Breastfeeding Weening Help and Getting Baby to Sleep Through Night

10 mths!!!!!!!! She should be on soft table foods and about to get off the bottle at least at 12mths. You have to get her use to the sippy cup. OK, so shes gonna cry, yes because you give in, once she sees that you are no longer breast feeding she will have to eat/drink something, so she will then gradually began to gravitate to new things. Babies don't care for change like that but it is very necessary. I don't mean to sound mean but we are in control of the babies, they are not in control of us unless we allow them to be. Yes I have a child, and I love children dearly but we have to make them understand early on that hey, welcome to the world that i must introduce you to and make life easy for the both of us.

I would second the co-sleeping suggestion. It really does make nights more tolerable.

I nursed on demand for a loooong time. My son was not a huge solids eater until about 14 months and only took (begrudgingly at that) 1 bottle/cup when I worked....which meant he nursed all night long! :)

I would recommend not weaning if only to continue to give your child those awesome health benefits that BF gives them. My son caught a nasty stomach virus right at 12 months and it was great because the only thing he could keep down was breast milk. I had the virus too and I think his was so short lived b/c he got the antibodies from me.

I know I am pro-BF and pro-extended BF at that, but just wanted to let you know that your experience is normal and there are so many good reasons why you should stick it out.

But, my second son refuses a bottle and is 7 months old.....I am stuck to him like a fly to...well, you get the idea! :) My dad brings him to nurse every few hours at my work. I totally get the need to get away for more than 3-4 hours, but that being said, my older son needs me less and less and I miss our close relationship!

Good luck mama.

Wanted to edit my answer by saying I also recommend a straw. I forgot that we went that route with my older one. He did way better on a straw than a sippy cup or bottle after a certain age.

And there is no evidence that BF at night causes cavities. Everything boils down to genetics and anyways, they are baby teeth. My dentist's wife nursed at night for a long time and one kid had cavities and one didn't. Don't night wean for that reason.

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Definately check out the "Babywise book". I have used the system for five kids, and they sleep through the night early on. I don't agree with it about everything (for instance, we love co-sleeping) but the idea of scheduling feedings and sleep works great.

Best wishes and blessings!

No offense. I am glad that you made the choice to breastfeed. A lot of women can't but at 10 months old....well she should be on table foods!!!!! and learning to drink from a sippy cup. You are in control and are not doing any harm by transitioning her to more solid foods. If you are concerned about certain foods you can by organic or learn to make your own baby food. Plenty of options. At this point you don't need to...If you still want to nurse her that's fine..great but she should be sleeping through the night as well. I would give her the sippy cup when she's not hungry or thirsty. Place a small amount of breastmilk or water and let her play with it to get the idea that she can sip from it. Also, when you go to feed her in the high chair place it in front of her to and make a game of it.

I have a friend who wanted her son to stop breastfeeding at night (granted, he was over a year old) and so she slept in another room for a few nights and let her son sleep with his daddy who of course could not nurse him. She said that after a night or two of him waking up and crying for her he stopped looking and stopped wanting to nurse at night.
My son woke up to breastfeed every two hours, or less, until he was 12 months old. A lot of this was because I was still teaching at the elementary school at the time and so I didn't see him all day and that was his way of being close to me and to let me know he missed me. When he turned a year old I couldn't handle no sleep anymore so I decided to put him in his own room and I began giving him a bottle when he went to bed and a bottle in the middle of the night when he woke up crying. I slowly weaned the middle of the night bottle out by letting him scream for a while to see if he would settle back down before I gave him a bottle. It took me about two weeks to wean him from the middle of the night feeding.
Also, my 7 month old daughter will not take a bottle so I cannot go out for more than 4 hours either. She won't yet eat solids either but I did discover the other day that she will chew on the baby cookies. The next time I want to go out with my husband I am going to try taking over some baby cookies and seeing if chewing on those will hold her over and keep her busy until I come back to nurse her again.
And, have you tried straws? My son REFUSED to ever use a sippy cup but I found out at about 9/10 months he would drink out of a straw. After discovering that I went to Wal-Mart and bought him the sippy cups that have a straw. He drank out of those just fine until he began refusing to drink out of anything with a lid.

