Posts Tagged ‘night feedings’

Welcome to part 2 of my Baby Sleep and Breastfeeding Series! If you are just joining us, you might want to start at part 1, where I discuss reasons why breastfeeding moms sometimes struggle with sleep. Today, I’ll go over the number of times you should expect to breastfeed at night at different ages, how teething might affect breastfeeding moms, and discuss weaning.

Night Feedings

One of the more important things I would like to stress in this series is that when some websites or even some doctors talk about when a baby can sleep through the night without a feeding, you can’t really put breastfeeding babies into the same camp as formula-fed babies. This only has to do with one thing and that’s the fact that breast milk digests faster than formula.

As I’ve said several times, there are adults who can’t go 12 hours without eating, so I certainly don’t expect all babies to be able to go all night without a feeding all at the same age or weight. I try to be realistic and what makes the most sense to me is that all babies react differently to being hungry and it’s a developmental milestone for your inner clock to sleep all night without feedings. If you ask a variety of different pediatricians when a baby can go all night without a feeding, the answer will vary a lot. That tells me that there are no hard and fast rules that you can apply to all babies.

Formula-fed babies are more likely to start sleeping all night without a feeding, but there are breast-fed babies who do it early, too, just like there are formula-fed babies who won’t. Some of us are just lucky or unlucky, depending on how you look at it (some working moms enjoy the night snuggles, for example).

Breastfeeding moms can expect the following night-feedings, on average:

• Newborns will breastfeed every 2-3 hours in the early days and this is also when your milk supply is established. Newborns sleep more than anything in the beginning, but that changes quickly.

• When your baby is 3-4 months old, she will probably still be breastfeeding at night 2-3 times per night and sleeping 10-12 hours, but remember that sleep does change around 4 months old.

• When your baby is 5-7 months old, he will begin to move to 2 feedings per night fairly regularly and still sleeping 11-12 hours, typically.

• An 8-9 month old will usually transition to just one feeding per night and sleep 11-12 hours at night.

• At 10-12 months, many babies will be able to go all night without a feeding, but some will still need one through a year or beyond.

I was one of the (un)fortunate ones that had to feed at night for a full year. It was hard getting up even once a night for that long, but thankfully (and sadly at the same time), it goes very fast and it’s a relatively short time in our lives.

Teething

Teething babies often want to breastfeed more often because it feels good on their gums. Often, this can be difficult because if your baby is older and eating solids, they commonly will stop eating solids almost all together. It can be frustrating (but she just ate this yesterday! what happened?) and they will offset the lack of solids with more breastfeeding. This can mean more night-feedings and more breastfeeding during the day. So, breastfeeding moms have to be prepared for more breastfeeding during growth spurts as well as the height of teething episodes. It’s good to come up with a strategy on how to handle teething sleep problems.

Weaning

When to night-wean and when to wean all together is a highly personal choice and I have no strong recommendations one way or another. I do know it’s recommended to breastfeed for at least the first year of life, but any amount of breast milk is beneficial for your baby, so we all must do what feels right for our families. While breastfeeding can be a very bonding experience for most of us, for some it’s not, or even if it is, some moms feel a certain level of “tied down” needing to be home at a certain time or making sure you have somewhere to pump, if you’re not. Although I pumped a lot, being a working mom, I tried with all my might not to pump more than I had to.

Some breastfeeding moms find that letting Dad or another caretaker give a bottle during the night can help her get more sleep. Imagine if the breastfeeding mom goes to sleep at 10, baby wakes at 2 a.m. and Dad gives a bottle, and the baby doesn’t wake again until 5 a.m. That’s 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep for Mom! A good strategy. Keep in mind in the early days, this can affect your milk supply and if you were to do this every night, it will affect your supply at that time of the night, which may or may not be okay with you. Doing it one night, the most that might happen is you get engorged (which can lead to other complications if done too often) but after weeks of sleep deprivation, a good night’s sleep might be just what the doctor ordered and could be worth it!

Another strategy is to have Dad (or other caretaker) get up, change your baby’s diaper, and takes the baby to Mom. If Mom has mastered the side-lying breastfeeeding position, this can give Mom a much-needed break and disrupts her sleep the least.

Stay tuned for the next part in the series, where I talk about Mom’s diet and medication as it pertains to baby’s sleep.

Share your tips about breastfeeding, teething, night-feedings and weaning!

There are different theories about daytime feeding and the link to nighttime sleeping. Babywise is one of the books that popularized the thought that if you can help a baby go longer between feeds during the day, the baby will sleep longer stretches at night. But, attachment parenting advocates recommend feeding on demand, when your baby is hungry. Which method promotes better nighttime sleep?

Feeding Schedule

The benefits of a feeding schedule is that it is predictable for both parents and baby, reducing stress when you have a newborn. Also, the theory is if you help him get used to going 3-4 hours between feedings during the day, he will be able to go longer at night without a feeding, too. Another thing parents really like about a feeding schedule is it deters baby from being a snacker, which can be rather inconvenient at times.

Feeding on Demand

The goal of feeding on demand is to let your baby guide you and feed when she feels hungry or thirsty (since breast milk and formula is also their source of water for the first 6-12 months of life). Proponents of feeding on demand feel this not only respects your baby more, but is a healthier way to teach your baby how to eat, since dietitians will tell you that we should eat when you’re hungry, and to avoid overeating to make up for waiting until you are famished.

