Night Weaning a Breastfed Toddler

I'd let this go and be grateful it's only once a night! My feeling is that, under 18 months, if they're saying they need you, they do, and it may not be just about the milk. You sound like you're a really conscientious mom and doing a great job! Don't worry - he'll soon not need you so much and then you'll be a little sad.

If it's not bothering you, I'd say just wait and see if he self-weans in the coming months. But I reached the point when my kids were between 15-18 months old that I was exhausted (they were nursing more than once a night) and ready to get a good night's sleep again. I had pretty good success with Dr. Jay Gordon's method:

http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/ap/sleep.asp

It's geared toward co-sleeping families, but can be altered for a crib-sleeping baby, too. There was some crying, but overall it's a very gentle method. Good luck!

Most babies don't need to eat at night after about 4-6 mos. He absolutely does not need to nurse for nurishment at night. He is waking out of habit.

Could Daddy do the night time wake up routine?

That worked with one child who was a night nursing maniac (still waking to nurse until he was 2...at least 2-4x's per night!!) I ended up sleeping in another room, while Daddy took care of him.

Another thing that worked was sleeping with my back to my daughter (2nd night nursing weaning...oh and we co-sleep) she was 18months. If she couldn't find the boob she just went back to sleep. For her it was more habit than an actual need...she's 2 now and will wake up maybe 1x a week if that and actually need some milk...usually those are the days when she hasn't eaten well.

first I want to say yay for cloth diapers and breastfeeding :)

Second, I don't know if it will help, but here is a link to info about breastfeeding and sleeping thru the night. http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detsleepthrough.html

i would see if your husband would get up with him in the night. Even if you go to comfort him, he will smell the milk, and want to nurse. I stopped nursing my daughter at night about 7 months. after that, i just didn't go down stairs to get her. she didn't really fuss or cry for very long. maybe 5 min, and then she went to sleep. I just recently weaned her all together, but it didn't even phase her. we are trying for another child, and the doctor told me it would be best to wean before i was pregnant again. so at 14 months, i went to nursing, at bed time only. then at 15 months, i just stopped all together nursing. Just one day i said she was done, and there wasn't any fuss out of her about it. She gets a cup of milk before bedtime, so that kept her getting milk just before bed. at 12 months, i started adding in more whole milk into the day with nursing, and slowly over time, we just added in more whole milk and less nursing time.

E., my daughter didn't nurse in the night time after a few months either, so I'm not sure how your son will react if you don't nurse him when he wakes, but I can confidently tell you that he does not NEED to nurse in the night. Babies can sleep 8-12 hours after only a few months without eating, so do not feel like he will be hungry. Also, most things are more difficult to change the older kids get, so if you want to get your nights back, START NOW! I would suggest that when he wakes, you just go to him and comfort him, but DON'T NURSE! Or, have your husband go to him, that might be easier. He may have to cry it out for a bit, but be assured that he CAN sleep through the night. Waking is probably more a habit than anything!

I weaned my son from night feedings at 8 months. His doctor actually told me that you can wean them from night feedings as early as 6 months because they don't really need the feeding at that point. I nurse him four times a day now, as well as him getting solid (baby) food, and he is doing just fine.
At his nighttime feeding, I simply cut back on how long I would nurse over the course of several days. So, the first time, I would nurse him 10 minutes, then the next night 9 minutes, etc, until I simply wouldn't nurse him at all. At that point, I would rock him for a minute and then put him back down. It took him a couple of days, but he eventually just started sleeping through the night because he didn't expect to nurse.

Good luck!

I would wait and see what HE does. He will probably give it up on his own soon. He is probably just waking because he wants his mom and wants to make sure you are still there. Baby led weaning is easier than mama led weaning and way less stressful. Hooray for you...you have given him the best start by breastfeeding him....what's a couple more months? :)

my son is 2 and still wakes at 5 am to nurse...!!! but he nurses and goes back to sleep till 8 .

I hope he stops soon.. I am too lazy to wean him - I will wait until he weans himself..

Hi E.,

I'll tell you what I did with my daughter and then hopefully it will give you some suggestions on things to try with your son.

First, congratulations on still nursing! That's wonderful! You're giving your little guy such a great start to life.

I'm guessing since he is more then a year old you are also giving him solid foods. Now that he is over a year, solids are becoming more important as far as his caloric intake. The whole 'nursing enough during the day' thing, as far as all I've read, really has to do with babies younger than 12 months. Before that 12 month mark milk should be their primary source of nutrition and calories.

But, you're beyond that. So, really ... anything he takes is bonus! My daughter continued to wake in the night as well and wanted to nurse at this age. But, of course, after more then a year of not getting a solid 7 or 8 hours of sleep, I was more then ready to give up those night sessions. I was completely prepared to nurse during the day until 2 years....if my daughter wanted to. I was concerned that she might be hungry in the night... I knew I had to determine whether or not it was night waking because she was used to it, or if it was because she was hungry.

So, I started making sure I was alert and awake when she woke up and I started really paying attention to how she nursed. Was it different then during the day... how long, how vigorous, etc... I realized... she was not really taking any milk. It was comfort nursing.

So, I felt good about the amount of food she was getting during the day... no need to adjust that, and I knew I just needed to do something about this comfort nursing.

Some people may tell you to just leave him in his bed and let him cry and eventually he will get it that there is no night nursing. That's not my approach. I felt I needed to continue to let my daughter know I would be there for her, but also teach her that night time is for sleeping.

So, once I determined it was comfort nursing...the next night when she woke up as usual I went in, I made sure her diaper was dry, I sat in the rocker with her, she signed for milk and I calmly told her 'It is not time for milk'. Then I encouraged her to snuggle in and I rocked her.

Yes, she cried. But not too much. I just kept telling her 'it's sleepy time, it's not time for milk'. We did this for about 3 nights. Once she would settle down and be very sleepy again, I would put her in her bed. After about 3 nights... we were good to go.

No more night wakings. She's now 21 months old and still sleeps like a champ. She also doesn't nurse at all anymore. Around 17 months old she started to just drop more and more day feedings until she just didn't ask for it any more. On her 18 month 'birthday' she literally didn't ask for anything. The next night she did (she was down to just bedtime nursing), but was off and on for about a week...and then was totally done.

Hopefully I've given you some things to try. Good luck!

If your son is waking in the night to eat it is because he is hungry-- which means he needs to eat. When he is no longer hungry, he'll stop waking to eat. That is how you will know he's outgrown the need to eat in the night.

How often and even how much he eats during the day is immaterial, just as what you ate last Sunday has nothing to do with whether or not you'll need to eat come a week Tuesday.

According to sleep studies, children wake in the night regularly until they are about 4 years old. Whether or not they think anyone will come to them and help with whatever it is that woke them (or even if they need anyone) is all that keeps their parents informed of this.