Hi all!
We are planning to attempt to night wean our DD (almost 17 months) in the next few weeks and want to have a good plan before we implement it.
She is a feed to sleeper which is ok by me except that she seems to rely on it through the night when she wakes through the night to resettle.
I am wondering if it is ok to feed her to sleep for her night sleep and go ahead and try with the night weaning or do we need to tackle the feeding to sleep first before we are able to begin night weaning.
Is it possible to keep feeding to sleep or do we need to teach her to "self settle".
Any advice or thoughts are much appreciated
If bottle as i can only relate to bottle .... if she settles with a bottle of milk before bed i wouldnt worry and honestly if it is part of her night routine i would stick to it!
My youngest is 14mths old and he self settles with a bottle in his cot and im not even concerned as to when to wean him as i will follow his lead on that one... as as long as it works hey whats the harm. I go and remove it afterwards.
Hi
We cut out night feeds before stopping feeding to sleep, BUT, he didn't feed to sleep at bedtime anyway, only for day sleeps.
If you're planning to stop the feeding to sleep soonish anyway, it might be easier to do both at once. At her age your DD can probably handle feeding to sleep sometimes and settling some other way during the night (especially if you're not around - is that your plan?)
Good luck!
I can only comment on bottle feeds too, DD1 used to settle to sleep with a bottle and have another one to settle again in the middle of the night. We swapped to water and now she barely touches it.
You can try to gradually cut down on the time that you let her feed overnight for. So rather than waiting for her to fall off completely asleep, monitor her sucking a little closer and gently remove her a minute or so earlier. This is a pretty gradual way and might take a while.
Does she have a blankee or cuddly toy that she takes to bed with her? You might need to replace your breast with something she can self settle with overnight.
ETA - If you are ok with feeding her to sleep at other times then maybe leave that alone and just see how you go with weaning her overnight?
Um actually I would only do one thing at once, to be gentle. And I'd cut out the feeding to sleep first so that your LO can learn other ways of settling before going through the night weaning ordeal.
Pantley's "No cry sleep solution" is helpful for this - there's also a toddler one too but I haven't read that one.
We did the night weaning thing as DS was waking up and wanting BFs 7 times a night in the end and I was absolutely STUFFED. We used Dr Jay Gordon's site as a guide - it was helpful in helping us devise a plan. We didn't follow his exactly but it really was helpful so I'd recommend googling him.
None of it is an easy, quick process but I found it so worth it in the end! Good luck!
We night weaned long before stopping the feeding to sleep with DS. He was co-sleeping, and I just offered him water and a cuddle instead. He just needed to drape his arm over my neck as we lay together and he played with my hair and went back to sleep.
i cant remember exactly what we did, but i used Pantleys no cry sleep solution too. it was really practical and i was able to set out a good plan of action.
Until recently, DD still fed to sleep occasionally before bed. We night weaned at about 16-17 mths. I replaced the overnight bfs with a drink of water and told her bbs were asleep. We gave plenty of cuddles and were happy for her to co-sleep, just stopped the bbs. Make sure you wear pyjamas she can't access easily and give plenty of comfort. It only took Lucy a few nights to stop asking and surprisingly there were few complaints. I wouldn't bother stopping bfing to sleep at night-time, for Lucy it was a part of her routine for three years!
night weaning: what would you do?
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