Breastfeeding Moms Can't Tell Hunger From Habit

“My baby is 11 months now and eats 2 meals a day, plus snacks. She loves nursing and we nurse around 7-8 times a day, plus at night. I am going back and forth with myself over whether or not to wean at 12 months, or to let it happen naturally, or intentionally try to extend for the health benefits. I know that babies are supposed to be getting majority of their calories from food after 12 months, and my baby is a fabulous eater and over the 100th percentile, so I’m not at all worried about her nu”

“Did your breastfed baby naturally drop each night feed? If so, when? Did you have to night wean? If so, when and how did you do that? Once feeds are weaned at night, does your baby go back to nursing when sick or teething and would you have to start the weaning process over again? We are almost 9mo and doing 2 feeds at night. ~1:30-2:30 and ~4:30-5:30. Unsure how normal that is and would LOVE to go down to one feed. 😅 submitted by /u/ADKadventures [link] [comments]”

“I am wondering about this for a toddler (over 1.5 years but under 2). He has been night weaned in the past but then we’ve gotten back to it when he’s been sick/teething. He’s up probably 3 times overnight now and he’ll fall asleep nursing but need to stay on there for a long time (like an hour sometimes) for comfort before I can get him off with him staying asleep. I love the special time with him but I need some sleep!!!!! And I am worried about his teeth too. If toddlers are not expecting nurs”

“My baby used to wake up every 4 hours during the night to feed (he’s 10 weeks now). Then somehow since last week he started waking up at 6 hours and even 8-9 hours?! I really don’t want to jinx it but it also makes me anxious because he’s not eating way more during the day and the weight gain has slowed down for a week. I’m trying to up his daytime intake but sometimes he’s just not having it. He used to eat like almost 5 oz every 3-4 hours maximum. He also used to have dyschesia and that also p”

“Hi, I need some support and hopefully advice. My baby is 12 months old. She has always been a terrible sleeper and until the past few weeks, she woke up every 2 hours and I would feed her back to sleep (now she cosleeps and wakes up instantly if we leave her side, but that’s another issue)… The thing is, long story short, a few weeks ago, I reached a point of desperation as far as sleep deprivation goes. Normally my husband takes her in the morning for a few hours and lets me sleep, but for the”

“It’s Friday. I have my phone. I was like ok let’s try night wean. I gave up after 45 minutes. Please compete in the comments on how long it took for you because after 45 minutes and him STILL hiccup crying, I don’t know if I can do this submitted by /u/fancypantsmiss [link] [comments]”

“Hi. My baby just hit 4 months old and my pediatrician is claiming my baby should be sleeping through the night and shouldn’t be needing to be rocked anymore to sleep or comfort feeding. She says it’s my fault and I should be feeding her every 3-4 hours not on demand because she’s getting used to snacking. I’ve tried to feed her before 3-4 hours she still wakes at night. I told her my other breastfeeding moms who have been doing this for a while their babies still do don’t sleep through the night”

“Hi everyone, My daughter is 9.5 months old and has never slept through the night. She wakes up 1 to 2 times a night and takes a pretty big feed each time, about 6 to 8 oz. She gets 3 solid meals a day plus milk. Our pediatrician thinks she's waking because she's hungry, which makes sense given how much she eats each wakeup, but I don't know how much more food I can get into her during the day. We're already pretty "aggressive" about it. Has anyone been through something”

“I know my baby can sleep through the night. She was sleeping 10 hours as a 4 week old, but now at 4.5 months she is waking every few hours. Our doctor said don’t feed her until every 6-8 hours so for a few weeks we were using a method where we are slow to intervene and the binky replacement isn’t until a later step. She would sometimes fall asleep with the first few steps of sound machine getting louder or touching her, but mostly once binky was replaced. We went on vacation to Disney, and she w”

“My baby has woken up between 3-5am and I would nurse him probably since he was born lol. A few days ago my husband and I decided to see if he was waking up out of hunger or habit and he fell asleep within 10 minutes (no crying just fussing half asleep) 2 days of that and now he’s completely sleeping through the night. However I always see on here people that nurse their babies 10 or more times a day and my baby has always been business only at the breast and only goes really for hunger. The most”

