Weaned baby & nighttime feeding...

[sunshinyday]

Our ds is almost 9mo and has been on solids for almost 3 months. He's never slept through the night and often wakes for a sneaky bfeed. This doesn't bother me too much (after all, it can't go on forever, right?!), but my hv has told me off for feeding him in the night, saying that a baby fed 3 meals shouldn't have cause to wake. I accept that I've probably helped condition our ds to wake and seek out comfort from bf, but she then told me that when I feed him at night his blood flows to his stomach and not to his brain, which will inhibit his development. Please tell me this is complete garbage! He's been waking every night since birth and seems to be developing very nicely thankyou. Any tips for weaning him off the middle of the night feeds? We've tried offering him water, but he just got very annoyed! Thanks.

[MrsBadger]

ignore the HV
she is spouting utter nonsense
the 'restricting blood flow to the brain' idea went out with the Victorians

[sunshinyday]

Thankyou MrsBadger. I was convinced that it was nonsense but sometimes you just need to hear other people agree with you!

[AitchTwoOh]

R

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F

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she's barking!

[belgo]

lol at your HV!

I wouldn't worry too much if he's bfing once during the night at 9 months.

My dd2 was 18 months and BFing every two hours through the night, now that is a lot, and totally exhausting, and not good for her teeth either.

[sunshinyday]

Thanks! He often wakes between twice and as many as 8 times, so if I could reduce the wake ups a bit, that'd be good. I suspect he's not very good at shutting his brain off at night - he's SOOoooo fidgety even in his sleep!

But every 2 hours with your dd2 belgo ... hat's off!

[PrettyCandles]

This is not about hunger but about wanting ato sleep with a boob in his mouth. Have a look ar the No Cry Sleep Solution.

[kels666]

LOL - what planet is she on? My 9 mth old is also waking for a quick nip (not hungry, just wants the comfort) I am wondering whether to go cold turkey and suffer the screams

[sunshinyday]

I know the dilemma. I'm way too much of a wuss to do the crying thing but I do appreciate how it's more about breast=comfort for him, although I do think that he is genuinely hungry sometimes - despite getting lots of food down him in the day. Maybe he's just a greedy bugger ... like his dad!

[clutteredup]

DD1 was like that and we were worried she'd wake DS if she screamed - eventually pulled the plug when and she grizzled a bit and slept through. Later discovered DS had glue ear, completely deaf, nothing would have woken him, wished i'd done it a whole lot sooner - for instance might have had memory enough to tell you how old she was when we did it !!

[terramum]

What a load of crap re blood & stomach/brain - Id press her for evidence of this... sources & studies etc...should shut her up

Sounds like she doesnt know much about bfing....her assumption that babies dont need to wake in the night shows that....wonder what she would suggest if I asked her why my 2.9yr old has suddenly started waking in the night for a bf - & hes on 3 adult sized meals plus snacks (which usually consist of whole apples, bananas, pears etc) so is hardly starving

[sunshinyday]

Absolutely! I think that all the wriggling he does constantly makes him burn through his food fast and he does actually want a feed in the night. He's in full teething mode at the moment so I know most of the wakeups are about comfort. I did say this to the hv but she was just so adamant about the brain thing. Ho hum.

I read something earlier that gave percentages of babies waking in the night - it was really quite high - so yeah, it is wrong to tell mums that they're doing something wrong if their babies don't sleep through.

Thanks for the equally bemused responses!

[sjcmum]

I can't believe your HV either - what a load of nonsense!! My dd is nearly 9 months and still has a good 20-30min breastfeed once a night - she's not three good sized 3 meals a day - so I figure she just must need this as well.... and anyway - it is far better for my sanity to give her a quick feed that sends her straight back to sleep than suffer a screaming baby and lose more sleep myself. I just guess she'll get the hang of sleeping at some point. I talked to my hv about it and she didn't seem bothered at all - she just said if I wanted to stop the night feeds she'd give me advice on what to try - but didn't push this on me at all.

ps.... my mum has always said that not being good at sleeping is a sign of intelligence.... so don't think you need to worry about brain development!!!!!

[MadamePlatypus]

Blood flows to his stomach and not to his brain? What is she on? Here is my theory - babies bf at night to check that their mother is still there, incase for instance wolves or bears are about to enter the cave. Obviously not much danger from wolves or bears in the UK in 2007, so no prob if they don't feed, but still a perfectly natural thing to do. DS stopped feeding at night at about 8 months because that was when I stopped bf and I couldn't be bothered to sort out formula in the middle of the night. However, I know my baby books, and even some of the hardline CIO people say it is perfectly normal for a bf baby to carry on feeding at night up to about a year.