If you’re considering weaning your baby from breastfeeding to a bottle or cup, you’re probably thinking about which weaning method you’ll use. Or, you might be considering which bottle or cup will make the transition easiest. And, if you’re reading The Baby Sleep Site, you are probably also thinking about how this may impact your baby’s sleep. This article will discuss ways, both good and bad, that weaning from breastfeeding may impact your baby’s sleep.
Weaning from breastfeeding can cause an otherwise great sleeper to wake and fuss more often, and if your baby already struggles with sleep, weaning can make your nights even more sleepless. On the other hand, if your baby is breastfeeding to sleep, weaning can improve sleep, in some cases.
A Word of Warning: A Reason Not to Wean from Breastfeeding!
Breastmilk digests faster than formula. For this reason, formula-fed babies do tend to sleep for longer stretches at night than breastfed babies, sometimes, depending on the baby. That said, if you’re considering weaning to formula in an effort to get your baby to sleep through the night, please reconsider. This isn’t a strategy we recommend here at The Baby Sleep Site®, simply because we’ve found that it is possible to breastfeed your baby AND have him sleep well at night and for naps. Changing your baby’s food source probably won’t change his sleeping habits; instead, you’re better off working on the sleeping habits themselves. We work with many families who don’t breastfeed that have just as many baby sleep problems and babies who do not sleep through the night.
Why Will Weaning Impact My Baby’s Sleep?
The reason weaning can have a major impact on sleep is because weaning is about more than simply exchanging one food source for another. For our babies, the end of breastfeeding can be an emotional, difficult experience.
How Will Weaning Impact My Baby’s Sleep?
For starters, weaning means the end of prolonged skin-to-skin contact between mom and baby. Remember that breastfeeding is more than just feeding time; it has comforting associations for baby. Some babies even end up using mom as a “human pacifier”! For these reasons, weaning can make your baby much fussier than normal, which can lead to interrupted naps and lots of nighttime waking.
Weaning can also disturb your baby’s sleep if you’ve made a habit of nursing your little one to sleep each night. If that’s the case, then nursing has likely become a sleep association for your baby. Therefore, when you change that feeding, you’re changing the thing he needs to fall asleep. This can make bedtime an exhausting battle each night.
If your baby is no longer feeding at night, then her nighttime sleep may or may not be affected. Her naps, however, could be. If you’re weaning and find that your baby’s naps are disrupted because of it, consider downloading our FREE napping guide, 7 Common Baby Nap and Sleep Schedule Mistakes.
Weaning can also impact your baby’s sleep when the weaning is “mom-initiated” instead of “baby-initiated.” Generally, at some point between 1 and 2 years of age, a baby will show signs of self-weaning. Baby-initiated weaning like this is usually easier and takes less time. Of course, baby-initiated weaning isn’t always possible; sometimes weaning has to happen earlier! If you’re weaning your baby before the one-year mark, however, it’s important to remember that the process may take longer, and your baby’s sleep may be disrupted.
Once you begin to wean, you may notice that it takes a little time for your baby’s appetite to adjust. This can be another reason for sudden nighttime waking and sleeplessness — your baby’s appetite is adjusting to this new method of feeding. This adjustment can take 1-2 weeks. You can help your baby during this time by making sure you’re offering enough nourishment during the day. But, remember that breast milk and formula should be your baby’s primary nutrition during the first year, so do not overcompensate with solids, if it’s not time. Check with your doctor on adequate amounts of formula for your baby’s age.
Finally, it isn’t just baby’s sleep that may be disrupted during the weaning process — mom’s may be, too! Weaning can lead to engorgement and possible infection, called mastitis. This is especially true for moms who try to wean their babies quickly, cutting out multiple feedings at once.
How Can I Help My Baby Sleep Well During the Weaning Process?