“When did your child stop night feeding (Breastmilk or wholemilk)? My toddler still wakes up for one cup of whole milk, I recently learned that may not be typical, so I want to ask from other parents when theirs stopped. submitted by /u/Remarkable_Eye3424 [link] [comments]”

“My baby is 5 months old and is doing a great job at sleeping at night. He usually starts winding down around 6:30-7 with his last feeding and has been consistently sleeping til about 3am or so. I am a very light sleeper and I’ve been having a hard time transitioning away from the previous feed time at ~11pm because my boobs always wake me up feeling full. I tried to wean down with pump time but I’m stuck at about 4 min which gets about 1-1.5 oz out each side. Then I go back to bed and wake up ag”

“My baby is currently 21 weeks old, and I’m struggling with his sleep. When he was 0-12 weeks old, he was drinking about 2–3 oz of pumped milk every 2 hours during the day and was actually a great sleeper. He would usually only wake once overnight for a bottle. Around 4.5 months, he was still wanting to eat every 2 hours during the day, so I tried changing his schedule to 5 oz every 3 hours, thinking he’d be getting roughly the same amount of milk but with fewer, larger feeds. Since making that c”

“Starting at 10 months my baby stopped falling asleep at bedtime / night feeds while breastfeeding. Instead now he feeds and then starts screaming until I bounce him on the exercise ball to sleep while singing / humming. Also at 10 months he got his first 4 upper teeth. So I am losing a lot of sleep because he’s always had a lot of night wakes but now I have to fully wake up and bounce / rock him to sleep for 45 - 90 minutes every wake. When I bounce him on the exercise ball he does often burp. (”

“Hi there, I’ve got a 5 month old and pretty much as the title says - still not sleeping through. She is still waking every 2-3 hours for milk. She is exclusively breastfed however my health advisor has permitted us to start weaning and so we have started on baby rice and various veggie purées. I just don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel 😭 she’s so difficult to get to sleep (lots and lots of rocking shushing white noise etc). Takes multiple attempts before she’s asleep in her crib. And obv”

“My 12 week old generally wakes once per night. Lately, for both bedtime and after night feed, it has been hard to put him back down in bassinet. He used to fall asleep right after feeding or a few minutes of rocking, and I could transfer him smoothly, but now he wakes and goes wide-eyed within a few min of getting him down & it takes a while to rock him back to sleep. Any tips?! submitted by /u/Main-Leg-8040 [link] [comments]”

“That’s it. Toddler is almost two and wakes me up anywhere from 2-10 times a night to nurse still. I’m exhausted. She’s incredibly strong willed and determined. I’m so done, but also so sad to do this. Please send alllllll of the resources/advice that you can, with maybe a dash of encouragement :’) Thanks in advance! submitted by /u/InvoluntaryFurnace [link] [comments]”

“We're at 17 months of BF now, and my son nurses twice during the day (before each nap) and then again before bed at night. My cycle still hasn't returned. We co-sleep so I've been kind of stuffing a boob in his mouth whenever he wakes up during the night, which is often due to teething and illness, but I started implementing a "no milk after midnight" policy a week ago. Since I started doing that a week ago, I've felt really anxious, mostly physically - my stomach is do”

“For several months my baby has woken in the night 2-3 times but it's always a dream feed situation. I sleep in the same room with her, so I just grab her and feed her and she's right back to sleep. We sleep trained at 5 months after a truly torturous regression, and she'll sometimes wake and fuss/cry for a few minutes between feeds, but put herself back to sleep. This past week she is waking up between 2 and 3 am WIDE awake. Eyes wide open. I'll nurse her, and put her back in the”

“…does your baby still wake and need to be comforted after weaning? If so, do you feed them a bottle or just rock/comfort, or something else? Has anyone’s baby stopped waking up in the middle of the night after weaning? submitted by /u/imdirrtydan12 [link] [comments]”

