Should I stop breastfeeding at night, even if it means letting my baby cry?

How old is baby? And do you want to stop? I heard that sometimes you can try to give them water instead of a bottle. I can’t give advice on stopping breastfeeding because I stopped cold turkey. My son was 15/16 months when I stopped and I stopped cuz he started walking and biting.

I checked your profile, baby is 11mo? You could introduce other methods of calming that involve leaving baby in the crib such as pats, rub back, singing, shushing, or baby squeezing (they’re like baby massages idk how to explain you can look it up). Be consistent with the method so baby knows what to expect. The first little while you wean at night will be rough there’s no way around it but baby will adjust in time.

@Stephany He's 11 months old. I don't have a problem breastfeeding him, but what worries me is that neither he nor I get enough rest at night, and I have no energy during the day.

@Dory That's very helpful, thanks!

Do you still breastfeed during the day or just at night?

My boy is about to turn 1 in 2 weeks, I still bf him to sleep through the night. It's quickest and easiest way to settle him😅

@Sarah Less and less during the day, but yes

It’s not recommended to night wean before 12 months although if you wanted to stop breastfeeding you could, of course. Who advised you to stop night feeds? It’s biologically normal for them to wake to eat for the first 18 months plus, and is often the quickest way to get them back to sleep. I night weaned my son at 17 months when he had more understanding of what was happening and we could prep beforehand. It was still an adjustment, of course, and supporting him through lots of crying.

Mine is 9 months and we’re currently in the process of decreasing the amount of night feeds + getting her to sleep longer stretches. For us this looks like ‘controlled crying’, allowing her to escalate for a few minutes before going in and increasing the intervals from 3 to 5 to 7 to 10 minutes, and aiming for 4 hour stretches of sleep with no feeds. We had night three of training last night and she woke 4 times, 2 of which she self settled within one minute and the other 2 I breastfed her. So it is working and I don’t feel bad at all about us all getting more sleep. My first stopped having any milk in the night and sleeping straight through at 11 months.

I stopped night feeding at 12 months, he was never that hungry in the morning so it was definitely just comfort for him in the end, it took about 10 days and I slept in his room and rocked him to soothe him. He's 16 months now and sleeps through.

@Adriana i had an easier time weaning off day feeds first before weaning night feeds. Almost like breaking hos conscious habit during the day so it wasn't his impulse thought in the middle of the night. (I should also mention I weaned at 13 months) The extra feeds at night could also be signs of a growthspurt so your LO might actually need the extra feeds right now When the dr advised to stop night feeds, they more likely meant to try other soothing methods first rather than going straight to feeding

@GMF 🥹🥹🥹😍😍😍 thanks

I decided to stop night feeds and sleep train my son. Took a couple nights but he was fine. And that was a couple of months ago. He was ebf, but was eating a lot of food so I didn’t feel worried about cutting his night feeds out. He’s one in just over a week and I’ve just stopped with our breastfeeding completely now, I had him weaned to once a day but that’s us done!

@GMF my pediatrician said I could night wean my kids at 6 months?

@Sarah thank you!! That's great to know!

@Dory a lot of pediatricians will say this. What they really mean is that they CAN stop night feeds, but that doesn’t mean it’s not also normal for babies to wake and need to feed. Also pediatricians really receive barely any training about sleep (same with breastfeeding), and they’re not the true experts about this areas. For strictly medical things, sure, but they tend to give advice about a lot of other things. Like why is a pediatrician telling people to sleep train?? For example

Who advised you? What do you want to do? Lots of great breastfeeding content on https://www.instagram.com/olivia_lactation_consultant?igsh=MXV3NmJ2NG9pMm8yZA== https://www.instagram.com/emmapickettibclc?igsh=MWxocWt6c3AzMmFqYQ== https://www.instagram.com/lucywebberfeedingsupport_ibclc?igsh=ZHF4ZmE0ZGdpazFj These are all lactation consultants. Honestly, if you don't want to stop then ignore the advice. I feel much happier now I've stopped talking about feeding to people who give me unsolicited advice. I've also stopped talking to people who just go on about sleep training when talking about night wakes as it just isn't something I want to do. Do what you want to do 😊

