How to wean from night feeding after a year

Quiet sleep: how to wean from night feeding after a year? Photo: Getty

Until what age does a baby need night feedings?

Maximum intervals between feedingsa baby in the first six months of life - 6 hours, and night sleep, as a rule, takes about 10 hours on average, so you can't do without feeding at night. If the baby is formula-fed, he can wake up to eat once or twice a night: the mixture is more caloric than breast milk, and the baby does not feel hungry for a longer time. With babies on natural feeding, mothers can wake up almost every hour. The reason for this is not always the baby's hunger: he needs physical contact with his mother. After 6 months, when the baby is receiving complementary foods, milk is still his main food, so you should not wean him off night feedings yet. But reducing them to 1-2 is what you need. After a year, the baby's diet is already wide: the child receives a large amount of adult food, and from a physiological point of view, the need for night feeding disappears. But from a psychological point of view, everything is not so simple: daytime impressions, lack of maternal attention during the day - all this can affect the child's sleep, and he eats at night not to satisfy hunger, but to calm down.

Methods for weaning from night feedings

Before weaning your baby,It is worth consulting a pediatrician: is the baby's weight sufficient to deprive him of feeding at night? Mothers who want to maintain lactation longer should remember that it is nighttime breastfeeding that stimulates the production of prolactin (the "milk" hormone). You can choose one of the possible weaning methods. 1. Radical: abruptly stop nighttime snacks, endure the baby's cries. After a few nights, the baby will understand that waking up is pointless, and gradually his sleep will normalize. Some mothers follow the advice of women of the Soviet generation: send the child to grandma's for a couple of days. Isolated from mom, and even not receiving food at night, the child experiences stress. However, this method allows you to solve the issue of night feedings once and for all. 2. Conservative: weaning from night feeding occurs gradually by increasing the interval between feedings, replacing a portion of milk with water or a pacifier, rocking, etc.

To otuchit the child of night feedings in a year: and whether it is necessary?

Before making a final decisionwean a child from night feedings at one year, it is worth considering: is it really necessary and for whom? If the mother is not burdened by feeding the baby once again, there is no need to listen to the opinions of others. As a rule, those mothers who at one time for some reason were unable to maintain lactation advise to part with breastfeeding as soon as possible. And an artificial baby can not be weaned from the bottle at all, but taught to independently find it in the crib and eat without disturbing the mother. Over time, the grown child will need the mother less and less. Maybe you need not rush things, but enjoy every moment of closeness with the baby, even at the expense of ten minutes of your night's sleep? Read more: