Although your baby may give up regularnighttime feedings on his own by the time he’s three months old, do not expect– or insist – that such a young infant give them up altogether, all of asudden.

But if your child is at least three monthsold, still nurses or requires a bottle at bedtime, and needs to eat againseveral more times during the night, then the extra feedings may well becausing the extra wakings. If that is the case, you may be able to help himsleep better by decreasing the number of these feedings.

However, if your baby takes in asubstantial amount of food – from extended feedings at the breast, or bottlesadding up to more than eight ounces over the course of the night – then he haslearned that certain times of night are mealtimes. To eliminate these feedingssuddenly wouldn’t be wise or nice.

The amount of milk or juice your childdrinks during the night may be considerable. If he finishes four fulleight-ounce bottles, that is a large amount for even an adult to consumeovernight.

If you have concluded that excessive andunnecessary feedings at night are disrupting your child’s sleep, you will berelieved to learn that although such feedings can lead to severe sleepdisturbances, the problem is also one of the easiest to fix.

Two things need to be addressed. The first is to reduce or eliminate the nighttime feedings to avoid their varioussleep-disrupting effects. The second is to teach your child new sleep associationsso that he can fall asleep without being held, without eating, and withoutsucking on the breast or bottle. You can do these things at the same time, or one at a time.

To fix the problems caused by the feedings,start by gradually decreasing the number of nighttime feedings, their size, orboth. Just don’t stop the feedings suddenly. A program designed to allow newpatterns to develop will be easier for him to follow.

Your goal is to gradually move your child’sfeelings of hunger out of the nighttime and into the daytime. Once there isonly a single remaining nighttime feeding left, you can choose to stop thatfeeding right away – instead of gradually – if you prefer, since the totalamount of ingested food during the night is now fairly small.

If you are working on sleep associationsand hunger patterns simultaneously, put your child in bed as soon as eachfeeding is over, even if he wakes and begins to cry. If you nurse him and hesleeps next to you, move him off of you when the feeding is done so that he canlearn to fall asleep without using your breast as a pacifier. You’ve just fedhim, so he is not hungry – now you are only changing his expectation of whathappens while he falls asleep.

Within a week, if all goes well, you willhave finished cutting down or even eliminating the nighttime feedings. Afterthat, continue applying the technique of progressive waiting at any waking atnight (except for feeding times) until the wakings stop. It should not takemore than another few days.