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04 Aug 2006 11:10 PM

Tips for Night Nursing Weaning

by Renee Dietz | More from this Blogger

Nursing a baby is one of the greatest joys of motherhood. Without doubt, being able to breastfeed for many women is the perfect way of bonding and sharing special one-on-one time between mother and child. When your baby is small, he or she will need to nurse every two to four hours. Unfortunately, some high-need babies will want to nurse much more often, which drains the mother. Even if you love to breastfeed, the constant night nursing will take its toll. Therefore, we wanted to provide you with some tips on what you can do to slow things down or stop the night nursing altogether.

Typically, a high-need baby will slow down on his or her own. However, during the period of constantly nursing, you and your family members will find tensions rising, simply due to lack of sleep. Keep in mind that you want nursing to be an enjoyable experience so if it is pulling you down, the concept of this special time is being lost. We recommend you make sure your baby eats on schedule during the day. By your baby being satisfied in the daytime, he or she is less likely to have the need to feed at night.

A great tool as well is keeping your baby close, which could be done by carrying him or her around in a sling. While you do not have to carry the baby all the time, this added time will help calm a high-need baby, making him/her feel more secure and again, less likely to feel overwhelmed when it comes to nighttime feeding. Then, many babies will increase their desire to nurse when they are going through a developmental stage. For instance, if your baby is starting to pull up on things or even walk, while exciting, this time is also the unknown, which can cause some insecurity. Therefore, that extra nursing time at night provides the child with the reassurance needed. For this, you will need to be patient, helping your child as he/she grows.

Sometimes, babies simply cannot stay awake long enough for their last feeding. Although it might be challenging, you will find that waking him/her just prior to bed for a good feeding will likely help. Let us say the baby fell asleep at 8:00 p.m. and now at 10:30 p.m., you are getting ready to retire for the night. By waking the baby up with a diaper change and feeding, his/her tummy will be full and you will likely get a little more sleep than you would have by not waking him/her up. While you might thing this sounds cruel to wake a sleeping baby, all you are doing is establishing a healthy feeding schedule that will benefit everyone.

You might also try feeding the baby breast milk from a bottle at night. This way, you and your spouse or someone staying with you to help could let you get some much-needed sleep while they feed the baby. In this case, your child is still getting the rich nourishment of the breast milk but just from a bottle. With a breast pump, the milk can be expressed late in the afternoon, stored in sterile plastic bottle liners in the refrigerator, and pulled out and warmed when ready to feed.

Learn more about Renee Dietz

I have been a successful, published writer for the past 26 years, offering a writing style that is informative, creative, and reader-friendly.

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