How to wean your baby from night feeding
Miscellaneous / / November 13, 2021
There are times when you shouldn't.
Is it necessary to wean from night feeding at all
Doctors have no consensus on this matter. For example, American pediatrician Richard Ferber, founder of the Center for Childhood Sleep Disorders at Children's Hospital in Boston and author of the bestselling book A Child's Sleep. The solution to all problems ", warnsBaby sleep training: Night weaning / BabyCenter: If the baby no longer needs night food, the habit of feeding him at night can cause sleep disturbances.
The connection is simple: when the child eats, the digestive tract begins to work actively. So, after eating and falling asleep, the baby will quickly wake up due to an overflowing diaper or discomfort in the stomach. To calm down, the baby will eat again, and the situation will repeat itself. If you do not break this vicious circle and do not stop feeding at night, the opportunity sleep well both parents and the baby will not introduce themselves for a long time.
On the other hand, well-known pediatrician William Sears, author of the books "Your baby from birth to two years", "How to put a baby to bed" and others, urges parents not to rush to refuse from night feeding. If this, of course, does not exhaust the whole family. According to Sears, night feeding helps your baby feel safe and strengthens the bond between him and
parents.When you shouldn't stop feeding at night
American medical resources HealthLine expertsNight Weaning: How to End Middle of the Night Feeds / HealthLine and BabyCenterBaby sleep training: Night weaning / BabyCenter list situations when it is definitely not worth giving up night feeding, so as not to cause unnecessary stress in the baby.
- The child is sick or teething.
- The kid is not gaining weight well.
- The baby is experiencing a growth or development spurt. For example, learns roll over, sit or stretch out rapidly.
- Mom recently went to work, and the baby sees her less during the day. In this case, he may ask for a breast or a bottle more often than usual in order to feel the connection with the mother again.
At what age can you start weaning from night feeding
It is desirable not earlier than six months. Up to this age, babies eat almost exclusively breast milk or a mixture. Although these are high-calorie foods, the stomach is still too small to stock up on them, and hunger quickly returns.
According to experts, breastfed babies need to eatFeeding Your Baby: The First Year / Cleveland Clinic 8 to 12 times a day. On an artificial one - from 6 to 10 times. Thus, the average child under six months of age will feel hungry every 2-4 hours. Including at night. So night feeding is inevitable.
By about six months, the situation changes: the stomach increases, and solid food appears in the diet. Porridge and vegetable purees take longer to digest, and satiety periods get longer.
Therefore, by the age of six months, two out of three babies are able to sleep.Infant Sleep / Stanford Children’s Health all night and not wake up hungry. Some babies do this a little earlier, starting from three months or when they reach a weight of about 5.5 kg. Others have intermittent sleep at night for up to a year, and sometimes longer. But six months is a good guideline for parents to finally consider getting enough sleep.
How to wean your baby from night feeding
Here's a strategy to make it as comfortable as possible.
1. Have patience and be prepared to take things step by step.
Slowly shorten the duration of night feeds, each time picking up the breast a little earlier. Or, for bottle feeding, reduce the amount of formula in the bottle. And to make the baby fall asleep easier, stroke him, sing a lullaby or shake him.
2. Make sure your child gets enough food throughout the day.
Growing up kids are active and curious. Sometimes, overplaying, they may refuse to eat. If this happens several times a day, the baby will try to replenish calories at night, demanding a breast or a bottle over and over again.
Therefore, make sure that the baby eats during the day. Take breaks from games or walks at least once every 3-4 hours, turn off cartoons or music, put away toys and invite your child to rest in your arms, relax and have a thoughtful snack.
If you follow this recommendation, but are not sure that the child is getting enough food, monitor his height and weight: they should be within the age range. The pediatrician will tell you about them. Growth and weight over or under normal indicate that a calorie adjustment is required.
3. Plan your bedtime
Without food, an infant over six months on average can sleep up to 8 hours in a row. This means that if he fell asleep at 20:00, he will inevitably get hungry by a maximum of four in the morning. Plan your daily routine so that your child goes to bed (and therefore wakes up) at a convenient time for you.
4. Reassign night feeding or motion sickness to dad or another family member
It happens that the baby asks for a breast or a bottle, just to smell the mother. Try to break the ligament "I eat, so mom is near."
The easiest way to do this is with the help of a dad or another close relative: even if for a while someone else, not a mother, will take care of the baby at night - offer a bottle, shake it, stroking. Pretty quickly, the child will get used to the fact that food is not related to the mother.
5. Get ready to take a step back
Babies usually quickly adapt to new conditions. They may cry for a night or two (you have to iron and lull), and then they get used to go without a breast or a bottle.
But if the kid is inconsolable sobbing several nights in a row, stop the experiment. Your child may not have matured enough yet. Return night feeds, and then try giving them up again after a couple of weeks.
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