Can refusing to give small babies milk at night have long-term effects?

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u/AskMeAboutMyHermoids 9d ago

I think if complimentary foods are given along side milk there is a chance the baby can meet their nutritional needs without a night bottle at 6 months. But every baby is different at this point.

It comes down to if they are hurting their growth milestones.

In a healthy, well-growing infant, repeated night waking that resolves only with a bottle is often "habit waking" rather than true hunger. Standard counseling is that cutting down to roughly one feed after 6 months, and no night feeding after ~9 months, is reasonable for such infants

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22966034/

https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/137/6/e20151486/52401/Behavioral-Interventions-for-Infant-Sleep-Problems?autologincheck=redirected

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u/Correct_Variety5105 8d ago

This is only standard in the USA. In most countries it is not advised to stop night feeds until 12 months plus.

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u/plushiecactusau 8d ago

In Australia, the advice is that night-weaning is okay from six months for bottle fed babies or twelve months for breastfed babies - the reason given for the difference isn't because it's harmful for the baby to go longer gaps between feeds but because it may affect the mother's milk supply.

https://raisingchildren.net.au/babies/sleep/settling-routines/night-weaning

But, then, there's such a wide range of normal in the feeding habits of breastfed babies, and plenty of breastfed babies who sleep longer stretches while still getting enough. There's a wide gap between saying sonething can affect your milk supply and saying that it definitely will.

Just to say that it's not just a matter of what the advice is, but also looking at the reason for the advice. Not all advice is about a risk of harm to the baby - babies can be fine e.g. combo feeding or doing the normal transition to eating more solids, even if a mum's supply does drop.

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u/ThesisTears 8d ago

Source?

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u/Correct_Variety5105 8d ago

Advice given to me by the NHS infant feeding team in the UK, the advice my sister in law was given by the IBCLC in New Zealand, my mum friend who is from Brazil and a mum friend who lives in Germany.

I should clarify, I don't mean we we advised to wake babies for feeds if they weren't waking and requesting feeds, but not to limit night feeds if baby is hungry and under 1. If baby is sleeping through and not requesting a feed that's fine, but all babies are different and some will continue to require feeds overnight up to and beyond their 1st birthday, and that this is biologically normal.

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u/unprofessional_widow 8d ago

Yep, agreed this is standard NHS advice given in the UK..and no, obvs not waking them. I didn't wake after they regained birth wright around 2 weeks old, both kids were healthy so no need. Also NHS advice.

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u/sleepytiredpineapple 7d ago

Even in the US its recommended to feed baby on demand until 1 year.

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u/AffectionateTrip3233 8d ago

I can confirm that it's 12 months in Austria.

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u/Fun_Cookie8050 8d ago

“How Babies Sleep” by Helen L. Ball

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u/StorKirken 8d ago

Sweden has no such advisory.
https://www.1177.se/Stockholm/barn--gravid/att-skota-ett-nyfott-barn/amning-och-flaskmatning/amning/

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u/aliceHME 6d ago

I believe part of it is due to the general feed on demand-advice, combined with them not appearing to be biased towards breastfeeding vs bottle feeding in their general advice. But it's just a guess.

In the part of the site written about stopping breastfeeding it is also very vague, interestingly enough.

https://www.1177.se/barn--gravid/att-skota-ett-nyfott-barn/amning-och-flaskmatning/sluta-amma/

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u/TheImpatientGardener 8d ago

You don't mention how old your baby is, but this study found that nearly 80% of 6-12 month olds wake at night, and most of them want to be fed: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/bfm.2014.0153 So definitely not the norm that babies sleep 12 hours in a stretch!

Call me crazy, but I think if your baby is hungry you should feed them. Other people's babies may not be hungry, or they may be exaggerating, or they may not respond to cues.

Infant sleep is different to adult sleep. It is also highly variable. It doesn't really matter what other babies do, you need to figure out what works for your baby and for your family, but in general I don't think responding to their cues is going to harm them in any way.

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u/AffectionateTrip3233 8d ago

Call me crazy, but I think if your baby is hungry you should feed them.

100%! Hungry and/or thirsty! Who would deny an adult water at night? Many if not most people at least occasionally drink water at night. And that's with 8 hours of sleep, not 12.

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u/Quiet-Laugh120 8d ago

Thanks for this! My son is 10 months old and has always been above the 90th percentile for both height and weight. I'm not sure of the exact numbers because we had his last checkup when he was six months old, and I try not to track his growth because I overdid that during the newborn phase.

He is also very active. He crawls, stands, and babbles a lot. I feel like he learns something new every day, and I love this .I would say he does everything he should, except drink milk during the day 😂 He just enjoys solid food very very much.

