I have to say, since my last post, I’ve been getting about 8 to 9 hours of sleep each night. What a blessing! Especially consdering we’ve been traveling since last month and have gone through 4 time zones (India, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Dallas). The little one has adapted wonderfully and gotten used to day and night across the globe, no problem.

Rich’s advice of calorie shifting was great. That coupled with my mom’s advice of 6-10-2-6-10 nursing cinched the deal. Basically, not just did work with the little one to shift their feeding times to days, I also nursed him at 4 hour intervals starting at 6am with the last feeding being at 10pm.

This has worked wonders! In between nursings, Aidan gets his fill of solids so I know he’s got a belly full.

Ah, a full night’s sleep. No replacement for that!

When baby is at least six months of age and developing well, you can start reducing the night-time feeds as these are no longer essential to health and growth. 

If baby is used to a 1.00 am feeding, his stomach will hunger for food at that time every night. One of the best techniques for helping your baby to sleep through the night is to reset his ‘stomach clock.’ The aim is to reduce baby’s night time food intake without letting him go hungry. Regardless of the age of the baby, he will generally take in the same amount of calories per 24 hours. If you gradually reduce the night time feeding, baby will just eat more during the day to make it up. This is called calorie shifting.

If you have decided it’s the right time to start reducing the night-time feeds here’s what to do if you’re bottle feeding: Start by reducing the volume of milk or formula in the bottle by one or two ounces (30-60 mls) each feeding. You could start with just the bedtime feed and move onto the other night-time feeds or you could attempt them all at once. Keep reducing the volume of milk/formula by one ounce (30 mls) per night over the course of the next week, until there are no more feeds.

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