8 months old and still having 3 formula night feeds

[samsugar7]

Any advice appreciated, my son is 8 months old and no matter what i try i cant get him to sleep through without feeds. One he is fed he does go back to sleep so its not a comfort thing i dont think.

I have tried upping his food and milk during the day but he still wakes for milk, giving him water and he refuses to drink and cries until i give him milk. I have tried controlled crying but he doesnt stop crying until he gets milk.

Any ideas of what i can try?

thank you

Sam

 

[mrso]

Firstly I will admit that I was very nieve with my oldest son and did not realize he should have not been feeding through the night after a certain point. He was still feeding 2 times a night when he was 10 months old and did not sleep through the night until he was almost 14 months old.

We started off kinda slow... and to eliminate the first night feed we slowly diluted the flormula with more water and over a period of 2 weeks he dropped the one feed. After that we waited a few weeks and then attempted to drop the 3am feed by doing the same thing. He got sooooo mad and screamed at first but I just kept up with it. He didnt drop this feed for quite some time but I just kept giving him complete water in the bottles with no formula and eventually he didnt need that either. It took a few months to get rid of the 3am feed but he finially got it.

I am not really keen on letting my kids scream things out. It may work for some people but I just cannot do it. I would try to drop 1 feed at a time by diluting with 50% more water at first and then go to 75% water and then switch to H2O completely.

Hope this helps

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

My friend had this with her BF baby but worse. He was waking 5 x a night for feeds. The problem was, he had an association between milk and sleep and every time he woke, he needed milk to get him back off to sleep. My friend had to get a sleep expert in. Maybe ask your HV advice?

 

[lou1979]

My LO is now 16 weeks old (11 corrected) as he was 5 weeks prem, anyway when he came home he was on 3 hourly feeds, he woke at 12am 3am and 6am..

i stopped the 3am feed, by just giving him his dummy and settling back down, the next night he woke again and i did the same, after a week he went 11pm-6am... it worked a treat..

now at 16 weeks he goes from 10pm -7am without a feed (but makes up for it in the day)..

 

[kirsten1985]

Freya still feeds during the night too, she has 8oz at 7pm, 8oz around midnight and 8oz about 5am ish.

I know she is hungry as she will not be fobbed off with water, drinks the whole bottle of milk and sleeps again fine. She eats plenty during the day and also has 3 8oz bottles during the day too.

I think she needs it as she is a small, very active baby, I will be carrying on with the night feeds until I am sure she doesn't need it anymore, and I am sure it won't be long til she drops some feeds on her own.

I am def not going to let her cry during the night, perhaps if she were a bit bigger I would consider watering it down, but not now.

Just wanted you to know you're not the only one, and if you find a way round it let me know!

 

[Lisa1302]

I will suggest that it could easily be comfort feeding!
Izzy has slept through for 12 hours since 12 weeks.

However I know for a fact if I wake her the middle of the night - she would take milk. I know because I woke her up when I had to go and rescue my friend who broke down in the middle of the night...so I offered a bottle seeing as she had been woken up - and she drank the whole 8oz!!
Normally because when she wakes naturally she settles herself...the milk doesn't come and she doesnt think about it. So basically they might get used to it...but dont need it!

So just food for thought that it could just be he has an issue settling himself, rather than hunger.

 

[helen1234]

havent got much advice although i could of wrote this myself. rhys wakes 3am every night for a drink of milk, he drinks about 6oz. hes 12 months old.

i'm hoping he'll grow out of it himself

 

[Happy]

Phoebe still wakes around 2am for a feed and she will drink the whole bottle. However I know she can sleep 12 hours straight as she has done it so many times but for some reason she will go a few days waking in the night. We have sarted to water her milk down but she is still drinking around 5oz, i'm hoping she will get bored soon and go back to sleeping.

If I dont give her this milk she will NOT go back to sleep, she self settles fine but for some reason she really wants milk so I'm sure its not comfort feeding.