“Just weaned my 21 month old 1 week ago 🥳 Super happy we made it as far as we did! He was really relying on the boob to help him sleep and we took some big steps backwards over the last few months after night weaning, so I was ready. Lots of prep for weeks leading up to this and he’s done well. He’s never been a great sleeper, things have definitely gotten better over time. This weeks been up and down, first night was definitely the hardest. He also started getting a tooth earlier this week so t”

“We went on a 10 day holiday and had to sleep in the same room as the baby. Before that one was always sleeping in baby's room and the other got a full night. Baby used to wake up twice a night, around 11-12pm and 2-3am. During our holiday it was best I got up to feed baby because it was the fastest way. So every time he woke up I gave him the boobz to not prolong the crying so my SO would get better sleep. Well, at worst he woke up 8 times a night and we ended up also co-sleeping to calm him”

“Hi, looking for advice and what has worked for others! My son is 1 week old and we’re trying to figure out how to best handle nights especially with my husband going back to work. Currently he’s taking baby 9p-1a in the living room (gives formula if wants to feed) while I sleep and then he brings to me to breastfeed at 1am and goes to bed after diaper change/laying down in bassinet once we’re done. If babies in room I wake up to every little sound so I’ll take care of him 1a-6a and wake husband”

“So thankful I can feed this little baby whenever he needs it. His loud gulps against the stark silence and darkeness of the night bring me so much joy. His flailing arms slowing down. His eyes never opened for the feed. Held him up for a few minutes, and lay him back down. Kiss him and now try to get some rest myself. submitted by /u/pumpkintimetonight [link] [comments]”

“Just curious! I know it's so baby dependent. I hear so many people say that night weaning solved their frequent night wakes. But I've seen others say it just means now they don't have an easy way to get their baby back to sleep. My baby is 11 months, has always struggled with sleep. We still feed to sleep and nurse throughout the night because he just wakes so frequently. It works for us right now but I do wonder if he would sleep better without the boob. View Poll submitted by”

“My 7 almost 8 month old has recently been waking at 1, 3, and 5 am to nurse. Nothing settles him except nursing. He was giving me longer stretches for a short period of time. I am so tired. I don’t think he’s waking because he’s hungry but I don’t know. I’d love to get some sleep. Any advice? Also to add. He has 3 almost 4 teeth now and sometimes if he doesn’t get a good latch his teeth scrape the entire time he nurses and I’m over it 😭 submitted by /u/Ashh142 [link] [comments”

“How do you guys manage the nights with a breastfeeding newborn? I’m looking for some ideas because I’m really struggling with the sleep deprivation. I do the nights because my husband feels that since I’m breastfeeding, there’s not much he can do. But I’m so exhausted from not sleeping longer than 2–3 hour blocks. Each wake-up can take 30–90 minutes, and then we repeat the whole thing 2–3 times a night. Our baby is also a pretty fussy sleeper. He passes gas, wants to be held, and makes lots of l”

“Currently typing at midnight 🥱 So mom started her Job around 3 weeks ago (when baby was 4 months old and I have taken 5 week paternity leave as well). From last 4 weeks, my wife pumps during the day and we give him pumped milk in bottle during the day time while she feeds him directly after working hours or during the night. During the day, he takes 3.5 Oz milk every 2 hour 30 minutes, and takes an hour to finish 3.5 Oz milk. Sometimes he will finish the 3.5 Oz milk in 30 minutes or less but it”

“Our 4 month old used to give us a 5 hour stretch initially and then would be okay to be put down after the first feed at night and sleep on and off till 3am. After that she always wanted to be held till morning so we took turns every hour doing that. However now at 4 months, she wakes up crying but nurses for like 5 min and then falls asleep. If I unlatch her, she gets upset and the Dad has to rock her quickly to go back to sleep. Not sleep trained yet and we are thinking about ST at 5 months. A”

“My two month old baby has started taking longer stretches of sleep in the night. He feeds on demand during the day which honestly feels like it’s every other hour. But once he is down for the night he doesn’t wake up to feed. I wake up from the baby sounds he makes while fast asleep and get concerned that he must be hungry so i feed him at about five hours in. He is usually so deep in sleep but just moves his mouth to feed. However he also has a dirty diaper and when I change him that wakes him”

