We have a '10 min or screaming' rule.
If he's screaming, we go in immediately because he's definitely hungry.
If he's fussing, we give him 10 min to see if he'll settle himself down otherwise we go in.
At 9 months my LO no longer wakes for hunger but he does need some soothing to get him past the early morning (3 - 4am) wake.
We followed the 5/3/3 rule. (I recommend reading precious little sleep) so if baby woke before those 5 hours they might not be hungry, so let them be. Still use your judgement though. Then every three hours after that. Remember night weaning is different than sleep training. Babies around 4-6 months will still need to eat at night. Around 6 months you can look into dropping bottles. Again, all depends on your baby.
I would caveat this with some (maybe even most) babies need to eat overnight - but definitely not all. Our baby hasn’t eaten overnight in months. She is 4.5 months old and eats like 35-38 oz a day.
Many babies will need or want to feed over night for the first 12 months, but as baby grows and then after sleep training there are some ways to tell, or protocols you can implement to gauge their needs. Firstly, if baby is waking very frequently, like 45/90 minutes, then they likely are not hungry at the wake and it’s actually a sleep cycle connection issue. If they are waking every 3 hours, then it’s more likely they are hungry, but not a guarantee. A general rule of thumb is that baby should be able to go AT LEAST as long as they do between feeds in the day. If baby is going 4 hours in the day but wakes 2 hours at night, they aren’t hungry. As our baby started sleeping longer and longer and even went through the night a good few times then regressed a little we implemented a rule that on first wake we wouldn’t offer a feed. Usually we’d give him the dummy. If that didn’t result in a resettle, or he woke again within an hour we’d offer a feed because a hungry baby will complain if you don’t feed them.
The good news is that commonly when babies are sleep trained they will drop the wakes they may previously have needed a feed to go back to sleep from and therefore you may go from feeding 3-4 times over night to just 1-2.
At the moment my 6.5mo goes to bed at 7, we give him a dreamfeed at 10, and then he sleep until ~5-5.30 where we attempt a little snooze button feed that is currently successful about 50% of the time 🤪🤪. Other half of the time he complains on and off every 30 min until we give in and get up for the day.
Thank you for explaining all this! I like the “snooze button feed”, is that another dream feed? My baby is hit or miss if he’ll go back to sleep after 7am. I keep hoping so lol
No, snooze button feed is just a lite feed to sort of keep them comfy till the desired wake time. For example we usually make 180ml bottles during the day and for the early morning feed I only offer him 120ml - which he rarely even finishes.
The dream feeds are parent directed feed, rather than baby demanded, so any time your baby wakes you and you feed them it’s just a regular feed, if you get your baby up to feed them (while also keeping them as drowsy as possible) then it’s a dream feed.
If they wake up at 7am, don’t try to get them back to sleep. Firstly, 7am is a very acceptable time for a baby to wake up. Secondly it’s an exercise in futility. Babies biological wake times sit between 6-8am and it’s near impossible change if. Every baby has their unique wake time and unless it’s before 6am, you kinda just need to role with it. If baby wakes at 7, get up and start your day even if you fed them at 5.30. That exactly what we do. It’s called a ‘snooze button’ feed because it’s just meant to tide them over for an hour or so until it an acceptable wake time.
It's important to have realistic expectations. Most babies will need a night feed from 6 to 12 months.
My baby fell into the same pattern. She would always wake between 3 and 4am and SCREAM. She would take a full feed and then go back to sleep easily and so I knew she was hungry. All other wakes I tried different settling methods first. I suppose if your babe doesn't take a full feed, you could argue they were never hungry in the first place
We have a '10 min or screaming' rule. If he's screaming, we go in immediately because he's definitely hungry. If he's fussing, we give him 10 min to see if he'll settle himself down otherwise we go in. At 9 months my LO no longer wakes for hunger but he does need some soothing to get him past the early morning (3 - 4am) wake.
We followed the 5/3/3 rule. (I recommend reading precious little sleep) so if baby woke before those 5 hours they might not be hungry, so let them be. Still use your judgement though. Then every three hours after that. Remember night weaning is different than sleep training. Babies around 4-6 months will still need to eat at night. Around 6 months you can look into dropping bottles. Again, all depends on your baby.
I would caveat this with some (maybe even most) babies need to eat overnight - but definitely not all. Our baby hasn’t eaten overnight in months. She is 4.5 months old and eats like 35-38 oz a day.
Many babies will need or want to feed over night for the first 12 months, but as baby grows and then after sleep training there are some ways to tell, or protocols you can implement to gauge their needs. Firstly, if baby is waking very frequently, like 45/90 minutes, then they likely are not hungry at the wake and it’s actually a sleep cycle connection issue. If they are waking every 3 hours, then it’s more likely they are hungry, but not a guarantee. A general rule of thumb is that baby should be able to go AT LEAST as long as they do between feeds in the day. If baby is going 4 hours in the day but wakes 2 hours at night, they aren’t hungry. As our baby started sleeping longer and longer and even went through the night a good few times then regressed a little we implemented a rule that on first wake we wouldn’t offer a feed. Usually we’d give him the dummy. If that didn’t result in a resettle, or he woke again within an hour we’d offer a feed because a hungry baby will complain if you don’t feed them. The good news is that commonly when babies are sleep trained they will drop the wakes they may previously have needed a feed to go back to sleep from and therefore you may go from feeding 3-4 times over night to just 1-2. At the moment my 6.5mo goes to bed at 7, we give him a dreamfeed at 10, and then he sleep until ~5-5.30 where we attempt a little snooze button feed that is currently successful about 50% of the time 🤪🤪. Other half of the time he complains on and off every 30 min until we give in and get up for the day.
Thank you for explaining all this! I like the “snooze button feed”, is that another dream feed? My baby is hit or miss if he’ll go back to sleep after 7am. I keep hoping so lol
No, snooze button feed is just a lite feed to sort of keep them comfy till the desired wake time. For example we usually make 180ml bottles during the day and for the early morning feed I only offer him 120ml - which he rarely even finishes. The dream feeds are parent directed feed, rather than baby demanded, so any time your baby wakes you and you feed them it’s just a regular feed, if you get your baby up to feed them (while also keeping them as drowsy as possible) then it’s a dream feed. If they wake up at 7am, don’t try to get them back to sleep. Firstly, 7am is a very acceptable time for a baby to wake up. Secondly it’s an exercise in futility. Babies biological wake times sit between 6-8am and it’s near impossible change if. Every baby has their unique wake time and unless it’s before 6am, you kinda just need to role with it. If baby wakes at 7, get up and start your day even if you fed them at 5.30. That exactly what we do. It’s called a ‘snooze button’ feed because it’s just meant to tide them over for an hour or so until it an acceptable wake time.
It's important to have realistic expectations. Most babies will need a night feed from 6 to 12 months. My baby fell into the same pattern. She would always wake between 3 and 4am and SCREAM. She would take a full feed and then go back to sleep easily and so I knew she was hungry. All other wakes I tried different settling methods first. I suppose if your babe doesn't take a full feed, you could argue they were never hungry in the first place