night feeds - controlled crying. am i doing the right thing?

[LISAMJS]

Hi me again.

ds is 7 and a half months and breastfed 4 hourly during the day so at 0600, 1000, 1400 and before bed. He wakes twice at night or once on a good day but has gone through the night before.

He is on 3 solid meals a day plus 2 yogurts.

He has been drinking more at night than in the day recently and I have had enough of doing night feeds now and will be going back to work soon and doing shift work so need to stop night feeds.

Tonight I am going to do controlled crying (I will be checking him at regular intervals) I will offer him water if I think he is thursty. Does anyone think I am doing the right thing? I feel so bad but dont know what else to do as I need my nights back now. He is a good weight - 21lb.

I did cc with the dummy and it worked. I just want him to feed in the day and not at night.

Any advice or sucess stories appreciated. x

 

[keli]

Sorry but i wouldn't personnally do it.. Cooper feeds 2/3 times a night and has never slept through! lol. I think as he's feeding at night he must need his milk. I find Cooper doesn't feed that much/very long in day. If your sure he's only feeding out of habit and not because he needs the milk then fair enough. Have you tried giving porridge at night before bed to see if that fills him up? Good luck with it if you decide to do it

 

[LisaJ1986]

I've tried it. Didn't personally work for us until she went into her own room but what i did if she woke in the night was just leave her for a few minutes. I know a crying baby is hard, but if you want to go down the cc route you need to be tough. If she carried on crying after say 10 minutes, then i'd go to her and see what she wanted. They do it out of habit!
As soon as she went into her own room her attitude completely changed and she has been brilliant. I don't jump to her demands and she settles after 2-3 minutes. I now know when she needs me when she stands up in her cot and shouts!

 

[sarah2807]

Violet was really bad at sleeping before christmas....some nights up every hour!!! So...... I started offering her a dreramfeed at 10.30pm and she made it through the night on that. I gradually dropped the feed and when it got to 4 oz and she wasn't hungry in the morning i dropped it and she slept thro!!! I couldn't believe it!!

She has just had a sickness, tummy bug thing and wasn't eating any solid food and only drinking a few oz at a time so I fed her thro the night for a week....when she got better again and was back to eating 3 good meals a day she still woke in the night for milk It was obviosly habit.... I knew she wasn't hungry and was capable or going all night so did controlled crying..it took 2 nights and she was back to sleeping thro, she cried for about 30 mins once per night.
I know some people don't agree but I think the benefits for both of us outweigh the negatives.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[kalia]

My HV explained the night waking for milk and it made perfect sense. Because he is used to being fed at certain times his body produces stomach acid ready for this. This makes sense to me - my break at work is 10.20 and I feel hungry then - at another school I worked at break was at 11.45 so that was when I felt hungry. You get used to wanting food at a certain time.

At 6 months the HV felt we should stop her night feeding and this is what she said. When he wakes for milk give him water instead. That dilutes the stomach acid that he has produced. After doing this for a few days or something like that (I can't remember the time scales now, this was 4 months ago) he won't be producing the stomach acid so he won't be woken up by it. taa daa! We haven't really done this as we are letting her decide when to stop night feeds - I would have given this a go but OH decided not to and since he is the one that does the night feeds I didn't feel it was my place to insist.

He'll cry when he's hungry because it is uncomfortable and hurts so personally I wouldn't do controlled crying although it will work in the long run too for the same reason - he will stop producing the acid. I would offer the water to dilute it though as it seems kinder to me.

I hope this helps!

 

[floppit]

Not feeding at night workd really well for us. Freya stopped waking after only 3 or 4 nights and actually put on more weight plus was more awake during the day. I think any extra milk she got on night feeds just got used up fuelling her waking through the night, now she sleeps 7 hours through she's more rested and feeds in the day so doesn't lose out. I also think she started to pick things up quicker being less tired but that might have been my imagination.

 

[keli]

How's it going?...

 

[LISAMJS]

well the first night he cried on and off for 2 hours. dh gave him water but he wasnt interested. last night he cried for just 3 mins so things are going well (touch wood) x