Top tips for dropping the night time feed

At a certain point in time, your baby will become big enough to get through night without needing to have night feed. While some babies will drop that night feed on their own (and aren’t you lucky if they do!), most babies enjoy that midnight feast and will need a little encouragement to give it up and sleep through the night instead.
Here’s what you can do to encourage your baby into a pattern of night-time sleeping minus the night feed:

When your baby wakes for a feed, pick him up calmly with little interaction. Try to avoid eye contact or talking to him.
Feed him in low light - or no light at all if you feel confident. Turning on lights will unnecessarily stimulate him.
Don't be tempted not to burp him if he needs it. Too often when your baby falls asleep while feeding, it's tempting to just slip him back into bed only to have him awaken 10 minutes later yelping because of a tummy pain.
Don't change his nappy if it doesn't need it. Try slipping a finger into his nappy while he's feeding and gauging the need for a change. A nappy that's wet and warm doesn't generally need changing in the middle of the night. Wet and cold, though, definitely needs to be changed as it will make him cold too. And a nappy containing anything solid also needs changing to avoid nappy rash.
If you do need to change a nappy, do it mid-feed so you still have the opportunity to settle him again with the last of his feed. Don't start smiling and chatting with him. Remind yourself that this is sleep time and the faster you get him back to bed, the faster [italics start]you'll[italics end] be back in your bed.
Don't turn on the TV or the radio for your own entertainment. These will stimulate baby too. Try feeding him in your bed. You may find that without moving him back to his crib, you both quickly fall back to sleep.
Once your baby is about 6 months old, he may no longer need to feed at night. Check your baby's overall growth and wellbeing with your GP before embarking on a strategy to remove the nightly feeds permanently from the roster.
To encourage him back to sleep without feeding, try using an appropriate settling technique.

REMEMBER!

Whilst your baby may be in the habit of waking once (or more times) every night for a snack, it isn't a necessity. We all know that habits are hard to change, and this isn't any less true for infants.