stopping night feeeds will supply drop

[chloe1]

Hi just a question for all , If i stop feeding at night will my supply stop? My boy is 7 months old and i would like to stop the night feeds. He has been getting up at least 4 times in the night has a comfort suckle and goes back to sleep. Im tired and knowing that he is big boy and doesnt really need the feed want to start resettling. Did it for 2 nights and has been ok. I feed him rollover at arounf 11 and then he woke at 5.30 which i fed him. This is a good stretch but am wondering if this will affect my milk supply. I am planning on feeding until 12 months so dont want my milk to stop. H efeeds whenver he likes during day, usually 5 times any advice would be great thanks

[giggles]

Admittedly I stopped feeding at 5 months but I believe that your milk supply is well established at this time and your body will adjust accordingly to your feeding routine.

One of the experts will hopefully confirm this for you. :thumbsup:

[Imsooverit]

Hi Chloe,

I'm not an expert but I'll tell you what I did.

I stopped the night feeds when DD was 7 1/2 months old. She would still wake up and cry (took all my might not to go in and feed her). We had to do controlled crying. The first night when she cried I did not go into her and decided to let her cry for 10 - 15 mins before I went in. I think she stopped at about 9 minutes. I think the longest it ever took her was 15 minutes to stop crying and to go back to sleep. It's very hard to listen to them without going in. The minutes are verrry long. Thankfully it only took 2 - 3 nights until she slept all the way through. Apparently they have to learn that if they wake during the night it is OK to just go back to sleep without feeding. By the way apparently if you do need to go into them, don't feed them just hold them, try to calm them, offer water (DD hated that!) then when calm put them back down and wait out their crying for another 10 - 15 minutes and repeat for as long as needed.

My milk supply never dried up. I'm still feeding through the day. At 10 1/2 months we're down to 3 feeds a day (sometimes 2). I have full boobs in the morning and tend to leak all over the place (sick of pinching my nipples to stop it - TMI :D). I have never had a shortfall for DD in the morning.

Again, I'm no expert but this is my experience. Good luck.

[doin'mybest]

My DS slept through the night from 3-6 months (unfortunately hasn't since:banghead: ). This did not affect my day time supply at all - by morning i was quite full though. After a while your body seems to adjust to not feeding at night and stops producing so much at night, but still keeps up to day time feeds. Demand = Supply.

Good luck with the night time weaning :thumbsup:

[Milly]

My DD slept through from 8 weeks and at first when I woke up in the morning my boobs were exploding:eek: . Then they eventually settled down. I originally expressed off the engorgement when she started sleeping through and had a great EBM supply on hand if DH and I went out for dinner or for emergencies. I found that my supply matched her demands anyway, but expressing in the morning gave me not only EBM but extra supply up my sleeve if I needed it. So, my supply was still just fine and we went to feed for 13 months. So, basically in a nutshell, my supply matched her demands. :D You may be just fine supply wise. Perhaps for comfort though after dropping the feeds, if your breasts are engorged, just express it off. The EBM is great for emergencies or the odd night out if you freeze it:D

[Tam-I-Am]

We're down to 2-3 feeds a day, haven't had a night time feed since she was 9 weeks old (she's 9 months old now), and I still have enough for the times that she wants it.

BTW I have friends who have 12 months+ bubs, who are only doing 1 morning, or 1 night time feed, and they still have enough at those times. Once your supply is established, unless there's some health reason, you supply matches the baby's demand.

I'm no expert, so don't take my word as gospel, but this has been my experience!

Good luck!:)