Feeding and night sleep

Does a feeding schedule or feeding on demand promote more night sleep? I am not a doctor, but it is my belief that feeding on demand would most likely promote more night sleep more than a feeding schedule, if either do at all. Sleeping through the night is a developmental milestone and the way I think about feedings is that your baby (and you) need so many calories a day and the more she gets in during the day, the less she will need at night. Add to that, their tummies will only be able to fit so much breast milk or formula in there, so even if you CAN get her to wait 3 or 4 hours to eat, she might not be able to fit as much in as if you fed her twice every 2 hours, during the day. Believe me, if your baby is waking every 2 hours at night and is older than 2 months old, most likely she has a poor sleep association with breastfeeding or a bottle and it has nothing to do with hunger.

On a personal note, both my boys ate every 2 hours during the day for several months. They were both exclusively breast fed and since breast milk digests in 1 to 3 hours, this made sense to me. They simply became too hungry to wait any longer than that and my view is why should they? It’s not like they can go in the pantry and get their own food and don’t I eat when I’m hungry most of the time? Because I worked and pumped I know the size bottles each of my sons took in. My eldest son never took bottles bigger than 4 ounces of breast milk, either, while my younger son ate up to 5 1/2 (he was a chunk at 6 months!).

Side note: I would not categorize myself as an “attachment parenting” mom (though both my boys do have a healthy attachment to me and my husband), mostly since my view about cry it out is not that it is absent parenting in all cases, but I do believe in letting a baby guide you in the feeding department that might build healthier eating habits when they are an adult. The trick is to make sure you offer enough healthy food as options.

My eldest son snacked a lot, too, taking 2 ounces here and then another 2 ounces an hour later (or nursing one side and then the other an hour later) and the snacking was a bit hard to handle, sometimes, but he was only eating at night twice at 4 months and once by 7 months, on his own. To this day, my older son (now 3 1/2) eats rather often and gets cranky when he’s hungry. His afternoon snack is close to the size of a whole meal. My younger son (17 months now) snacks a lot less than his older brother. So, in general, I try to accept that they are just different, but neither could go too long without eating when they were very young. I am honestly not sure how people wait 3 hours to feed because my sons would cry so hard, but I also attribute that to their intensity.

In general, as long as your baby has the appropriate number of night feedings for her age, the decision whether to feed by schedule or on demand will depend on what works for you and your baby (keep in mind that some babies are more regular than others). I would not really choose one or the other based on how it may or may not affect their night sleep. Babies thrive on routine and the schedule can be as loose or strict as you make it.

Did you have a feeding schedule or did you feed on demand?

A very common question I get is when a baby can go all night without a feeding. This article will outline general guidelines about how many night-feedings you can expect at each age.

Pediatricians all seem to disagree to the answer to the question when a baby can go all night without a feeding. There is Ferber who claims babies don’t need to eat at night after 3 months old and then there is Weissbluth who says that babies need 1-2 feedings up through 9 months old. Who’s right? They are both pediatricians with a lot of experience. Talk to your pediatrician and the answer will likely be even something different.

Although I do really like Ferber’s book and have learned A LOT from it, I can not, in good conscience, ever recommend night-weaning at 3 months old. I think that is extreme to think that all babies can do that, particularly breastfed babies. Some parents are lucky enough that their baby does it on his own that young or younger, but many parents simply aren’t that lucky.

I am not, in general, an extremist and when it comes to hunger at night, I err on the side of caution. I know that it would be sooo much easier, for US, to not feed at night, but there are adults who can’t go 12 hours without eating, so I am not sure why we expect our babies to. I am all for breaking sleep associations and promoting healthy sleep for our babies, but I don’t recommend night-weaning until your baby is showing signs she is ready and that age varies by child.

Below are the number of feedings at night, at various ages, that are within “normal” range (in my experience) and don’t throw up a red flag that there is more going on than just a feeding:

•   Newborns to 3 months old: Feedings every 2-3 hours, on demand
•   3-4 Months: 2-3 feedings per night or every 3-6 hours, on demand
•   5-6 Months: 1-2 feedings
•   7-9 Months: 1, maybe 2, feedings
•   10-12 Months: Sometimes 1 feeding
•   12+ Months: Generally no feedings

Obviously, growth spurts are an exception and you should feed as needed during those. Growth spurts are generally over within a week.

I typically recommend at least an attempt at night-weaning by 8-9 months old, because at some point, sometimes it is a chicken and egg problem. A baby needs a certain amount of sustenance during the day and if he gets some at night, he won’t eat more during the day and if he doesn’t eat more during the day, he needs it at night. So, sometimes, a baby really does feel hungry at night, but it doesn’t mean he can’t go all night without a feeding, it simply means he needs to adjust how much he’s eating during the day. The idea is to gently help him do this.

I personally tried to night-wean around 9 months, but with both my boys, they did continue to eat at night up through a year and I weaned to cow’s milk (not sure if it was age or the weaning, though). They did, however, sleep better after I at least nudged them in the right direction, so I was glad I at least tried.

When did you night-wean?