If he’s 11 months he does not need the food and nurses for comfort.my baby just turned 1 and I used to get up with her, comfort her a little bit and lay her down but I would not give in and breastfeed. Eventually when she realized she was no longer getting milk, she stopped getting up

I’m wondering honestly why you were advised to do that? If baby waking up is easily curable by boob why not continue to do it? I mean unless you’re over it…. That’s a different story

@Gwynalynn not sure if you were asking me. The Dr advised that because they needed a full night of sleep and so did I. They would also wake up their older sister. If not mistaken at around 7 months I was told she did not need the extra feeds at night. So both my daughters sleep through the night now

Our pediatrician told me to stop night feeds completely after 6 months and said that my baby wasn't hungry and just nursing out of habit. My baby is almost 16 months, and I still nurse him a couple of times at night. It's the quickest way to get him back to sleep, and I rather that than him crying and fully waking up and taking hours to put back to sleep. If he wakes up shortly after being put to bed, my husband will try to soothe him back to sleep. But if that doesn't work, then I'll try laying with baby before nursing again if he still is unsettled. I always believe that we all should do what works best for our families, not always necessarily what is advised. If nursing at night works for you, keep doing it. If you want to work on night weaning, introduce other ways of soothing, like rocking, pats, or humming.

@Laura Thank you so much!!! 🥹🥹🥹

@Summer thank you! 💚

@GMF curious how did you explain and prep your child? I was holding out for 18mo too but he's 19mo now and still has zero understanding even during thr day if I ask him to wait 2 mins before a feed while I finish something so I feel like his understanding is not there yet. He's bilingual and has about 40 words which are mostly animal noises/vehicle noises

My solution was to only breastfeed a certain number of times - after putting her down, no breastfeeding until every 3 hours, then every 3.5 hours, then every 4 hours until it’s once per night. Using other soothing methods until that time. It’s more effort in the short term but can get out of the hourly nursing cycle

I don’t BF, but my girl is 11 months next week and still wakes multiple times in the night and I still give her a bottle when she wakes, most the time she rarely even has an oz but seems to be only thing that will help her go back to sleep. So I feel your pain on not sleeping 😭

Something I would say as well, is babies can go through phases of sleeping better, or waking more often anyway. Here is a post about night wakes generally https://www.instagram.com/p/DJJeWs9Mkk0/?igsh=dmN3aHJxNTR0dWhr It's normal for babies and toddlers to wake in the night

U don't have to let your baby cry just cuz u stop breastfeeding at night

One thing I’ve learned from experience is to stop when YOU are ready. Your baby will get used to it and learn to sleep through if you do it during the ages that are appropriate. I would start by cutting out one feeding at a time and cutting out the ones that would be easiest to cut out. Then you can gradually do it more.

Wean down by two minutes per night

@Summer wow, I've never heard that, sounds like some questionable pediatrics!

It's the main source of nutrition until 1! And there's a developmental leap around 11-12 months, my 2 year old still wakes for milk, not to mention teething, BF is more then food, it's comfort and a natural pain relief

I pump at night before going to bed and make a bottle with 5 oz of milk. I give him the whole bottle before he is going to bed and with that he only wakes up once during the night. The reason he is waking up so often is because he is not getting full enough. Same thing was happening with my baby until I started doing this.

I didn’t do it until about 18 months, but you can do it at about 9 months according to my pediatrician. I started with letting him cry for ten min. Then going in and giving milk. He usually fell asleep before ten min was up though. Once I did this, I slept way better

Have you tried cosleeping so he can just pop himself on the boob in the night when he wakes up?

Feed on demand(of your child). Don’t let anyone “advise” you what to do! Take care of you and your kid When you and child are ready,.. one or both will know it’s time.

@Kathryn Yes, in fact that's how I do it

We bedshared and nursed to sleeo. Baby would find my boob and i would barely wake up. At 18 months we started talking about weaning with books like Booby Moon. We night weaned at 22months and it was absolutely not an issue and now she sleeps through the night. Im glad i waited till she was ready. Do what works best for your family!

I think if your lo is a year or older you can.

If that’s what you want to do. I don’t know if that really helps them self settle though.

Why do you want to stop then? If it works for you why change it