Baby Is Starting to Sleep Through the Night, but I'm Worried About Milk Supply

You should be just fine. Your body will adjust to what he needs. If he no longer needs night feedings, your body doesn't need to supply that anymore. And if he goes back to nursing at night, your body will readjust.

My son slept through the night starting at 3 months. Your son is definately old enough to no longer need a feeding in the middle of the night. Don't worry about decreasing your milk supply. Only weaning will do that.

I nursed all three of my children. It is perfectly fine to go through the night without nursing. Since he is now eating solids, he won't need as much milk. Don't worry because your body will produce the milk that he needs.

You probably already know this, but breast milk works on supply and demand. The more the baby nurses, the more milk you will produce. If you become engorged and you don't nurse your baby, you are telling your breasts that you don't need the milk. If you have no milk, but the baby keeps sucking, you will slowly start to produce more per day.

Feeding your baby solids will mean that he nurses less, so you'll slowly start to produce less. That's OK, if you are still meeting his nutritional needs (meaning that he's not hungry or losing weight). The nighttime feedings are necessary only if he is waking up for them on his own. If he's not, then his nutritional needs are probably being met during the day.

Have faith in your body. You'll produce just what your son needs. ;)

I am SAHM that breast fed my last child. It was a new experience for me because I had bottle fed my first two. What I learned though is that the milk supply will change as your baby's eating habbits change. Your supply of milk is based on how your baby eats. If your breast are becoming engourged through the night then maybe you should pump first thing in the morning or if that's not convenient then before you go to bed. Be happy that your baby is sleeping through the night... lol Slowly he will eat less and less because you want him to eat more solid foods. I realized that there was a point were my baby wasn't really breast feeding to eat she was doing it more for the comfort.(to be close to me) I hope this helps you some. Don't worry, It is completely okay for his eating habits to change. Take care!

Your milk supply will be fine. my son strictly breastfed for the first six months and he was sleeping through the night at 7-8 weeks old. My milk supply was fine. I nursed him until he was a year old and was eating solid food 3 times a day and my milk supply was fine. Just make sure you drink lots of water and you shouldn't have a problem. your body will get used to it since you make milk by how much your baby eats. So you might feel engorged the first couple of nights, but it will get better. Enjoy the sleep at night!

Yes, it is okay to go through the night without feeding. Just make sure that you pump out your breasts, after the last feeding; and/or pump them out, once, during the night, if they get too full. - That's what I did, when I was breastfeeding my younger daughter.

You can always watch your supply - if it starts to diminish, bring back the 2 a.m. feeding or start pumping at 2a.m. According to the LLL leader that I asked, that seems to be the "magical" timing for maintaining and increasing milk supply.

girl.... Stay asleep!:)I breast fed my daughter for the whole first year and she started sleeping through the night at about 7 months also. The first couple of nights you will fill up those breast pads, but your body will adjust. As long as you still feed the baby all during the day your milk won't run out. You just have to show your body the new schedule you want. Don't worry about your milk. As long as you are still nursing consistantly, on a new schedule, it won't run out. And enjoy your well deseverd full night of undisturbed sleep!:)

As the other posters have already said, it is fine to go through the night without breastfeeding. Your supply will go down, but this will because your son doesn't need as much milk and will not affect how much he gets during the day. If you like to have extra breast milk stored away, it's not a bad idea to pump since your body is already used to feeding during this time... however, it's probably best to allow your body to adjust to his new feeding schedule. It might take a few days, but unless you get really engorged (which you probably won't, since he still nurses some during the night), it's better not to express any milk as your body will take that as a sign that it needs to produce even MORE milk.

All in all, just trust your body and it'll do it's job. :-)

HTH!

Your body is an amazing machine. It will compensate for him sleeping through the night. It will adjust accordingly. It is so cool, but don't worry about it - it'll catch on to what is going on and adjust. So, YES it is okay to go all night without nursing. Great job mom!