what can i give my 8 month old to help sleep

Before y'all starting thinking nigh sleep training, you need to expect at your child'due south eating habits at night. I would strongly recommend that you stop whatever caloric intake every bit 1 of your offset steps in getting your child to sleep through the nighttime. Sometimes, stopping nocturnal  feeds is all you lot need to do to become your kid to slumber through the night.Here's my guide on how to end night feeds and become amend slumber at night.

Free Bonus: I created a quick guide to help you stop feeding at night. It's a quick 4 page PDF you lot can save and reference later as yous try this yourself. Click Here to get the guide, free.

Years ago, I ordered a slumber test on an obese four yr old who was waking up multiple times during the night. Since he snored, I thought information technology was possible that he might take obstructive sleep apnea. As it turns out, he had a unlike problem. The tech noted that the child was waking up every two to three hours equally the mother had told me. What she had not told me was that she was giving him an 8 oz bottle of milk every time he woke up. Thus, nosotros solved ii mysteries– why he was waking up, and why he was obese.

The fact is, unless your kid is an infant, he does not need to swallow between bedtime and wake time. Addressing this result tin assist him (and you) sleep better at night.

Why does feeding at dark result in sleep disruption?

Imagine I woke y'all up every dark at 2 AM and gave you lot an ice cream sundae. One week later, I stop feeding at nighttime. But you lot still would wake upwardly hungry. This is what happens to some kids. It is unclear why this is the instance. I suspect that some parents get in the addiction of responding to any nocturnal awakenings with feeding. Just similar you might feel sleepy afterwards having that water ice cream sundae, they go back to sleep. Over fourth dimension, the blueprint gets reinforced. I call this pattern learned hunger.

When can I end feeding at nighttime?

There are a couple of questions to consider.

• Is your child growing well?If the answer is no, your kid may need those calories at night. If you are not sure how your kid is growing, please talk to your pediatrician.
• How old is your child? Bottle fed infants typically can wean off night feeding past vi months of age. Breast fed infants tend to take longer, upwardly to a year of age. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breastfeeding for half dozen months, with the addition of complementary foods continuting upward to a year, or longer "as desired past female parent and infant". Information technology'due south important to note that night weaning tin lead to weaning altogether. More on this below.
• Exercise you desire to continue night nursing? Some moms, especially those who piece of work outside of the home, value the closeness and extra time that dark nursing provides. If that is the instance, you don't need to finish, provided that y'all are getting plenty rest. If non, you may need to make a option between getting better sleep and dealing with a dwindling milk supply.

How to stop feeding at nighttime

In that location is one guiding principle hither. Don't go cold turkey. It is equivalent to asking your child to skip a meal every mean solar day. They could do information technology, but they would be miserable (and and then would you). Instead, the programme is to make irksome incremental changes over time. These changes are relatively easy to brand and your child will tolerate them well.

Gratuitous Bonus: I created a quick guide to help y'all cease feeding at nighttime. It'south a quick  PDF you can save and reference later as yous effort this yourself. Click Hither to get the guide, free.

How to stop bottle feeding at night

So, your child is over six months of age, growing well, and still feeding frequently at night. If you child drinks milk (breast, cow, caprine animal, or otherwise) or formula, this is relatively straightforward. In that location are two ways to to wean this, and I have a strong preference for the showtime one.

1. Wean i ounce a nighttime: Let's say your child takes three 4 oz bottles a night. Y'all take the concluding canteen and reduce it by an an oz on night one. On night ii, you reduce bottle 2 by 1 oz. On night iii you reduce Bottle #1 by 1 oz. When a canteen gets down to 2 oz, substitute a bottle of water. Afterward this pace, you lot get rid of the canteen. Any you exercise, don't wake up your child if they sleep through a feeding– that is the goal. If they skip a feeding one nighttime but wake up the following night for that feeding, it is OK to requite them the scheduled bottle. Good tip: write this schedule out beforehand. You won't remember it in the eye of the nighttime.
   Here's this example by by night:
   Night 1: iv oz, four oz, 3 oz
   Dark 2: 4 oz, 3 oz, 3 oz
   Night 3: 3 oz, 3 oz, 3oz
   Nighttime iv: 3 oz, 3 oz, ii oz
   Night five: 3 oz, 2 oz, 2 oz
   Night 6: 2 oz, 2 oz, ii oz
   Night seven: ii oz, two oz, H20
   Nighttime 8: 2 oz, H20, H20
   Dark 9: H20, H20, H20.
   I would limit the water bottles to 2 oz, simply to reduce the amount of urine produced and wet diapers to deal with. If your child doesn't want the h2o, that is fine. But don't requite in and give the milk.
2. All other methods: The other ways to practice this include increasing the amount of time betwixt feeds, and reducing calories in each canteen. I don't like the kickoff mode, because then you drag out the intervals when your child is potentially crying. I don't like the second because a) it's too complicated to figure out how to dilute the milk dark to night b) milk + water = gross.

