How to wean your baby off from night feeding

I believe that mothers all know the importance of breastfeeding to their children. Many parents feed their babies milk when they find that their babies are hungry. Therefore, many children gradually develop the habit of drinking milk at night. This is not a good habit, so how do you wean your baby off from midnight feeding? Let the professionals teach you some methods of weaning your baby off from midnight feeding! I hope you will understand through the following introduction.

Methods/Steps

The disadvantages of feeding at night

Babies who are used to drinking milk at night are prone to wake up at night. When they wake up, they will cry and make a fuss. The mother will feed the baby every time she makes a fuss, which makes the mother unable to rest well and exhausted. Feeding at night can also cause the baby to become overweight and is prone to tooth decay. Drinking milk at night is not only a habit developed by the baby himself, but also the result of mothers' indulgence. When the baby cries at night, the mother will feel sorry for him and feed him, so the baby will develop the habit of drinking milk at night. Therefore, mothers should help their babies break the habit of drinking milk at night.

First, the mother should slowly reduce the number of night feedings, from three times to two times and then to one time, to allow the baby to gradually adapt.

In order to prevent the baby from waking up hungry, the last feed before going to bed at night should be delayed. It can be delayed to around 11 pm, and the feed at 1-2 am should be postponed to around 4-5 am. If the baby is adding complementary food, you can feed complementary food two hours before going to bed, such as porridge, noodles, rice noodles, etc., which can prolong the time the baby is hungry.

If the baby cries at night, the mother should not rush to feed him. The baby is just used to the biological clock. As long as the baby is full before going to bed, the baby will basically not be hungry. Therefore, the mother should not feed the child as soon as he cries. Instead, the mother should coax him patiently and pat him gently. The baby will gradually fall asleep under the mother's caress. It doesn’t matter if he is a little hungry. Sleeping doesn’t consume too much energy. Just give him some water to drink.

Sometimes when a baby cries at night, it is not necessarily because he is hungry. It may be because he wants to suck. You can give him a pacifier to suck on as a substitute for comfort. Or other ways to divert attention.

Finally, mothers need to be mentally prepared. Weaning off midnight feeding is a gradual process. Mothers should not be too eager for success, nor give up halfway because they cannot stop feeding for the time being. They should be patient enough to slowly change the baby's habit of feeding at night.

If your child also has the habit of drinking milk at night, please use the above methods to wean your baby off from midnight feeding, especially for children over four months old. The sooner you change it, the better, which is extremely beneficial to the body. However, you have to do it gradually when weaning. You can't stop feeding your baby all of a sudden. Weaning requires an adaptation process.