How to stop nighttime feeds: your complete guide

If you’re ready to leave those nighttime feeds behind, taking a gentle and gradual approach will help not just your baby adjust to their new routine, but also you and your body clock. It will also help you be sure that your baby is ready to night-wean.

For breastfed babies

If you’re wondering how to stop breastfeeding in the night, you’re certainly not alone. It’s something many mums think about.

Give yourself around a week to gradually reduce the time you spend feeding your baby when they wake. For example, you might feed your baby for 10 minutes on the first night, 8 minutes on the next two nights, and 6 minutes on the next two nights, until night feeds are under 5 minutes.

Once you get to that point, try not giving your baby a night feed at all and see how that goes.

If you’re reducing the amount of breastfeeds you give to your baby, your body will reduce the amount of breast milk it makes. So you could consider expressing milk for your baby if you want to keep your supply up. Expressing will also help to stop your breasts from feeling uncomfortably full³.

When considering how to stop nighttime feedings for bottle-fed  babies, try reducing the amount of milk your little one has by 20ml each night over a week.

This might look like:

• 120ml of formula milk on the first night
• 100ml on the second night
• 80ml on the third and fourth nights
• 60ml on the sixth and seventh nights

Once you’re down to 60ml of formula milk at each feed, see if your baby settles without a feed if they wake.

When it comes to how to stop nighttime feedings, it’s sometimes not all about the milk. Having a calm, soothing bedtime routine can work wonders and make for lovely, snug bonding time with your baby. It can also help your baby to recognise the difference between daytime and nighttime.

An added bonus of having a bedtime routine is that it helps your baby learn to fall asleep without needing to be fed if they wake up.

Take a look at some top tips from parents to help you create a bedtime routine for your baby:

• Splish splash, have a nice warm bath. ‘After a couple of weeks, my baby realised that bathtime meant bedtime was near. Even though she’s older now, she knows that once that bath is running, it's time to wind down’ (Sylvie’s mum).
• Turn the lights down low. ‘I used to take a quick half an hour before bedtime to turn down the TV, turn off bright lights, move the toys out of sight, and just generally calm things down’ (Logan’s mum).
• It’s PJ time! ‘Before running the bath, I always set out his PJs and favourite teddy near his cot. Once he’s dry, I can get him ready for bed and settled’ (Seb’s dad).
• Storytime. ‘Reading is a big part of our bedtime routine. For us, it works better if we do this upstairs, as there are fewer distractions’ (Daisy’s mum).
• Bedtime feed and cuddle. ‘When I was looking to night wean, I gave my daughter her last feed at pretty much the same time every night. I’d hold her close during feeding and keep my voice low, and just watch as she got very sleepy’ (Eve’s mum).
• Time for sleep. It can help to put your baby down in their crib or cot whilst drowsy, but awake. This could help them learn to soothe themselves back to sleep if they wake up again at night. ‘Once his final feed of the day was finished, I put him straight down in his cot. He’d be sleepy but not asleep, and this helped him learn to drift off without the boob or the bottle, or being cuddled to sleep’ (Seb’s mum).

Once you’ve established a soothing bedtime routine, the next step is to encourage your baby to drop back to sleep without a feed if they wake. This is known as ‘self-soothing’ or ‘self-settling’, and involves your baby learning to fall asleep again on their own⁴ .

If your baby wakes in the night, try the following to help them self-settle:

• Keep sleeping spaces dark and quiet- avoid putting the lights on where possible.
• Leave your baby in the cot.
• Use light, rhythmic pats on their tummy.
• Use gentle shushing sounds or words. You could even hum a lullaby.

Remember that there’s no right or wrong here. Every parent and every baby is different, and if you feel that the self-settling technique isn’t the right fit for you and your little one, that’s more than OK. You can't spoil your baby with too many hugs!

If you’re thinking about how to stop breastfeeding in the night, help from others can be essential.

Let your partner or someone else you trust soothe your baby if they wake up; that way, they won’t be able to smell your breast milk and may go back to sleep more easily.

It’s always OK to lean on people for support when you need to, so don’t hesitate to talk to those around you about how you’re feeling and any help you might need.

Working out when and how to stop nighttime feedings can take time and patience. Whilst some babies won’t bat a sleepy eyelid, others might put up a little more resistance to dropping those cosy night feeds.

Below, you’ll find a few common challenges and how to overcome them.

My baby will only settle if I give them a feed

In the first instance, try settling your baby back to sleep with a cuddle instead of feeding them straight away. However, it could be that your baby isn’t quite ready for night weaning and is actually hungry.

You know your baby better than anyone, so always trust your instincts. If they’re showing signs of hunger, consider postponing night weaning for a bit longer.

My baby still won’t settle

Babies wake up for many reasons, not just to be fed. They might be teething, for example, need a nappy change, or be feeling under the weather.

Make sure your baby is at a comfortable temperature, try giving them a nappy change, and cuddle them to see if that helps.

Always seek medical advice if:

• You’re worried that your baby might be unwell
• If they’re waking in the night a lot, and far more frequently than normal
• Your baby is showing no interest in feeding
• You’re concerned about your baby’s weight gain

Sometimes, just when you think you’ve cracked it, and your baby is sleeping through the night, they’ll start to wake up again out of the blue. This is completely normal, especially during that first year - being separated from you and growth spurts are both common reasons for sleep regression.

Sticking to a consistent bedtime routine can help, as can trying our top tips for self-settling above. However, if your baby is going through a growth spurt, they might need an extra feed to help them settle back into their routine.