How to stop breastfeeding at night

Free Bonus: I created a quick guide to help yous end feeding at night. It'south a quick 4 page PDF you tin save and reference later as you lot effort this yourself. Click Hither to get the guide, costless.

This is a bit of a more than complicated topic. I reached out to my friend and former colleague Dr. Sylvia Romm for more than information on this topic. Sylvia is a pediatrician and the founder of Milk On Tap, a visitor which provides lactation support to families via the internet. Here's what she has to say about the development of nocturnal feeding in infants:

• All babies are born eating every 2–4 hours, even at night
• A mother'southward torso only makes more than milk if milk is emptied from the breast. If milk is left in the chest, the body gets the signal that it should make less milk
• Women have different capacities for milk storage (information technology doesn't have annihilation to do with breast size). Women with larger capacities tin can go longer before their breasts are total, and therefore can become longer before their milk supply is affected. Women with smaller capacities have to feed more oftentimes, or their milk volition go down.
• In the early on weeks, breastfed babies should rarely go longer than iv hours without eating, not simply to ensure that the baby is eating enough, only also to ensure mother's milk supply is established. Even then, most women demand to breastfeed at least viii times per mean solar day, although some women can breastfeed ofttimes during a catamenia of fourth dimension (usually during the night, called cluster feeding) and tin can go longer chunks of time at other times in the day without affecting their supply.
• Later about 4–6 weeks, some women tin can start to feed their children less often, generally moving towards half-dozen times per day. These are usually women with a larger capacity. These women tin commencement to notice that they may exist able to become longer stretches at night.
• At this historic period, nearly babies will even so want to wake often at dark, and so nighttime feedings are more than for the babe.
• At ii–three months, some babies tin become for longer stretches at night (by that I hateful starting to pause the 6 hour mark). That'south when mother's supply can begin to be an issue. Mothers without the larger capacity report that they can never go more than 6 hours without breastfeeding, or their supply starts to become downwardly.
• In that location are no studies out in that location that expect at this topic, but from my anecdotal experience, I believe that the push to sleep train at four months in the U.s.a. contributes to women "not making enough milk", or maxim that their "milk only dried up". This is a common age for mothers to both report that they are encouraging their babies to sleep longer and for women to report that their milk supply is failing to keep upward with their infant'south needs.
• However, that's OK, As long as mothers realize that night weaning may lead to complete weaning at this age.
• Many mothers report that they need to do an actress pump or feed at night once their child is sleeping longer at night. If you do feed, trying a dream feed (where you don't wake upwardly the kid just feed them anyway) can both help a child sleep longer and help female parent go along upward her supply.

As Sylvia points out, at that place is actually not much research to provide guidance with nighttime weaning. She notes that this can be a "confusing and difficult journeying for parents and baby."

Sylvia notes are a couple of different ways to go about night weaning.

1. You can shorten each nighttime feeding session: This can be hard to exercise, however, equally it is hard to be disciplined and watch the clock in the middle of the dark.
2. You can space out the feeds: If your child feeds on a pretty regular schedule, you tin can try to stretch out the interval betwixt feeding. However, this is pretty hard to practice if your kid is crying.
3. Get Dad (or the non-nursing partner) involved: This might be the most effective method, Syliva says, "I've establish that the most successful method is moving the kid out of the bed and picking a middle of the dark wake up that'due south usually a feeding, only sending dad in to the kid instead. That manner the babe can be comforted dorsum to sleep, but they larn that it's non a feeding time. Dad can't give in, so that temptation is removed. It gets dad involved, and gives mom more than sleep. Honestly, I dearest daddies, but commonly if the baby isn't fed, the kiddos only commencement sleeping through that wake upwards."

Note that options 2 and iii are going to be pretty difficult if y'all are bedsharing with your child. So you may want to motion your child out of your bed first. (Here's my mail on how to stop cosleeping the to the lowest degree painful fashion possible).

The Take Home

Many families, peculiarly those who are breastfeeding, may struggle with letting go of night feeds. However, when you are fix to do so, making the changes to a higher place tin can go a long manner towards an uninterrupted night of sleep. Please share this commodity if you discover information technology useful, and leave any questions y'all have in the comments.

Costless Bonus: I created a quick guide to help yous stop feeding at night. Information technology'south a quick 4 page PDF yous can salve and reference afterward as you try this yourself. Click Here to get the guide, free.

smithmanto1992.blogspot.com

Source: https://drcraigcanapari.com/learned-hunger-nighttime-feeding-stop-night-feeding/

Share this post