what age can babies go without a night feed?

[QTB]

i know some babies start sleeping thru at 6-7weeks, some not til they are 2... but what age can baby's actually go without a feed thru the night?

[tweedledee*tweedledum]

I don't think there is an exact age as such, it is really up to the child how much they sleep and eat. Obviously there would be averages on ages, not sure what they are, but I would assume 2 month mark and beyond would be ok.

[MonkeyMum05]

I believe that it depends on the individual child. Some of the stricter routines recommend not feeding during the nigt from around 3 months, but I don't believe that is best for every baby.
Mine stopped feeding between the hours of 10.30pm and 5.30 am at around 7 months.

[Niki]

it all depends on the baby, mine has stopped all but 1 60ml feed if that at nite

[bel_aiden]

my doc said to me that by 14 weeks they dont "need"feeds through the night... i wasnt so keen on this but magicly at 15 weeks my ds started sleeping through!

[filmgirlgail]

Mine started sleeping thru the night at 8 weeks. With this next one I won't be so worried to try it earlier. They're not going to go hungry :D as they will let you know. You could always just try one night, doing the late feed, then leaving them to wake you up, that way you can get an idea of whether they're ready or not.

[Diddles]

It depends what you consider night feed to mean 10pm or the 3pm. I've read that most bubs can drop the 10pm feed around 7-8 months and the middle of the night feed can be dropped as early as 6 weeks. All babies are different some are as early as six weeks and some are 7 months old (like my first ds). :sleeping:

[Mahjong]

Wyatt stopped at 6 months, but he's 20 months and for the last month has ben waking up for a drink of milk at 1am :banghead:

[KarniF00l]

My kids stopped having night feeds around the 2-3 week mark. Their last feed would be 10pm then go until 8ish in the morning. It didn't harm them as they're happy and healthy. :yes: They made up for it during the day, which didn't worry me at all.

[QTB]

Thats great! thanks for the replys. my mr 9 months still wakes everynight for feeds (twice!) i didnt know if it was habit or if he actually needed it. i will give tonight a go with just re settling -no feeds... thanks again!

[Me]

From what I've read and been told that once bub is on 3 solid meals a day night waking is out of habit and not out of hunger - that said though dd has lunch, dinner, morning and afternoon tea and has just started waking for a bottle again this week after a few months of sleeping through - today we've started her on breakfast and hopefully this will do the trick. Although at the end of the day, if she's hungry, she's hungry and I'll just keep getting up to feed her - after all I'm not going to let her starve!!!

If you are bottle feeding you could try giving bub a bottle straight out of the fridge - not heated... I did this when I thought bub was waking out of habit, and she quickly dropped that feed - she didn't like her milk cold and she didn't need the feed so it did no harm.

[Diddles]

Yeah I'd say it's out of habit my ds who is now 2 was always a bad night sleeper (would wake up to 4 times a night at 7 months). At 8 months of age we were so exhausted we hired a mothercraft nurse to help us learn to resettle him. After 2 nights she weaned him off the 10pm feed and had him sleeping from 7 - 7!!

[Areca]

Just wanted to say that your DC will let you know if they are truly hungry or not. DD was still waking up for 2 feeds a night. Last week I decided to drop the first feed (she usually feeds sometime between 11 and 12, yhen again anytime from 2-4am) and it took 5 minutes for her to settle and then she slept until the next feed. She has only woken once a night since!!! DD is bf and at 8 months old not eating solids yet so I don't feel like I can wean off that one feed until she is eating three meals a day.
I have tried to wean dd from the first feed in the past and she has woken up half hour later, obviously hungry, obviously still needed it.