Avoid a “cold turkey” approach (in which you abruptly stop nursing). This can be very upsetting for your baby, and, as mentioned earlier, it’s likely to cause complications for you. Instead, opt for a gentler, “baby-led” or “slow and steady” approach; it’ll be far less disruptive to your baby’s sleep. A “slow and steady” approach would look something like this:
- At feeding time, nurse your baby as you normally would. Then, offer your baby a bottle of formula or cup of milk.
- When your baby has gotten used to the bottle/cup, then reverse these steps: offer the bottle/cup first, followed by a nursing.
Consider using the “Don’t Offer, Don’t Refuse” method. This is the gentlest way to wean. With this method, you don’t offer your baby the breast, but if your baby is clamoring to nurse, you don’t refuse her, either. This method is slower, but if you have the time to put in, it’ll mean more restful nights and restful naps for your baby!
Don’t wean too fast! Nicole remembers that while weaning one of her sons, he’d start biting her shoulder when she’d hold him. That’s a classic sign of weaning too fast, and she had to slow down. Experts recommend that you eliminate no more than one nursing at a time; then, wait about a week to let your baby’s appetite adjust.
Like so many other things in life, weaning goes best if there’s a plan in place. Try to plan weaning during times when life is most normal — in other words, don’t wean around a holiday or a vacation, during a move, right before the birth of a new baby, etc.
That said, remember that you work the plan — don’t let the plan work you! Life happens, and unexpected things like teething, illness, a work-related trip, new medication for mom, etc. can sometimes destroy a mom’s best-laid plans. What’s more, you might find that your baby simply refuses to cooperate! You didn’t exactly consult him when you made your plan, after all. If this is the case for you, remember that like sleep training, weaning is not a battle to be won. Consider taking a break and trying again later if your baby is showing major signs of resistance.
Emily DeJeu says
@ Kristine — glad this article came at such an opportune time for you! You are so right about personality and temperament playing a part in a baby’s sleeping patterns. Nicole did a whole series of articles on how baby temperament affects sleep: https://www.babysleepsite.com/temperament/baby-temperament-sleep-series-part-1/ You might glean some useful info from those to apply to your 2nd child 🙂
In terms of a nursing window, I’m not familiar with that idea. I checked on Kelly Mom, but couldn’t find anything about it. Let’s hope another reader has an insight…
Kristine says
Also, could you please comment on whether there is any truth to “weaning windows”? I have read that between 13 and 15 months there is a weaning window (see my experience, above), and another one between 19 and 22 months. This implies that weaning in that range of 15-19 months might be more difficult.
Kristine says
Thank you so much for this very timely article! I am also struggling with my youngest who, at almost 15 months old, still wakes at least once a night, and often twice, to nurse. This is despite the fact that he rarely has fallen asleep nursing (unless very, very tired). After bathing, I nurse him in the rocking chair, while his dad and his big brother read him books. Then we brush teeth, and into the crib he goes wide awake, and off to sleep.
My oldest naturally self-weaned to a cup at just under 14 months and from that point on he slept better and better. My experience with both babies is that as long as milk is available, even if they do not fall asleep nursing, they do tend to wake looking for it. This has been very frustrating for me because many ‘sleep experts’ advise simply putting them to bed awake and they will learn to sleep all night. This has not proven to be true for me. The 2nd time around I have been even more diligent about not nursing down for naps or bedtime….only to end up with a worse sleeper than my first. That’s why I believe so much of it personality, and that sleeping through the night for 11 hours at a time is, for many babies, a developmental milestone just like any other. While you can do things to help them reach that milestone faster, you can also take a ‘wait and see’ kind of approach (even though you may be blind from exhaustion!) for as long as you can.
As I said, my oldest gladly took a cup at that age but I have tried with baby #2 and he is just not interested in giving up his bedtime nursing session yet. I don’t see him all day since I recently returned to work full time, so why force it and make us both stressed and unhappy? Do I wish he slept better? Yes. Does it frustrate me to no end? Yes. Do I think the nursing has contributed to his night waking? Yes. Do I feel like I can night wean him comfortably? Not yet!
Emily DeJeu says
@ Mahua — yes, I agree that often, babies (especially those who don’t show much interest in solids!) need to feed once during the night up to the one-year mark.
