Night Weaning Questions

We did Babywise. At 9 wks we did the cry out method. By the third night, she was sleeping thru the night.

Her last feeding was at 10:30. We slowly started moving that closer to her 7:30 feeding at 4 months. By 5 months, we were also done with the 10:30 feeding. She would sleep from 7:30 to 7:30.

I night weaned my son around 5 1/2 or 6 months in order to get him sleeping through the night. The whole point of it for me was not to have to get up and feed him at night, so no, I didn't feed formula. I gradually reduced the number of minutes I would let him nurse each night until he wasn't waking to eat anymore. After a week or so, he wasn't waking up to eat at all, and was sleeping 11 or 12 hours overnight. Dr. Ferber's book describes the method we used in detail, and it worked really well for us. I'm guessing that you may have some engorgement issues if you try to stop cold turkey.

I think I weaned our daughter from night nursing when she was around 14 months old. Then we continued nursing during the day until 21 months. At 14 months, I just told her that mommy wasn't making milk at night anymore and she understood. We shared a family bed, so I had a sippy cup of water on my bed stand and I'd hand that to her if she woke up asking for milk. After a couple of nights, she stopped waking up and asking.

I night weaned my daughter at about 2 1/2. I'm not sure how old your little one is but what worked for us was putting a time limit on the nursing and then singing and snuggling with her until she fell asleep. It took a couple of weeks of reducing the amount of time nursed for but it was very gentle and their were no tears.

I never night weaned... always bed shared. Breastfed until daughter chose to stop around 4.5 years. Daughter at 5 y/o is ready for her own room and bed - and not only are we happy for her but are joyfully supporting her decision.

This is not something that will happen for the rest of your child's life. This is a short time span in which you will look back - either fondly, because you allowed your child to make such a big decision themselves... or with guilt because you forced them leave their innocence and safety net before they were ready.

My Ped told me when my first was born that the reason most older babies wake to feed is because that is what they have been trained to do, but if you let babies do what comes natural at night (sleep), than they do not learn bad habits, and that babies no longer need night feedings after the first couple of weeks of life. So from about one month, when my boys would wake up, I would wait 5 minutes before going in to see if they were actually hungry or just wakeful (all babies wake at night, we say they sleep through the night when they no longer cry to wake us up). They almost always self soothed and went back to sleep before 5 minutes was up. Of course they knew how to self sooth because I taught them to do so by putting them to bed awake each night at the same time and allowing them to go to sleep on their own. IF they cried, I would go in every 5 minutes to comfort, although I never had to go in more than once. Following all of this all my kids were sleeping through the night by 2 months, and have been great sleepers ever since.

I weaned my daughter when she was 20 months. She was down to comfort feeding 2-3 times a day and used to wake up 2-3 times a night. It wasn't a problem since we co-slept but she was not eating well during the day since she satisfied herself only by nursing. So I decided to wean her.

I stopped cold turkey. In the daytime, I told her that the birdie took away mommy's milk. In the night, she would not listen but it took 4-5 nights of comforting, rocking, offering a sip of water before she got the hint.

I let my boys wean themselves for the most part. My youngest I had to force. He was nursing out of habit not hunger. It took a good week and a very patient and cooperative husband. He took him in the night when he woke up and would scream when he wanted to nurse and I wouldn't let him. He was 18 months. And yes, we did go cold turkey. He still nursed during the day, though.

We waited until 12 mos. We wanted to give them as much of the nourishment and protection from disease as possible. Also, it was free and very convenient. It only took 2-3 days for the engorgement to disappear. My kids were ready and weren't drinking milk at night.

My oldest daughter stopped nursing at night around 10 months old on her own. She didn't need formula because she was eating solids and drinking breastmilk during the day.

My younger daughter is still nursing at night at 20 months and I'm guessing won't stop until I night wean her. Each child is different. You didn't mention how old your child is. The age is going to place a huge factor in how long it takes.

Here are some tips on night weaning -
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/weaning-night.html