I think this might be the method for me. I have no issue with nursing him two or three times a night, or more if he needs it, but recently he's been waking up every two to three hours! If he's hungry or just needs a little mom contact, then I'm game. But I think something else is going on and i default to nursing because it's the fastest way to get him (and me) back to sleep. The point of the matter is, I'm getting to the point where I can barely get out of bed in the morning and I like to consider myself a morning person!

I'm wondering if part of it is the change in temperature, he also had a runny nose, which messed with his sleep routine...Anyway, still experimenting with different ways of dressing him for the night and the amount of time I wait until I go in. Sometimes he sorts himself out after five minutes of wakefulness and sometimes he stands up with a big smile on his face. Though I love it, a big smile at 2am does not bode well for the rest of the night.

[Megan73]

I didn't mean to nightwean my son but I did
DS slept in a crib at the end of our bed and DH is a much lighter sleeper than I am so he would wake at the first peep and cuddle him back to sleep before I even woke to nurse him. This started happening at around nine months, if I remember correctly. If he didn't go back to sleep immediately DH would put him next to me to nurse but that rarely happens. At 14 months he occasionally (like maybe once a week?) still wants to nurse at night.
Anyway, getting your partner to do more nighttime parenting if that's not already happening is a good way to gently cut down on the night nursing, IMO.

[vbactivist]

Originally Posted by dayxday

Thanks for that Lydia. Re: the other posters, I didn't write that I was interested in night weaning--I'm happy to nurse him whenever he wants. Just curious as to what the deal is, like when people usually do this.

Honestly, I read something online along the lines of, "at this stage, you should start weaning...yada, yada, yada...they should be sleeping through the night...and so on, so forth." So, I'm like, really? Am I missing something?

Anyway, just asking.

I think some people recommending nightweaning at 9 months, so you can be done nursing at a year, 'cause that's when babies are supposed to stop, dontcha know :eyeroll

[LROM]

Originally Posted by dayxday

Great advice, Zimbah--and thanks to all of you mommies for your insights! I think this might be the method for me. I have no issue with nursing him two or three times a night, or more if he needs it, but recently he's been waking up every two to three hours! If he's hungry or just needs a little mom contact, then I'm game. But I think something else is going on and i default to nursing because it's the fastest way to get him (and me) back to sleep. The point of the matter is, I'm getting to the point where I can barely get out of bed in the morning and I like to consider myself a morning person!

You should do whatever you think is best, but for the record I don't think anything is necessarily "going on" with your DS just because at night he's waking up every 2-3 hours. That is totally within normal range. One clue for you might be, when he wakes during the night is he actually really eating, or more comfort nursing? My DD is 10 months old and I've been thinking about night-weaning since she was 9 but haven't done it yet because she still truly eats during the night and it seems like she needs it.

Not trying to sway you away from nightweaning if that's what seems best to you, but didn't want you to think that waking every 2-3 hours is in any way unusual or problematic for a 9 month old baby. Sounds totally and completely normal.