You HAVE to get her drinking from a cup unless you are going to continue to exclusively breastfeed past one year.

I think your best bet is to pump enough milk for you to be gone from her for a whole day and see how she fares with your husband or mother or another trusted caregiver. (But be sure to pump while your gone too!)

I have this same problem with my three month old. She will not take a bottle from me. It freaks her out. But if I leave her with grandma, she resists at first, but when she gets hungry enough she takes it.

As for the night feedings, every baby is different but she doesn't NEED to feed at night. She should be able to stay satiated throughout the night. Even my 3 month old sleeps through the night occasionaly and most nights only wakes up like once.

If you can handle it, let her cry it for the whole night. If she's getting too upset, comfort her back to sleep but don't offer the breast. I know this is HARD as breastfeeding feel makes you feel so close to your baby. But you have to get some sleep!

If nothing works and she wants to keep feeding, she may be going through a growth spurt. Her behaviors could change within the next week.

I pray that your baby lets you get some rest! Persevere! You are doing the best thing for your baby by breastfeeding. Unfortunately it is also the hardest thing! Good luck!

I've been there... 3 times. I know you are exhausted and feeling like you'll never get good sleep again. This is what I have done.

1. Try cutting out one nursing overnight at a time. I start with the first one (usually my kids would wake around 11:30 or midnight). Try to send your husband in and have him soothe baby.

2. She will probably start sleeping through that first feeding after a week or so (yes it could take 6 or 7 nights). Then start with the next feeding and proceed.

3. At this point she knows that if she keeps crying you'll give in, so sending in your husband is a great way to change her tune. When my husband would go in my babies would see him, and just lay back down after a few weeks of working on it (yes a few weeks!).

I liked the "No Cry Sleep Solution" books by Elizabeth Pantley (sp?). She has one for babies and one for toddlers.

Keep offering a sippy, but maybe try just water at meal times. Is she eating 3 meals a day? By 10 months, she could be eating table foods and using a regular cup too - my kids were on regular cups (not sippy cups) by around 10 or 11 months. I don't like cleaning the sippies so I never use them unless we are out of the house.

Another thing to remember - she will only be a baby once. Once you reach 17 or 18 months, 10 months feels like a long time ago. My kids are 5, 3, and 18 months. I nursed them each to around 16/17 months and they all were sleeping champs by around 18 months.

It feels like a long time ago that I was up nursing in the middle of the night, and really it's only been a few months.

It goes so fast, try not to worry about it, embrace the time with you daughter and know that in a few years you'll miss it.

best of luck
J.

My youngest daughter is your girl's age too. At your daughter's age, she may never figure out a bottle. You have to introduce it around 6 weeks. Try giving her just plain water out of a glass that you are holding for her. Also try the sippy cups with a straw or a hard thing to suck on rather than one that colapses. You could try expressed breast milk out of a regular cup or one of those little medicine cups too, but until she figures out that she is drinking something out of it, she is apt to waste quite a bit.

Please don't let her cry at night! Try sleeping with her. Breastfeeding is really easy when you share sleep. Your daughter is still too young to go all night without nurishment. Neither of you will get good sleep and you can really hurt her trust in you, by her thinking your are not available to her at night. The cry-it-out technique was started by a guy called Ferber and even he has rejected this technique. There is a lot of research into the benefits of having a family bed. Just make sure you are using safe sleeping techniques where there isn't anywhere for your baby to get trapped. My 10 month old is eating a variety of fruits and veggies and still awakes about 3 times a night to nurse. We are so much in synch that she awakens and stirs and I nurse her before she is awake enough to cry (with both of us still lying in bed) she nurses and falls back asleep. Neither of my daughters have hardly ever cried at night. Only if they are sick or they get confused when I am putting them on a different side to nurse.

