My son is 11.5 months and has been exclusively breastfed and is now starting to take homo milk from a cup in addition to breastmilk. He wakes up at 5am for a feed, then goes back to sleep until 7/8. Shall I continue this or eliminate it as I start to wean him? What have all of you done in your experience? I just want to do what's best for him. He goes to bed between 7:30-8. Thanks!
Sorry, just to clarify, he is eating solids now and does well with them and has his milk (from me or homo) 5 times total including the 5am feed.
I agree with Patty. If he'll go without it, that's ideal. He should be weaned soon, so you might as well just try it. If he wakes up, you could slowly move the feeding closer to his 7/8am wake time by 15 or 30 minutes at a time, either each day or each week. Maybe that would help. Good luck!
I can't wait to see what people post, I'm in the same predicament! If you want your sleep though, I'd continue to nurse him; however if you really want to wean you may have to get up and start giving him milk at that time. Especially if he is only getting breastmilk, he is probably pretty hungry by that time. If he starts solids for dinner he may last longer in the am. We get up a 5am anyway, so it works well for us, but I'm about to stop as well. I just enjoy to sleep in on the weekends and that is how we do it lol.
I personally never weaned my child from any feeding. I let her decide what feedings to give up when. We followed a child led weaning format. It meant we nursed till she was about 3 1/2 years old. It totally depends on your plan for nursing.
If you're intending to stop or wean your child at some point then you may want to start replacing some of the feedings with solid foods and wean him from the nighttime feedings.
However, if you are going to wean him during the night make sure he gets enough solid food and breastmilk during the day that he won't be starving at 5am. You should be able to tell whether he's waking up hungry or out of habit. Does he seem hungry? If not then just replace the feeding with some cuddle time or have your partner do it. If he is hungry then you'll want to make sure he gets more to eat before you go to bed at night (wake him up to nurse if you have to) so that he sleeps longer.
Hope that helps.
I think it depends on if he will take a cup of milk from a sippy cup rather than have any from you. Or if he will just lay down and go back to sleep. If you can get him to go back to sleep, then I would say yes.......and feed him a bit more breakfast in the morning. Although if he is drinking milk and going back to sleep, then he might not need it at all.
Go with what you can do, try a few options and see what works best.
Take care and good luck.......he'll probably be fine if he just falls back to sleep.
This feeding will eventaully eliminate itself but at this point, wouldn't you want to feed him a little then be able to sleep more? He needs the sleep! And so do you.
If it doesn't take too long to feed him and it doesn't seem to bother you, I would do it a bit longer.
If he will go back to sleep without it great. However, IMO not worth it if
he is going to start his day at 5AM. To me, sleep is important for
everyone involved. So if feeding him at 5 buys you a few hours
just feed him! Happy dreams.
no continue to feed him if not he might go back to sleep but wont stay asleep he'll keep wining for it cause he's hungry. So if u want your sleep give it to him but try the cup more than the breast.
My daughter continued to wake up around that time too and would go back to sleep for a couple hours if I nursed her. I stopped nursing her at that time of day around 15 months, and then my husband took over that feeding time with a cup of milk. Her GI doctor suggested we just continue that early morning milk session if we could all grab a couple more hours of peaceful sleep. He probably is indeed hungry by 5am. Our daughter was probably almost 2 by the time she independently dropped that early morning feeding session. The sleep books would probably tell you that you could train him to drop that milk session, but if you can use the sleep yourself, what's the big deal? If he's hungry, he'd probably sleep fitfully for just another hour or so.
