Night nursing a 5 month old

My son is 5 months old. He weighs 20 lbs and obviously eats well during the
day.
My question is...how long can I expect him to sleep at night without needing to
nurse for nourishment. He is waking usually 3 or 4 times a night and I know
that he doesn't need to actually eat all of these times.

Bed time is 7:30 - 8:00 and he does nurse to sleep, usually only for a few
minutes. He wakes up about an hour later and I nurse him again (hoping to
really fill his tummy for the night). Then sometimes he will sleep for 3 or 4
hours before waking. When he wakes I don't know if it IS out of hunger, and he
should be nursed after this long of stretch? I try to keep track of how many
hours it has been when he wakes, and if it has only been an hour or two I don't
nurse him and he goes back to sleep after a little fussing. Should I hold out
on nursing him in the night wakings even if he has slept 3 or 4 huors or more?
Most books on breastfeeding say that after 4 months of age babies do not need
to nurse at night from a nutrional standpoint??
~Tracy
~Tracy

"All4meUC" wrote in message
...

Most books on breastfeeding say that after 4 months of age babies do not
need
to nurse at night from a nutrional standpoint??

I don't know about this. My DD is 14 months and still needs to nurse once in
the night.

She used to wake up quite a few times and would always need to nurse back to
sleep. After it started to drive me nuts, I bought the No Cry Sleep Solution
to see if that could help me. After following some of the advice in the book
for a couple of weeks, I was able to break DD's nurse-sleep association, so
that she when she woke in the night, she could fall back asleep without
needing intervention from me.

That was great, but I'm still finding that once in the night, she'll wake up
and want to nurse. She won't soothe herself back to sleep and won't allow
her daddy to rock her back to sleep. I nurse her and she's fine. So, in my
opinion, she's nursing at that point because she *needs* to nurse. It may be
because she's hungry or it may be because she's thirsty, but I'm pretty sure
that holding out on nursing her would not work in any shape or form, and
would result in none of us getting any sleep!

So, sorry I don't have a definitive answer for you, but I just wanted to
share that those books are not 'one size fits all' and it's not abnormal to
have a child that can't go 12 hours without nursing.

Lucy

All4meUC wrote:
My son is 5 months old. He weighs 20 lbs and obviously eats well
during the day.
My question is...how long can I expect him to sleep at night without
needing to nurse for nourishment. He is waking usually 3 or 4 times
a night and I know that he doesn't need to actually eat all of these
times.

Both mine nursed at night for a long long long time. I didn't force night
weaning until well past 12mos because I WOH full time! #1 refused a bottle
all day so he probably really did need to eat and I was worried that #2
liked bottles to much and would completely wean or my supply would tank if I
eliminated to much nursing (that was probably not a credible worry).

If the child is currently eating 4 times a night he probably *is* hungry
even if he doesn't really need to eat that often. So if you attempt to
change this pattern...keep that in mind. I know this because I am used to
eating a snack btw 10pm-12am. Clearly, as an adult I can manage to go
without food from 7pm till 7am the next morning. I decided I needed to lose
weight and should cut this out. I go to bed *starving/tummy rumbling* every
night because I am so used to eating then.

When I weaned Luke at night I first started by shortening the nursing
sessions by a minute or two every 3-4 nights. When the nursing sessions
were down to a minute I eliminated every other one for 4 nights or so, then
I stopped the others as well. He was 18 months. It wasn't easy by any
stretch (he continued to lobby for night nursing for many more months :-)
but it wasn't to traumatic either. He ate lots of solids and nursed at
least 4-5 times a day so he didn't need the nurtrition at night but he sure
liked it :-) It might actually be easier with a younger baby, I don't know.

It is common enough for babies to be waking up to eat at 5 months so don't
feel you must change this. It doesn't cause any harm. All babies will
eventually give it up on their own (some by 8 months, some by 4 years, lol).
Do you co-sleep? IMO that makes it more likely that a baby will night nurse
for an extended time and perhaps a little more difficult to night wean,
although some apparently have no problem. I co-slept with both of mine.

--
Nikki
Mama to Hunter (4) and Luke (2)

Tracy wrote:

My son is 5 months old. He weighs 20 lbs
and obviously eats well during the day.
My question is...how long can I expect
him to sleep at night without needing to
nurse for nourishment. He is waking
usually 3 or 4 times a night and I know
that he doesn't need to actually eat all of
these times.

I think that all babies are different. My DD is over 4 months old and
has slept throught the night without nursing for the past month or
so...ever since she learned to soothe herself back to sleep by sucking
her thumb.

She's a nightowl (goes to bed between 10:30 and 12:30) and usually
sleeps for 9 or 10 hours straight without nursing.

I didn't actually "wean" her from night nursing. She did it herself I
guess...went from eating every couple of hours to 2-3 times a night to
once a night. Then even that feeding disappeared on it's own. Every
couple of nights she will still wake one time during the night, but she
always goes to right back to sleep after being resettled in her crib.
If a time ever comes where she won't resettle I will nurse her...that's
no problem for me. But as long as she's happy I go along with the
belief that she will let me know what she needs as far as eating goes.

Just wanted to give an example of a baby who doesn't nurse at all during
the night and is growing just fine...not starving or anything. And on
the other hand I'm sure there are lots of babies out there who need the
nutrition at night.

Kathy

Do you co-sleep? IMO that makes it more likely that a baby will night nurse

We do co-sleep. I'm aware that when he wakes up and mommy is just a roll away
it is going to be enticing for him. That is why I was wondering if the wakings
are just out of habit or if he actually needs nourishment.

All4meUC wrote:
My son is 5 months old. He weighs 20 lbs and obviously eats well during the
day.
My question is...how long can I expect him to sleep at night without needing to
nurse for nourishment. He is waking usually 3 or 4 times a night and I know
that he doesn't need to actually eat all of these times.

Bed time is 7:30 - 8:00 and he does nurse to sleep, usually only for a few
minutes. He wakes up about an hour later and I nurse him again (hoping to
really fill his tummy for the night). Then sometimes he will sleep for 3 or 4
hours before waking. When he wakes I don't know if it IS out of hunger, and he
should be nursed after this long of stretch? I try to keep track of how many
hours it has been when he wakes, and if it has only been an hour or two I don't
nurse him and he goes back to sleep after a little fussing. Should I hold out
on nursing him in the night wakings even if he has slept 3 or 4 huors or more?
Most books on breastfeeding say that after 4 months of age babies do not need
to nurse at night from a nutrional standpoint??


My DS is 5 months, 19 lbs. He slept throught the night (at least 9 hours)
until shortly after I returned to work when he was 12 weeks old. He goes
to bed at 7:30 after nursing. He doesn't eat as much at day care as he
does when he's with me, so he usually wakes up around midnight on day care
days for another nursing. When he's with me all day, we have 5 good, long
nursing sessions in a day (approx. 6am,9am,1pm,4pm,7pm) and then he sleeps
straight through. If he wakes up at night (other than the midnight nursing
on school days), DH goes in first and rocks him back to sleep. If he wakes
up again quickly, I assume it's because he's actually hungry and go ahead
and nurse him. Most of the time, he just needs help getting back to sleep.
Of course, every baby is different, but this is our experience.

Manda

Thanks Manda! It's nice to hear input from someone with a child the same
age/weight as mine.