“I’m thinking about staring night weaning. I’m feeling broken. I’m on my third illness in a month, I haven’t slept a full night since baby was born and we’re almost 11months in. We cosleep and he eats solids so well. He has just started nursery, so separation anxiety can be high at times. Usually he naps in a cot at home and starts out his night there, the last feed is around 10pm, he goes back in the cot and then he wakes up again around 1. At this point I don’t know how much of this is him need”

“My baby is 1 month old. She's been having spit up/reflux which stops her from sleeping. She is EBF and I just don't know what to do anymore. I just want to sleep. The vicious cycle: feed -> sleep -> spit up -> feed again -> sleep -> spit up. Here's the conflicting advice: - feed on demand (it's obviously not working right now) - don't feed on demand, feed every 2 hours (what do I do with a purple screaming newborn for an hour??) - hold baby for 30mins upright a”

“Just wanted to get it off my chest. My baby who is my everything is 7m we have been EBF up to this point but the sleep recently has been so incredibly awful I need help. So dad splits night with me to give me relief but since I am EBF I dont have an oversupply and end up giving him 3oz formula. And I feel AWFUL when she takes it. Like I failed her? I know the rationale is I need sleep but what are these hormones that make me so depressed she isnt have my milk? I hope I look back at this and just”

“My daughter is 12 months old plus several days. She has rarely slept through the night since the four month regression. Usually only wakes up once or twice but can be 3 times or more. Nurses back to sleep easily and has gone from 10 minutes to 8 to 7ish now. If I try unlatching before she’s ready, she cries so I just let her have a little more and she’s out. She sleeps on her crib for all naps and night, and she loves her crib. If you night weaned around this age, how long did your baby cry? Bab”

“My son was one of those terrible sleepers who woke up every 45 minutes from 3-12 months needing the breast. It then got slightly better from 12-14 months (woke up every 1.5-2 hours)… and now at 15 months, and after night weaning + dad fully taking over, he is sleeping from 19:30-07:00 (knock on wood). Which means that I am also getting to “sleep” more now. My body still naturally wakes up every hour and in the day am I more exhausted THAN EVER. More than when I was waking up hourly having to bre”

“This isn’t the first time this has happened. It doesn’t happen every night, but occasionally my husband doesn’t wake me up when it’s time to feed our baby. For context, our baby is 14 weeks old, and we take shifts caring for her. My husband usually takes the 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. shift because he works afternoons, and I take over from 4 a.m. onward. During his shift, he gives our baby a bottle of pumped breast milk and used to wake me up so I could pump. Lately, though, he’s been letting me sleep th”

“My 17 month old is still waking up throughout the night so often that it’s effecting my mental health and my mood is effecting my husband. My baby is also really tired most mornings until after her nap so I think weaning her off breastfeeding could help with fewer wakeups. The problem is we also cosleep because she wakes up less often when I sleep with her. So I’m not sure how to start. Last night we nursed to sleep as usual and the next two wakeups I didn’t offer the boob she cried but shortly”

“Hello I am open to any suggestions at this point! My girl is almost 7 months, while we didn’t do any sleep training, she goes to sleep in her crib by herself with a paci for all naps and bedtime. She does about 3 good naps a day and eats plenty during the day. It’s been months since she’s had a bottle overnight. BUT she still wake up SCREAMING every hour or 2. It’s about 50/50 when she’s screaming if she will take the paci and go right back to sleep or if she will spit it out and keep screaming.”

