A baby who’s on 3 solid meals a day and over 6 months old shouldn’t need to feed at night. If your baby is still waking for a night feed there are some things that you can do to wean her off.

1- It’s important to make sure your baby is getting enough food and milk in the day for her age and weight or she will continue to need a feed at night.

2 – Ensure your baby is getting enough day time sleep and napping well so you can be sure she isn’t overtired at bedtime. An overtired baby may wake during the night and need your help to fall back to sleep. All the sleep training in the world won’t be able to fix this.

3 – Teach your baby to go to sleep by herself from awake at nap times and at bedtime. The easiest way to do this is to set up nap time and bedtime routines which are consistent and predictable. This way your baby will know what is about to happen next when you put her in her cot to sleep. If your little one won’t self settle without you helping her, you may need to do some sleep training to improve things before working on the night time feeds.

4- You can help by creating a familiar environment for your baby to go to sleep in so that she feels safe in her cot. Being put down in a darkened room with a baby comforter will comfort your baby when you are trying to introduce new sleep patterns. Soothing sleep sounds can also help. If your baby still can’t settle herself you may need to do some sleep training before you can eliminate night feeds.

5 – Once you have all of the above in place, your baby may stop waking for night time feeds by herself. Give her a few nights to see if this happens.

6 – Still waking? If your baby is under 6 months old you could try giving her milk at 10.00pm while she is still asleep, which will hopefully be enough to sustain her until morning!

7 – If she is still waking at night, eliminate one feed at a time. To eliminate a feed, try first to push it along. You can do this by waiting for a little while when she wakes at night to see if she will settle herself. If she doesn’t, go in and reassure her, give her a dummy if you are happy for her to use one. Tell your baby that it is time for sleep and not for milk. Next time she wakes you can feed her. Each night, push the feed on a little and don’t go backwards! Eventually the feed should end up merging with a later one and finally become the first morning feed.

8 – It can help to have the support of your partner, especially if you find this process difficult or if your baby gets very distressed. Dad’s help may or may not make things easier; you need to find what works for your family.

9 – Maintain the late night feed (between 10 and 11pm) until your baby is between 7 and 9 months. Then start weaning your baby off this feed too. Some babies just do it themselves by taking so little milk that it is no longer worth your while giving it to them!

If you follow the above 9 steps, and remain consistent, your baby will soon learn that night time is for sleeping and not feeding! However, if she does continue to wake, you may decide to try some sleep training techniques. It’s worth reading more about these though before you decide which approach might work best for you, your baby and your family.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.