Night Weaning
If you are feeding your baby throughout the night he is on a 24 hr feeding schedule and the calories he is getting during the nightttime hours will need to be shifted to the daytime.
To do this you will need to increase your baby's caloric intake throughout the day by offering some additonal feedings in the later afternoon as well as snacks if he is eating solids.
Dream Feeds are great for young infants as well as older babies. These feeds allow you to offer your baby a final feeding for the night without feeding on demad. It is on your terms and no bad habits are being perpetuated. This will prevent you from wondering if baby is hungry during overnight awakenings.
Overnight you can either stop feeding all together (after the dream feed) or you can gradually decrease the amout your are giving at each feeding. If you are bottle feeding you can dillute the formula/milk with more and more water each night until his appetie shifts. If you are breast feeding you can simply offer the baby less and less each night.
Putting baby down awake will be essential during the weaning process. You can use quite a few different options to settle baby, depending on his temperment and your routines. You can continue to comfort verbally and with some physical intervention but the idea will be to not replace the feedings with another nightly habit, so slowly use less and less intervention every couple of nights until your baby learns this new skill of self soothing.
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