Does my 11 month old really need her 3am/4am feed?

Question

I am trying to get my 11 month old into a routine and also trying to get her to sleep through the night. Some people have told me that at that age, they wake up at 3am/4am for a feed / cuddle because it is nice for them but they don't actually need it. But she still has a whole bottle at that time. We give her enough dinner (at least we think so) and when she goes to sleep she has a whole bottle. What must I do?

Does my 11 month old really need her 3am/4am feed?
I am trying to get my 11 month old into a routine and also trying to get her to sleep through the night. Some people have told me that at that age, they wake up at 3am/4am for a feed / cuddle because it is nice for them but they don't actually need it. But she still has a whole bottle at that time. We give her enough dinner (at least we think so) and when she goes to sleep she has a whole bottle. What must I do?

EDIT: She has dinner at about 6.30pm and then goes to bed (not to sleep) at about 8pm-8.30pm

sorry - don't know how to edit

Answer 1

My son is 10 months and still gets up for that feed, i dont think ther is any harm in that, she may be thirsty, i love that cuddle. xx

Answer 2

The best routine you can teach her is to sleep through the night. You should give her a full bottle before going to bed but nothing else. If she wakes up during the night, don't give her anything. She is only waking up because she is used to having something at 3/4am. You have to teach her that she can go without anything till the morning. We learned that if she wakes up, don't take her out of bed, just tell her that it's time for sleep.

Our son at that age would have dinner at 5 and a bottle at 6:30 and go to sleep at 7 and wake up the next morning at 7. We learned a lot from Tracy Hoggs - The Baby Whisperer. A great book!! I highly recommend it!

Answer 3

at 11 months babies do not need a middle of the night feed physically. that being said breaking ther habit is hard. we have kept our daughter on a schedule as much as possible to prevent this. i dont remember exactly when we stopped the 2-3 am feeds, but i think 4 months. you end up staying awake and comforting a lot more in the short run but within a week or two she will hopefully have stopped waking up at that time (keep your fingers crossed). it can be really hard to stick with because you know she will settle right down with a bottle, however it is much healthier for baby to have a good sleep pattern(not to mention the parents) and it only gets harder as time goes on. Good Luck!!!

Answer 4

try not to give her a bottle she will never get used to having to sleep through the night if you continue to do so- i have a daughter the same age and i stopped the early morning bottle about 6 weeks ago- for the first few nights she would wake and grizzle for a while but went back to sleep quite quickly and now she doesn't wake at all x i hope this advice helps but at the end of the day you can only follow your heart- if you feel she needs it then carry on x good luck x

Answer 5

My 11 month old has his last meal at 5, then he has a snack and a bottle just before he goes to bed at 8.30.
We find the bottle often helps him calm down and fall a sleep aswell.

It may take a while, but this way you know she is not hungry and is waking up out of habit, try shushing her when she does wake up and holding her hand till she goes back to sleep for a while, then gradually hold her hand for less time and eventually she will just slepp the whole night through.


(Thats the thoery anyway....good luck!)

Answer 6

She definitely doesn't need it at that age. She wakes up cries and knows that Mummy will come to her and enjoys the cuddles and attention and hey, if Mummy is going to feed me too thats a bonus! You need to do the controlled crying thing. Go in when she first cries and give her a cuddle and put her back to bed. The second time you leave her 5 mins to cry and then go in. The next time 10 mins etc. It usually takes about 2 to 3 days for them to get the message that Mummy isn't going to spend time with me at night. From experience I know that it is draining and hard but it definitely works. After 2 or 3 days your little angel will sleep through the night because she knows that you will not be coming in as soon as she calls. I hope I have helped :)

Answer 7

A strategy we were going to try to get rid of a 3am wake when our daughter started to do it again was the "Wake to sleep" to break the habit. The idea goes that you deliberately wake the baby 1hr or 30mins before their habitual waking time, then just sooth them back to sleep with no feed etc. Apparently 3 to 4 nights of this is enough to disturb their habits. Then you try to get them to go though the night again.

The problem we had was that we could not easily wake ourselves and get up at 2am to do this. It was too tempting to just stay in bed until our daughter woke us.

In the end we spent 4 days giving only a very short/small feed, then after that just soothed her back to sleep with no feed.

Answer 8

Personally my advice would be drop the 3/4am feed if possible . at 11eleven months your baby will be on solids so it's not as though she is dependent on that milky bottle as a feed . i t sounds to me as it's more a habit and a comfort for the child . As long as she is feeding well during the day and drinking plenty of milk she doesn't need that bottle. When my daughter was a baby she also used to wake up for a bottle . I stopped it over a week by only offering her water instead of the milk and not cuddling her but just sitting near her cot whilst she had the water.(I think she soon realised she wouldn't be getting a milky treat or cuddle so stopped waking up at that time.) Problem solved yes plenty of whimpering and crying but i stuck to it and it paid off.

Answer 9

if she does wake up give her a bottle but really water it down. put in 1 scoop of powdered milk to 7 ounces of water.she should get bored of waking up after a couple of days and sleep through the night.i had the same problem with my son.that is what my midwife told me to do.also i found it works even better if you give her a small bottle when she wakes up( 2 ounces) and then some toast or porridge.this shoud then see her through for about 4 hours reducing the amount of bottles she has and therefore saving you alot of money.after about a week of doing both these things i got my son to sleep from 7pm to 8am at the age of 8 months.

trust me it works

Answer 10

Depends what time you put her to bed but i would think that it was reasonable to wake for a feed from 4am onwards if your baby is going to sleep 7/30pm or before. Just go with it as your baby will be a child soon & you will never have that time again. If your baby was still waking at 2am that would be a different storey.

Answer 11

as harsh as it sounds, to stop this you will have to stop the feeds and cuddles completely!!walk in the room lay her back down and say "no bottle,time to sleep now" and walk out again,keep doing this until she stops. she will cry for it, but only for about a week or so then she wont bother waking up anymore!! my friend had the exact same problem.although my daughter has slept right through the night since she was 6 weeks old and even now at 17 months i put her in the cot,giv her a kiss,tuck her in and walk out the room and she sleeps fine and always has!!good luck:-) x x x