How to drop night feeds
Let’s talk about one of the most common questions I hear once babies hit the 6-month mark:
“How do we drop night feeds?”
If you’re currently asking this question, you probably feel a mix of hope and hesitation. On one hand, you’d love your baby to sleep through the night. But on the other, the thought of changing what’s been working for your baby even if it’s not working for you feels overwhelming. I get it.
So let’s walk through this together.
First, understand why your baby is waking
Before making any plan, we need to look at what’s driving those night wakings. There are a few big reasons babies wake up through the night:
1. Genuine hunger
Babies are smart little calorie counters. They know how much they need in a 24-hour period. If they’re not getting enough ounces or minutes on the breast during the day, they’ll wake hungry at night. This doesn’t mean your little one needs to eat at 2 a.m. forever, it just means those calories haven’t been shifted to daytime yet.
2. Habit
Sometimes, feeding at night becomes less about hunger and more about comfort. Nursing or bottle-feeding are inherently soothing and calming, so if your baby has learned to fall asleep this way, they’ll typically be looking for that same support when they wake overnight.
3. Sleep setups that aren’t optimal
Daytime naps, timing, environment, even sleepwear can play into whether your baby can achieve consolidated nighttime. For example:
Too much daytime sleep can make nights restless.
Too little daytime sleep can create an overtired baby who crashes hard but doesn’t sleep well.
A bright, noisy, or shared sleep environment can lead to more wakeups.
Often, it’s not just one factor, it’s a combination.
How to get your six-month old sleeping through the night.
How to tell the difference:
Pay attention to how your baby feeds at night. Are they taking a full, active, and engaged feed while breastfeeding or bottle-feeding? Or are they just comfort sucking for a few minutes or less before drifting back off?
Full feeds often point to hunger, quick “snacks” tend to be rooted in habit, but it could also be a mix of both— your baby loves the comfort and therefore feeds frequently overnight, so they start consuming most of their calories at night instead of during the day (commonly referred to as reverse cycling).
Once you know the why, you can make a plan
Here’s where the roadmap comes in.
If it’s hunger:
The goal is to shift those calories into the daytime. You can:
Wean night feeds gradually: reduce ounces in the bottle or minutes on the breast over time.
Go cold turkey: drop the feed altogether.
Either way, you’ll want to make sure daytime intake increases to cover what’s being removed at night. This might look like offering an extra feed(s) during the day or adding ounces to the bottles.
You may hear about a strict “4-hour feeding schedule” to get babies sleeping through the night. In reality, most babies can’t take in the large volumes needed to make that work.
I recommend feeding about every two to three hours during the day, along with following your baby’s cues. If feeds are consistently less than every two hours and your baby seems unsatisfied, that’s when it’s worth checking in with an IBCLC to make sure everything is going smoothly. Living in the New York area, I recommend Cady McVady and Ora Feeding are the best of the best!
If it’s habit:
The process is similar. You’re still working toward sleep without feeds, but the focus is less about calories and more about comfort. This is the moment where families get to decide:
Will we offer alternate settling support? (rocking, patting, cribside soothing, etc.)
Or do we want to introduce more independent sleep skills?
About independent sleep…
I don’t recommend extinction (full cry-it-out). No judgement whatsoever, but I find parents often feel lost without a clear tool kit to fall back on when sleep training.
Instead, I lean toward flexible settling support like timed checks, where you check in at regular intervals to provide both space and reassurance as they gain confidence settling to sleep on their own.
Think of it this way: you’re not just teaching your baby to sleep without milk. You’re giving them a set of tools that will carry you all through future milestones like standing in the crib, regressions, and traveling.
Worried about sleep training? A balanced approach for whole family wellness exists.
The big picture:
Understand why your baby is waking.
Make sure they’re well-fed and rested during the day.
Gently guide them towards new ways of settling back to sleep.
It takes a little patience, some experimenting, and a lot of reassurance for your baby and for you. But I promise this transition is doable, and restful nights are closer than you think.
Need a little extra support in making restless nights your reality? Take the first step in finding your sleep bliss by booking a consultation call!
To better sleep,
Ella