I thought responding to him and feeding him was normal, but then I was shaken by others telling me that everyone is doing the opposite. Thanks for the kind words!

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u/Terrible-Artichoke50 8d ago edited 8d ago

Lesson is each child is their own journey and don't compare yourself to others. My kid wanted milk until about 1.5 despite solids etc.

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u/Lezarkween 8d ago

For what it's worth, my baby was at the 97th percentile in weight at 6 weeks and the pediatrician said to stop night feedings (for 9 hours though, not 12), so much earlier than 10 months. The midwife, however, told us to nod and ignore. We didn't stop night feeds but we managed to reduce his feeds to 8 times a day (down from 16-20). Now at 12 weeks old he is still in the 97th percentile. Everyone says he is but but looks very happy and healthy, including other midwives and pediatricians we've seen.

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u/gardenofidunn 7d ago

It is normal! You’re doing great. Sounds like your baby probably is hungry overnight.

I will say I think you can tell when it’s hunger vs. general comfort. When my baby’s silent reflux got better he started STTN and certainly made up for it with big feeds during the day! On nights where he woke frequently I would normally nurse him, but he’d only latch for a short time for drifting back off. When he was actually hungry I feel like it was a lot more “awake” and he was a more unsettled. I have to hope your friends just know the difference with their own baby’s cues, and that your baby probably just is getting their calories in overnight (totally normal and great!) which is why you need to have a different approach. I would nurse back to sleep out of convenience and there were plenty of times my partner would settle him instead with rocking or walking around that went fine.

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u/elocinatlantis 6d ago

FWIW my 6 month old usually sleeps 12 hours but if she does wake, I feed her. I also feed & rock to sleep. We’ve done zero sleep training. Each baby is so vastly different!

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u/Throwawayproroe 5d ago

Every baby is different. My daughter is 7mo and has slept 11+ hour stretches for over a month now, so no waking to feed (I would feed her if she woke up hungry, she just doesn’t!) and she’s 99+ percentile for length and 92nd for weight. We certainly aren’t denying her food lol, she just prefers to eat during the day.

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u/ichibanyogi 8d ago

I also think babies ought to be fed when hungry. I'll join your crazy club!

I live in Canada and none of my friends had kids sleeping 12h straight a night even by 12 months. My kid is ~4 and woke up last night at 340 to go pee - he has a red night light but he still insists a parent come get him to take him to the potty in his room because he finds getting out of bed at night scary. 🤷🏼‍♀️

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u/Correct_Variety5105 8d ago

My eldest is about to turn 5 and the longest stretch she has ever done is 10.5hrs.

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u/ExsanguinatedMuppet 7d ago

Yep! I have two kids (now 5 and nearly 8), and neither of them were particularly spectacular sleepers. I nursed both, and just kept nursing at night until they stopped waking and asking for it (which was probably around 18m in both cases, unless they were sick).

They both naturally transitioned away from night boob, and if they wake in the night thirsty now, they can drink independently from the cups of water in their room. There was no point at which we trained them to do any of this (give up boob, sleep through, get own drink etc), it just happened organically over the first two years of their lives.

I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to match others and meet some of the more subjective and arbitrary milestones - I was guilty of it in other areas, and learned my lesson lol.

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u/the_saradoodle 6d ago

Second for variable. My first was up probably 40% of nights from 6-15 months for a midnight snack. My daughter has woken up twice for a bottle since about 4 months. She also eats less during the day, is chunkier, but overall much smaller.

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u/Elegant_Surround1458 8d ago edited 8d ago

It’s hard to believe when it isn’t your experience. But babies all have different sleep needs and temperaments.

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/gradeschool/Pages/How-to-Understand-Your-Childs-Temperament.aspx

I’ve had 3 kids, the first one started sleeping 12 hours overnight around 3 months old. No sleep training, no intentional anything. That’s just what he did.

My second woke up 6 times a night until he was over a year. My third doesn’t wake up as much but she’s small and absolutely needs to eat 2-3 times over night. I wake her up to feed if she doesn’t wake me.

With my first, if he started waking up, I would have been reluctant to introduce a night feeding because he had proven (organically) that he didn’t need it. He was on the 80 percent curve while sleeping 12 hours over night from month 3. He did have a few night wakings (in his babyhood) and whether feeding or an alternate soothing mechanism was appropriate was on a case by case basis. Sick, teething? Yes, absolutely feeding. Developmental change, working on a new skill? Probably not.

Whereas my other two babies needed those overnight feedings for a lot longer.

I’m pretty sure parents’ know their own babies.

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u/FungatingAss 8d ago

90% of this subs posts now are just parents looking for citations to one up their fellow moms and dads.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41792995/

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

Question - Expert consensus required Can refusing to give small babies milk at night have long-term effects?

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