“It is 1:15 and I am watching my 9 week old son sleep. At 23:45, he had the biggest vomit, and I feel awful. He had a feed earlier where he was really fussy, so I assumed it was a cluster feed and continued. I was clearly wrong and overfeeding. I've sat there for an hour while his stomach reset, soothed him while he cried... The poor kid was starving after emptying himself and didn't understand why he had to wait. It broke my heart to let him cry it out. Normally, I'd be sleeping thro”

“Hi! Baby is almost 4 months, wakes 1x a night to feed but usually results in cosleeping and eating in and off after that (sleeps from 9:30/10-4/4:30). I work overnights (7p-7a), how often would you recommend I pump? I currently pump every 3 hours but wondering if I can stretch it to every 4 so I can pump 3 times a shift instead of 4 🥲 submitted by /u/hdieocnfueos [link] [comments]”

“Baby is 8.5m old. I’m due to return to work in 12 weeks when my baby will be 11 months old, nearly 12 months. Currently cosleeping and feeding overnight every 3 hours. During the day I do 2 meals of solids but Intake has been pretty sprase lately but I’m hoping it’s just teething? I try to stretch day feeds to 3.5 hours unless baby had a distracted day. I’m wanting to hear from other breast feeding cosleeping mothers about if things improved around the 12m mark. Were you able to stretch overnigh”

“My baby is 7 months old and wakes up often at night. Anywhere from 4-9 times. He will sometimes give me a 3 hour stretch, but it is usually only 2 hours. I haven't had a 4+ hour stretch in probably 3 months. Every time he wakes up I nurse him because when I try to soothe him he just cries louder but instantly calms when nursing. I would try more to soothe without nursing, but I'm just so tired and it's the easy thing to do. I also don't want to completely stop night feeds (would”

“I'm currently triple feeding (with expressed milk) my 11 day old due to jaundice and slow weight gain. She's also a very sleepy baby who doesn't wake to feed and often falls asleep on the boob and doesn't respond to the gentler methods of tickling her feet etc. We have to strip her down to her nappy for every feed and often have to put her back down on a cold changing mat or rub her with a muslin to get her awake enough. Our current plan is: - waking to feed every 3 hours - tryin”

“My 15 month old and I have been cosleeping since he was 2 months old and exclusively breastfeeding since birth and he is still currently waking up several times at night (like every two hours) to nurse. I’m so insanely exhausted and at my wits end. I don’t know how much longer I can do this for. I started thinking that maybe I should stop nursing altogether but if I could night wean him and he sleeps better as a result I would be more inclined to continue nursing during the day. I have such bad”

“I do a dream feed with my 5 month old, I never did this with my eldest because it would just wake her up and sleep was already a rarity with her, but with my youngest she doesn’t really wake up through it and it helps her sleep a longer stretch when we go to bed. What always amazes me is that even in the pitch black dark, with her eyes shut and pretty much fast asleep, she always manages to root and find my nipple?! And so fast too. Same thing for if she ever joins me in the bed at night and we”

“I realized I have a recurring sore throat from sleep deprivation and the last few nights it’s been super hard to fall asleep after feeds. I’m FF and my 3.5 month old is waking up twice to eat. My body anticipates when he's going to be hungry so I wake up but haven't been able to fall back asleep. Any tips or advice would be great to hear. submitted by /u/More_Tourist3103 [link] [comments]”

“Hi my 8 month old started waking up at 6 am and there is no way to put her back dow, even an hour of rocking and singing isnt working. She goes to bed around 8:30-9 in the evening and used to wake up at 8, with 1 night feeding. I dont know why she switched it up suddenly. We bought new curtains and blinds, we paid off our neighbor to get rid of his rooster, we adjusted her daytime naps, but nothing. After 8 hpurs of sleep, she is wide awake. This also messes up her nap scedule. Any advice would”

“Hi everyone, I have a 1 year old girl who was EBF - I recently stopped breastfeeding her in the day but I’m really struggling to stop overnight feeds. She usually wakes 3 times at night and the only way to get her to stay settled is to nurse her. Sometimes I’m able to get her settled by rocking however as soon as I try and transfer her to the cot, she screams again. She just won’t stay asleep unless she’s had some milk. Now I’m wondering if she’s actually hungry - I wouldn’t say she’s amazing wi”

“My baby is 11.5 months and I’ve been EBF the whole time. She normally wakes up A Lot at night so I usually feed her around 3 times, sometimes once more. Last night due to some sort of miracle after I went to bed she was only up once (for at least an hour but still) so I just fed her the one time. Today I’m feeling quite dizzy. Is that related? I’ve been meaning to start night weaning but I haven’t quite yet. Thoughts? submitted by /u/daisy-chains- [link] [comments]”

