Night Feedings

The article below is from Dr Weissbluth's blog.  It deals with how do you know if your baby is hungry at night.  It can be a tricky question.  Your baby is a couple of months old and sometimes seems more interested in a social visit (as an aside, when feeding at night I would just make sure to keep the room dark and dim and make limited eye contact and no talking, no matter how hard it is when they give you a big smile! It is to convey the difference between day and night to them) then eating.  Or they feed well in the middle of the night/early morning but then aren't interested in a full feeding at wakeup time.  These can be signs your baby is getting ready for not needing a feeding.  Dr. Weissbluth has some tips to tell if they are really needed.  He says you can try one of the following methods for a few nights to see if it is habitual waking or truly hunger.  I think that's a good idea.  I hadn't read this with my first but the signs were there that she was getting ready to drop the feeding.  So I tried CIO for a few nights.  The first night was really well but the subsequent nights not as much and didn't seem to improve.  So after a few nights of this I just figured she wasn't quite ready and I fed her.  Lo and behold, about a week later, she just stopped on her own!  (Technically she woke a bit but by the time I got to her she was resettled and I kept waiting for her to wake up and she never did!)  So I don't think it is a bad option at all.  I have read elsewhere that it can take 3-5 nights to be a habit so you can use a reasonable time frame to see what happens.  You may be pleasantly surprised and it will be real easy.  Or if they aren't quite ready it's fine too.  I don't think it hurt mine in any way and she learned self-soothing skills.  Then she did it on her own very easily soon after.  Good luck!

At Night: To Feed or Not to Feed, That is the Question.

December 2, 2009 by weissbluthmethod If your baby is hungry at night, feed your baby.
How do you know if your baby is hungry at night?
If your baby is younger than 2-3 months old, trust your instincts and feed overnight whenever you wish. Usually it is every 1-3 hours for newborns and every 2-4 hours after a few weeks.
If your baby is more than 2-3 months old, most babies are fed no more than twice overnight. Usually once in the middle of the night and once in the early morning.
Sometimes you might not be sure if a feeding is needed. Here are some suggestions to clarify what is going on. If your baby takes a small volume (1-3 ounces) or seems to suck eagerly for only 1-2 minutes and then slows down, your baby is probably not hungry. If the pattern is suck/swallow…suck/swallow…suck/swallow than your baby is hungry but if it is suck/suck/suck/swallow…suck/suck/suck/swallow than your baby is more likely to not be hungry. If you are not sure but suspect that your baby is not hungry, then try one of these suggestions for only 2-3 nights:
1. Extinction: open-ended crying at the time you had been going to feed.
2. Graduated extinction.
3. Check and console with father going and offering a water bottle.
Within 2-3 nights, you will know that either your baby was not hungry and now returns to sleep unassited or persists in fussing/crying because of hunger.
In my experience, when parents suspect that a feeding is not needed, they are usually correct.
Marc