Trained night waking

Starting between 4 and 8 months, your child may wake up during the night but not really need a feeding. To have your baby get back to sleep on their own try the following strategy.

• If your child has been drinking more than 2 ounces or spending more than 2 minutes nursing at night you must wean this first. Do this my decreasing the amount by 1 ounce per night or 1 minute nursing.
• Be sure your child is put in bed at least a little bit awake at night and naps.
• When your child wakes up at night, let her cry for at least five minutes to allow her a chance to settle down on her own.
• After 5 minutes, check on her and comfort her briefly by saying "I'm right here", but say nothing else. Then check every 10 minutes. Do not feed the infant. Your child is more likely to be angry than frightened, but this should go away.
• If this is hard for you, try having dad check on baby. Often babies will give up once they learn that only dad will check on them. You may have to distract yourself for this to be successful.

Using this method waking usually lasts for seven days or less. After this point, your child will not wake up and cry any more.