Hi all! I'm coming out of lurkdom to make my first post on this board. You ladies are so knowledgable when it comes to bf, and I don't know where else to go with this one!

My DD is 9 1/2 mo, and seems to be wanting to cut out her bedtime feeding. Is this normal for this early? I thought bf babies continued with the bedtime feedings much longer that ff babies? For the past couple of weeks, we go through our normal bedtime routines, then sit down to nurse, but she will only nurse for a minute or two or three before she starts wailing, and arching her back...trying to get the heck away from me...that's if she's willing to nurse at all! She sleeps fine most nights, with a couple of wakings, but I just need to settle her down, and she's right off to sleep...no nighttime feedings for a long time. I guess I just wanted to know if this was normal? I am going to miss this feeding session if she is truly ready to give it up!

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Jodie (32) and Brian (31)




Brian's Baby Blog

I wouldn't worry to much. It might just be a phase. How many times during the day is she nursing? If you are super worried, you could move any solids she is getting earlier in the day(just in case she might be full when you are wanting to nurse her before bedtime). Does that make sense? Both of my boys have their dinner earlier than my dh and I do. They either play or have some cheerios or something of that sort while we eat our dinner. HTH

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Nancy

I'd keep offering, but don't push. At around that age, neither one of my kids needed nursing to fall asleep, and I would just put them down in their crib sleepy and ready for bed.

I'd still make sure you got a good nursing session or two in sometime that evening, but don't worry if your baby doesn't want to nurse as the very last thing she does before nodding off.

Welcome out of lurkdom!

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My baby is just 6 months and he seems to prefer not to nurse before going to bed. Or, if I try to nurse, it sometimes upsets him. In our case, I think it is due to the schedule (or lack of it) that we have him on. He usually has a large bottle an hour or two before bed (from DH) so he's just not hungry. And, I try to keep an "eat, play, sleep" pattern with naps so he doesn't expect to eat before bed. (And, with his acid reflux we've always tried to avoid laying him down right after eating.) He usually sleeps through the night (11 hours), so he isn't waking up during the night because he is hungry.

HTH!

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Well, it must have been just a phase, or possibly our schedule during the week, or a combination of the two! Because, over the weekend, we had champion bedtime nursing sessions!

I think a lot of it is because she eats "too much" at daycare. They claim that she's always hungry and screaming for food...sometimes they end up feeding her hourly! Then she gets home and eats "dinner" around 5:30 or so, then she's tired and ready for bed sometimes as early as 6:30-7. I'm going to work on cutting back what she eats at dinner, to hopefully keep her hungrier for nursing at bedtime.

Thanks for all the advice!!

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Jodie (32) and Brian (31)




Brian's Baby Blog