Sleep - babies and toddlers
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Sleep through the night
Any tips for encouraging a 6-month-old to eat more during the day and reduce night feeds?
He used to drink 180ml per feed but now drinks less during the day and wakes at 10pm, 2am, and 5am for milk. He’s had a blocked nose for 2 weeks, but it has improved. Could he be teething?
He used to skip 10pm dream feeding but now it becomes his habit. My 6.5 M+ never sleeps through the night. He didnt gain weight and only 7kg. Thats why we dont train him sleep 12hrs straight as he cant.
Even I try offer him feed 3-4 hours, he is only take around 100ml now. I do breastfeed (only stay 4-6 mins on 1 breast only), pump and formula (1-2 times a day).
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3 comments
- I would limit offering milk at night gradually to one overnight milk at most, as too much milk through the night is likely to impact on appetite for solids during the day. Baby needs to be hungry for solids and having too much milk will interfere with that. Frequent wake-ups through the night could be due to sleep association issues rather than actual hunger. To give you an example, I have 3 children and with my middle child he would wake multiple timess night at 7 months and I would nurse him/feed him back to sleep each time. He wasn't hungry each time he woke but he was expecting to be nursed back to sleep every time he finished a sleep cycle. I sleep trained so he could fall asleep on his own without my help, and it worked really well. We eliminated all the unnecessary wake-ups. He continued to wake once overnight to nurse for another month after sleep training, which I was happy with. He must have been hungry or thirsty and I was happy to nurse once overnight. Then he slept through the night. So sleep training doesn't have to mean stopping nursing completely at night.
- Honestly...I just let my daughter night feed until 13 months. She naturally stopped by sleeping more through the night by herself. I think to save the stress try and work with what baby wants as they want you close at 6 or 7 months still. They will eventually learn to sleep better. Give it time is my best advice!
- sPosted 06-01-25Old school advice from my MIL (a baby nurse). The milk in the night is often for comfort. If you want to discourage it offer water in a bottle (a cup a day or so is safe) during the night. They will probably reject it and go back to sleep after a couple of goes of thisAdvertisement | page continues below
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