How To Reduce Night Feeds For Babies
Of all the questions we hear regularly, this is the one asked with the most hopeful look. When can I cut back the night feeds? This is a common reason for our Baby Consultants to come into homes and work with new mums to establish helpful routines through coaching.
It’s really important to understand whether your baby is waking because he or she is hungry, or if it is something else. Babies naturally will partially wake about every two hours at night – and they may cry out for you, but it may not necessarily mean that he or she is hungry.
Using a sleep prop and a settling routine is key here, because if it’s not hunger – then you are simply settling your baby back to sleep – and teaching him or her how to manage to settle without you.
If the sleep settling routine is unsuccessful, consider the temperature in the room, or if the nappy is full, or if any other discomfort has arisen. Babies can’t talk, they can only cry – so your baby is trying to tell you something. Learn about settling baby in this creating a baby sleep plan blog.
Make your night feeding process different to your day feeding for baby.
Newborn babies do require regular feeding around the clock, but as time goes on you can start thinking about reducing the night feeds progressively. Make sure your night feed routine is a different experience to the day feed routine. Your baby will quickly come to understand the difference.
Another thing to be careful about in considering if you should feed or not is the length of time since the last feed. If you go ahead and allow your baby to snack every few hours, it will be a lot more difficult to wean him or her off the open all hours vending machine. Always check in with yourself as to when the last feed was before giving baby a full feed, you might be able to resettle and let her sleep for another couple of wakeups before feeding again.
In this, your baby will come to know what to expect from you and will learn that she or he is able to self-settle – definitely the goal for all new mums!
Realistically the time to cut back on night feeds altogether will vary depending on circumstances – if you wait for the right time, it can be a quick process and you will be on your way towards restful and restorative sleep through the night. It is natural for people (small babies and toddlers included) to sleep at night. The way you go about encouraging your baby to also sleep will make the biggest impact.
Finally, if your baby suddenly becomes wakeful again, go with the flow. It could be a growth spurt, teething or even sore ears or throat. Return to the process of settling baby, checking any discomfort and checking in with your GP if necessary to be sure you have eliminated anything other than hunger as the reason.