Someone said recently they wanted to nightwean when 4 month old babe reaches 6 months so they can "get their sleep back". It totally went against what feels right for me but I couldn't back up my point with evidence....so what do I do? Come to MDC! Input anyone?
Why to not nightwean a 6 month old (x-posted in breastfeeding)
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Nightweaning doesn't mean you get your sleep back. You can nightwean at any age and still have a baby who wakes frequently at night. You'll just have a nightwaking baby who can't be easily soothed back to sleep at the breast.
I don't know why your friend thinks six months is a magic age (is she formula feeding?).
At any rate, many breastfed babies at that age still need nutrition during the night. Heck, my almost 3 year old (nightweaned since around 27 months) still wakes occassionally at night and asks for cheerios b/c he's hungry.
I don't know why your friend thinks six months is a magic age (is she formula feeding?).
At any rate, many breastfed babies at that age still need nutrition during the night. Heck, my almost 3 year old (nightweaned since around 27 months) still wakes occassionally at night and asks for cheerios b/c he's hungry.
People are crazy! It drives me nuts when I hear stuff like this. A six month old baby would DEFINITELY still get hungry at night!! And I agree that the baby would very likely still wake up but then the parents would get a lot less sleep if their not letting the baby breastfeed. My 2 1/2 year old still wants the breast during the night for comfort and I almost always give it to him because it is the EASIEST thing for me to do in the middle of the night when I'm tired, etc.
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Because they ae teething and going through lots of physical milestones that keep them up and irritable at night and nursing can fix it.
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There are lots of reasons but the topper for me is I get way more sleep if I just roll over and pop a boob in dd's mouth and we both fall back asleep than if I try to get her to go to sleep without nursing. She is almost 23mos and still night nurses and co-sleeps.
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This doesn't help the OP, but our pedi also suggested we should start weaning at 4 mo. because he "couldn't" be hungry.
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Last night he woke up at 4am w/ his tummy growling--and he's 14 months old.
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Heck I still wake up hungry in the middle of the night!!!
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Frontierpsych, that's my same response to people who talk about whether babies are sleeping through the night as well.
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my doctor thinks 4 months is a good time to start nightweaning
Totally OT, but anyone else tired of docs giving non-medical advice? The other thing that irks me is the one-size-fits-all parenting input. You can see by the responses here that many kids, even though they "should" be able to get through the night without eating (according to docs - btw, where's THAT research?), just can't because they're HUNGRY!
My dd (one year old) can typically sleep six to eight hours at night without eating, but lately she is eating like a MONSTER and needing to nurse more frequently. Things change with kids all the time, don't they?
I'm having a similar conversation with a friend about a friend of hers who seems more attached to her schedule than to her child, unfortunately.
Totally OT, but anyone else tired of docs giving non-medical advice? The other thing that irks me is the one-size-fits-all parenting input. You can see by the responses here that many kids, even though they "should" be able to get through the night without eating (according to docs - btw, where's THAT research?), just can't because they're HUNGRY!
My dd (one year old) can typically sleep six to eight hours at night without eating, but lately she is eating like a MONSTER and needing to nurse more frequently. Things change with kids all the time, don't they?
I'm having a similar conversation with a friend about a friend of hers who seems more attached to her schedule than to her child, unfortunately.
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This. Just look around any sleep support group - just as many formula fed and night weaned babies wake at night - it just means you have to pace the floor with them rather than grabbing them and popping a boob in.
| Nightweaning doesn't mean you get your sleep back. You can nightwean at any age and still have a baby who wakes frequently at night. You'll just have a nightwaking baby who can't be easily soothed back to sleep at the breast. |
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I find that an argument that works better when people say to night wean at this age is "what will he do if he gets thirsty?"
After all, I may not get hungry very often in the middle of the night, but I do get thirsty - and being an adult, I put a glass of water next to my bed.
With ds1, when we nightweaned him at 14 months by putting him in his own room, we also would always leave a cup of water with him so he could get a drink if he were thirsty.
Just my 2 cents.
Siobhan
After all, I may not get hungry very often in the middle of the night, but I do get thirsty - and being an adult, I put a glass of water next to my bed.
With ds1, when we nightweaned him at 14 months by putting him in his own room, we also would always leave a cup of water with him so he could get a drink if he were thirsty.
Just my 2 cents.
Siobhan
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Yup, it'll be teething (those toddler molars are a bitch!), illness, a change in the household or schedule, bad weather, growth spurt, whatever.
Originally Posted by ktmama My dd (one year old) can typically sleep six to eight hours at night without eating, but lately she is eating like a MONSTER and needing to nurse more frequently. Things change with kids all the time, don't they? |
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That.
I'm in a group of non-CIOers on another forum, and the FF and weaned babies take much more work to put back to sleep.
Originally Posted by royaloakmi Nightweaning doesn't mean you get your sleep back. You can nightwean at any age and still have a baby who wakes frequently at night. You'll just have a nightwaking baby who can't be easily soothed back to sleep at the breast. |
I'm in a group of non-CIOers on another forum, and the FF and weaned babies take much more work to put back to sleep.
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not that i want to, but how the heck do ppl do this? i would think one would have to allow CIO. my 8 month old son would NEVER nightwean without majorly bitching about it, often.
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My response to a comment like that would be something like "I am in tune with my child's needs and feeding at night helps to soothe him/her back to sleep and I think that refusing feeding would be counterproductive. A baby will self nightwean when ready."
Wow, 6 months?? First, I agree with a pp, simply night weaning will not mean that a babe doesn't wake up, only that it will take much much longer to put them back to sleep.
Our DD is a year old. I can tell when she wakes because she is hungry or when she just needs her pacifier and can't reach it. When she is hungry, I nurse her, and when she just needs her pacifier or to be held, I do that.
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I can't imagine not feeding her simply because the Dr. said not to
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: or b/c I MAY get to sleep faster. If she's hungry, I know it'll take twice as long to get her back to sleep if I don't feed her. I know when I'm hungry in the middle of the night, I want cereal, not someone rocking me.
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Our DD is a year old. I can tell when she wakes because she is hungry or when she just needs her pacifier and can't reach it. When she is hungry, I nurse her, and when she just needs her pacifier or to be held, I do that.
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