“My breastfeeding obsessed 19 month old just did her first night without breastfeeding. It was HARD. I decided to do cold-turkey night weaning, because her sleep is still really poor (6 + wakes to breastfeed, wiggly wakeful co-sleeper), and I've heard that stopping night feeds is often a game changer. We read books and talked about it in advance, and I put plasters over my nipples together last night (that caused the first meltdown). My partner did wake ups till midnight, and I took the secon”

“My baby is 4.5 months and started sleep regressing about a month ago. He was sleeping very well through the night—normally one 5-6 hour stretch and then one 3-4 hour stretch after a night feed. His naps were always fine and could fall asleep in pretty much any condition (in the car, in stroller/carrier, being held in public). When the regression started, his naps took the first hit and he started only being able to take like four 20-30 minutes naps/day after being rocked to sleep. Bedtime was a”

“Everyone is talking about naps, but nobody has hard time with feeding intervals? It seems to me like everyone is just taking it as a given that a 3-month-old feeds every 2 hours, but will it just come to us later or is it something you train somehow? I don't want to leave her hungry, and if I don't know if she is or not, I offer the breast. Sometimes she latches very well and drinks, and other times she just hangs there for comfort. In theory, she should be able to feed at longer interva”

“My baby is just over 4 months and for nearly 3 weeks his sleep has suddenly become much worse. Before this he could do 9pm–5am stretches overnight with the dummy . Now he’s often waking every ~2 hours and demanding a breastfeed each time (e.g. 9:30, 11:30, 1:30, 3:30), and won’t settle with the dummy. He’s had the odd much better night, so it’s very inconsistent. He also seems to be teething, which may be making things worse. I’m breastfeeding and worried my supply may have dropped because I use”

“How did you handle night wakings? Feeding every time? Only after a certain time? Scheduled feeds / dream feeds? Did you offer a paci or rock? Did you do the “pause”? Once your baby stopped waking before a certain time, did you drop the feed permanently or let them go back to it? submitted by /u/SourPatch-Tree19 [link] [comments]”

“I wanted to night-wean for a while, but I was anxious to pull the trigger. About five weeks ago, a mom friend told me that all of her kids slept better after night-weaning, so I finally decided to go for it. We co-sleep, and I was being woken up multiple times a night to nurse. I was desperate for more sleep, especially because we want to TTC soon. She wakes up EVERY NIGHT around 3 a.m. and tosses and turns into me for 1–2 hours. It wouldn’t bother me so much if she fell back asleep quickly, but”

“This is my second baby and I’ve been EBF for 16 months now and I absolutely have no idea how to stop the night feedings. I stopped during the day but at night I don’t know what to do. Tonight I am going to try and comfort him to sleep and have water in a bottle on hand but not sure how the outcome will be. I did combo feeding with my first so technically he wasn’t hooked on the breast. Any ideas ?? (How to stop??!)** submitted by /u/badbanana06 [link] [comments]”

“If I try to night wean my 15 month old, no matter how gradual, all hell breaks loose, she screams and screams, throws her head back shouting mumma mumma, for hours. My partner gets it even worse than me, so he can't help. I really need advice, as I am so over feeding all night, I am totally touched out. submitted by /u/Vivid-Elk7941 [link] [comments]”

“The last few nights I’ve found myself falling asleep while nursing and it’s scaring me. I try so hard to observe safe sleep practices but we’ve been hitting a wall lately. Neither my husband or I can stay awake. I need your best advice and tips for how to stay awake during night feedings. submitted by /u/trulymadlybigly [link] [comments]”

“As the title suggests my nearly 5 month old (EBF) will only feed before a nap or sleep. She has two dream feeds but even after waking in the morning, won't feed and will only feed before her next sleep which could be +-5 hours between her last dream feed and her next nap feed. She has just started getting used to her new sleep cycle but now if I try latching her when she isn't tired, she will be fussy and cry at the breast. Is this normal? We are also looking at starting her on solids in”