“Your baby doesn’t need to nurse at night anymore.” Has anyone ever told you that? How old was your child? A few months? A year? Older? I’m not going to advise when to night wean, because every family and every child has different needs. But I can tell you about our decision, research and experience night weaning a toddler for sleep training. I was more than resistant to anything other than child-led weaning. However, when our daughter was 15 months old, we were struggling so much with sleep, that we turned to a sleep coach, who gently but firmly encouraged night weaning for the purpose of sleep training and I’m so glad we did.
The idea of night weaning had never crossed my mind, but when our sleep troubles got to the point that we were desperate enough to consider a sleep coach, I did have the following goals: for our daughter to wake up less times during the night and for her to go back to sleep with at least one other method besides breastfeeding (that is to go to sleep at bedtime and back to sleep throughout the night for someone else besides me). Jen from Sugar Night Night, was very gentle and seemed to understand our family and our preferences. She had me read The Sleep Lady’s Good Night, Sleep Tight: Gentle Proven Solutions to Help Your Child Sleep Well and Wake Up Happy by Kim West. Jen’s plan for us was to eliminate the suck to sleep association. I had thought I had been good about not nursing all the way to sleep and putting her in her crib drowsy but awake, but Jen said that in reality, many moms put baby down too drowsy. She had us change up the sleep routine so that nursing wasn’t the last step.
Next, we had to address the concern that our daughter was getting enough calories. Jen had me do a “dream feed” at 11pm every night. I also made extra sure my daughter was loading up with milk and food during the day and at dinner. Everything was going fine until it was time to start weaning from 11pm to 6am. I was dreading it. We postponed a few times due to illness or poor naps. Finally I had to take a look at my fears. Looking back, I knew that I had always prioritized nursing and feeding her whenever she wanted. At her four day old visit as a newborn, she had lost 11% of her birthweight. The first pediatrician threatened to suggest supplementing with formula. Exclusive breast feeding was important to me, so we started a schedule of nursing every 2 hours (day and night), followed by me pumping and her papa giving her a bottle of pumped breastmilk. We only had to do that for the first two weeks, but she has always been in the lower percentiles for weight. Although I now think it is perfectly normal, considering that we are both slim, I think it had some residual affect on me. So, realizing that some of my resistance to night weaning was emotional, left over from when she was an itty-bitty week-old newbie, I decided to bite the bullet and try out night weaning our toddler for sleep training.
It was so much easier on her than I thought it would be. As a toddler, she was beginning to understand a lot of words and concepts, so when she woke up in the middle of the night, I gently held her and told her the milk had gone night-night, that Papa had gone night-night and that she and I were going to go night-night. And would you believe it, within a week, she was sleeping through the night most nights!
I found that night weaning at 15-16 months for sleep training did not diminish my milk supply, nor did it impact our nursing during the day. For us, the only consequence was everyone sleeping better. And just in time, since I found out I was pregnant around the same time!
Resources for Night Weaning a Toddler for Sleep Training:
kellymom.com/parenting/nighttime/weaning-night Tips from Kelly Mom for night weaning.
www.askdrsears.com/topics/sleep-problems/night-weaning-12-alternatives-all-night-nurser A good list of tips from Dr. Sears.
drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html A good article, especially for families that cosleep but want to cut back on night nursing and/or improve sleep.
www.mommypotamus.com/so-you-want-to-night-wean-your-toddler A blog with tips for night weaning a toddler for sleep training, very similar to what we did.
www.sugarnightnight.com The gentle sleep coach we used. (She does an in-home interview in San Diego and Orange Counties and can consult remotely anywhere.) Also check out her free workshops.
The post Night Weaning a Toddler for Sleep Training appeared first on The Boob Group.