With regards to when babies start to self-wean, it’s generally accepted that it really doesn’t happen before one year, and that if a baby seems to be self-weaning before then, it’s probably a nursing strike. Kelly (such a great resource, isn’t it?) states that self-weaning can start between 18 and 24 months and can go as late as 3 or 4 years. (https://kellymom.com/ages/older-infant/babyselfwean/)
Mahua Mandal says
Thanks for a great topic! I had the same situation as Allysa with her youngest. Before my son turned 12 months, I tired to breast feed him only once or twice at night, but he found this confusing, and was never able to get on a “schedule” for night nursing (especially since he’s a very inconsistent baby anyway). So sometimes we’d inevitably be back to 3 wakings per night. After 12 months I cut down to one nursing session at night (but he still found this confusing), and at 14 months I totally night-weaned him. It took three weeks of no night-nursing at all and he finally started sleeping through the night. But, I definitely was not comfortable with night-weaning before he was at least a year old, esp. since he wasn’t very interested in solids and still got a lot of calories from breast milk. I still nurse him twice a day, but he never nurses to sleep.
In the article you stated that generally babies show signs of self-weaning between 1-2 years of age, but I’ve seen numerous other sources (Kellymom and also books/blogs by lactation consultants) say self-weaning largely occurs between 2-4 years of age.
Emily DeJeu says
@ Allyssa — yes, it can be hard for some kids to go all night without nursing/taking a bottle before the 1 year mark. Thanks for sharing your story! Lots of good, specific details that’ll be helpful for moms who have questions 🙂
Allyssa says
Both of my boys would not sleep through the night until I nightweaned at 14 months. I made sure I didn’t nurse the youngest to sleep, and he could easily go to sleep on his own, but he would NOT go back to sleep when he awoke during the night without nursing. Once we nightweaned, he is now doing much better putting himself back to sleep as he wakes throughout the night. I will say that for my kids, they needed the extra nutrients at night, and I didn’t feel comfortable completely nightweaning them until after a year. With my youngest, I tried to do the one nursing a night at 7 months, but found that he found it too confusing (why can I nurse at 1 am, but not 11 and 3?), so we had to eventually go cold-turkey when I thought he was ready (14 months), but it was a long time coming.
Emily DeJeu says
@ Vanessa — I don’t think your situation sounds abnormal. 5 months is still pretty young for a baby to sleep through the night without one feeding (to “top her off”, as you said!) It might help you to know that we have an article on the site addressing your exact question. Check it out here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-training/night-feedings-by-age-when-do-you-night-wean/ It outlines night feedings by age as well as when and how to night wean.
@ Rochelle — Exactly! I think that switching to formula in an attempt to get baby sleeping well ends up being a “band-aid” kind of a fix most of the time. Usually, there are deeper, underlying sleep issues that need to be addressed. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Rochelle says
I can attest to the fact that formula fed babies don’t necessarily sleep better. Due to difficulties breastfeeding, we switched to formula at three months. She didnt sleep any differently. Then, like clock-work, went through her 4 month sleep regression like so many babies do. Whenever mothers consider giving formula at night to make their babies sleep longer, I tell them my experience. There are good reasons to wean, getting babe to sleep longer is not one of them!
Vanessa says
Hi
I am wondering is my baby due to weaning off the bottle of a night she is 5 mths old and has up to 5 bottles a day (180-210mls). She feeds 3-4 hourly throughout the day and has a top up around 4-5am. This is where I am struggling as she will sometimes be wide awake at this time and will not go back to sleep unless given a bottle yet some mornings she will be so wide awake that she wont settle back down ( I was giving her 180ml) but recently changed it to 150mls as I felt that 180mls was too much and maybe had been keeping her awake. Sometimes I still struggle on the 150mls as she will still want to get up not long after (as I cant get her back to sleep) so I get up with her at 5am and then she is dwn again at 6-7am. I think I might either have an early bird on me or I am just not getting something right here.