Is she picking up things with her thumb and pointer finger? Is she putting everything she sees in her mouth? Since you said she is exclusively breastfed, I am assuming you haven't tried giving her cheerios or fruit yet. If she is starting to put things in her mouth she is ready to try food out. My two girls never did baby food or baby cereal. They went straight to baby finger foods. Good things to start your baby with are avocado, mango, cooked mushy sweet potato, and cut up small pieces of melon. My 10 month-old is nursing and eating these kinds of foods. I give her a sippy cup with water occasionally but more for the experience than to expect her to drink anything. I put my daughter in her high chair with a few things on the tray for her to play with and let her do her thing. I am right there to make sure she doesn't choke and the pieces are quite small. Try this. Once you have her eating table food, you may be able to get her to

Good luck! I think you will get much better sleep by meeting your baby's needs than by going against your instincts by expecting her to go back to sleep when she is still hungry.

I exclusively breastfed our son till 9 months. We started baby food and a week later introduced table food. We continued nursing till 18 months. He NEVER took a bottle. BARELY took a cup until well after a year. After introducing food, there were still full days where the only source of nutrition would be me nursing him!

When I would leave him with my parents (after he was 9 months) my mom would use a tupperware cup and dump small amounts into his mouth. Enough to satisfy him till I came back and nursed him. With the little milk and baby or table food, I could leave him for a day and not worry.

We co-slept to make night-time feedings easier. He woke up in the night, anywhere from 2 to 5 times, until he was weaned at 18 months. In fact, the reason I weaned him was because I wanted to sleep through the night! (and we wanted to try for #3.) Once he was weaned, I missed that time with him! I was so sad that we no longer had that bond.

I would just feed her at night when she wakes up. I am not a fan of crying it out....... She will only be a baby for such a short time.

As for leaving her. As long as she is eating SOME table or baby food, she will be fine. They can spoon feed her small amounts of liquid if nothing else. Just make sure the cup has the spill proof piece REMOVED so the liquid can come out easily. She would be fine for more than 4 hours at this point.

Hi Mariana,

I totally understand your desperation in wanting to have a good nights sleep! I am still nursing my almost 18 month old but mostly in the evenings. She nurses for about 3-5 minutes 2-3 times a night. I think that she is thirsty and just wants mommy to comfort her back to sleep. One of the things that makes me get a good night's sleep is to co-sleep. I would recommend you co-sleep to help you get some sleep.

Breastfeeding develops a very strong bond between mother and child. There is no right or wrong time to wean a child. It is recommended that you BF until the child is 2 yrs old. If you can do it longer, the better it is for your baby. My baby is already singing nursery rhymes and counting till 20. She hardly ever cries and is very non-fussy. Yes, she has an appetite lesser than the average 18 month old but she is far ahead in other departments for me to worry. My mother is a mother-child health expert so I am speaking for her knowledge and guidance.

Hang in there. try to catch a little shut-eye when your daughter goes to the park or something to make up for your sleep deprivation.

all the best!

What is it really sounds like is baby needs to be taught how to sleep. And she will not learn by being left to cry for hours. Babies don't automatically know how to sleep.

Take a look at Dr. Sears Baby Sleep Book and The Baby Whisperer. I was able to get very valuable info from both to come up with a sleep game plan to teach my little ones what to do and what to expect. Babies also benefit from a consistent routine. Her routine thus far has been I wake and mom nurses me. So it will take time to change that routine. Both of my kids were exclusively breastfed till 16 and 20 months. So we definitely learned to make it thru the night without feedings for most nights but it takes time and knowledge of how to teach baby to sleep.

As far as the sippy-try taking the spout out and putting a small amount of your milk in. Yes, it will make a mess but it will help her figure out why you have given her this thing. Also, make sure the milk is at least body temp or slightly warmer so it's more familiar to her. I started giving my daughter a sippy at 6 months and just continued to offer it till she got the hang of it.

she is most likely teething, which causes great pain, and nursing relieves it. To each their own on this one but IMO when my child is hurting and in pain i would like her to think i was there for her. Also she is old enough now for you to leave and she can take food and if she wants it bad enough she will drink from a sippy ( valve removed so she can actually get to your milk) or just a plain cup. she is not going to die if she only gets baby food while you are out. She will make up for the missed feedings when you get back. Are you located near a La Leche Group? ( you can look for nearest one online at lll.org) or St. Alexius hospital has a breastfeeding from on Monday mornings from 10-12. I am sure one of your local hospitals has the same. Good luck to you and this time too shall pass