When Do Babies Stop Feeding at Night?
According to the Mayo Clinic, the transition away from night feeding is less about a specific age and more about a baby’s growth, weight gain, and overall health.
In the earliest weeks of life, newborns typically need to feed every few hours, including overnight. The Mayo Clinic advises that during the first one to two weeks, parents may need to wake their baby for feedings if more than four hours have passed, particularly until the baby has regained their birth weight and is demonstrating steady weight gain.
Newborns should be fed anywhere between 8 to 12 times a day. Consistent feedings establish the foundation for you to produce more breastmilk in the future. It is important to note that if your baby is at the crying stage, it is already a late sign of hunger. Ensure proactive breastfeeding so your baby can exhibit healthy growth.
When Do Babies Stop Feeding at Night?
The first few weeks after delivery will be full of sudden wake ups in the middle of the night.
The goal is to integrate yourself into a predictable routine of feeding, changing, sleeping, and repeating. As your baby grows older, their wake windows become more extended and they begin to have a longer night’s rest. This weaning off night feeding is gradual and can be more easily tracked if you are attuned to your baby’s sleep rhythm.
For most healthy, full-term babies, night feedings begin to naturally decrease between 4 to 6 months of age, when they are developmentally capable of consuming more calories during the day and consolidating longer stretches of sleep. At this age, many babies no longer require night feeds for nutritional reasons, though some may still wake out of habit, comfort, or growth spurts. Pediatricians and sleep professionals emphasize that readiness varies by child, and night weaning should always be guided by weight gain, feeding patterns, and medical advice.
Rather than focusing on a single “cutoff” age, experts recommend watching for consistent signs: longer daytime feeds, improved head and trunk control, and the ability to self-soothe back to sleep after brief awakenings.
How to Track Your Baby’s Sleep, Understand Their Sleep Patterns
In the midst of it all, tracking can be time consuming. Pediatric sleep coaches meet with you and help track wake windows and progress. An added tool that is used by these experts is SleepNest, a sleep-tracking and analysis platform designed to help parents and certified sleep professionals identify patterns across sleep, naps, and feedings.
SleepNest allows families to log sleep and feeding data in real time and securely share it with their sleep coach, turning daily observations into actionable insights. The platform is widely used by pediatric sleep specialists because it helps visualize trends such as overtiredness, frequent night wakings, or mistimed naps without requiring parents to manually analyze charts or spreadsheets. By combining neuroscience-informed insights with real-world family data, SleepNest supports gentle, developmentally appropriate sleep adjustments rather than rigid schedules or one-size-fits-all solutions.
Sleep Coaching for Your Baby and Peace of Mind
Certified pediatric sleep consultant Nicole Morales, who specializes in newborn and postpartum sleep support, emphasizes that night feeding transitions should always prioritize responsiveness and developmental readiness. Morales works closely with families to assess not only how often a baby wakes, but why, whether due to hunger, habit, or overstimulation earlier in the day.
Drawing on her experience supporting families through the newborn and infant stages, Morales uses tools like SleepNest to track wake windows, feeding intervals, and sleep quality over time. This allows her to help parents distinguish between true hunger cues and normal sleep cycles, and to gradually reduce night feeds when babies are ready without compromising attachment or emotional security.
The Wake Window When Sleep Training
Babies build stamina gradually, and their ability to stay awake lengthens with age. For babies between four and six months old, the average wake window is about 2.5 to 3 hours, according to Dr. Daniel Golshevsky (Dr. Golly), author of Baby Wake Windows by Age. His guide outlines how awake time expands steadily over the first two years of life and is often used as a reference point during sleep training.
This framework is echoed by MissPoppins in Sleep Pressure in Babies: A Guide to Wake Windows and Overtiredness, which explains that wake windows are driven by the buildup of sleep pressure. The wake window guide provided shows an expectation for your baby’s wake windows from their newborn stage to 6 month old stage.
Wake Windows by Age (Dr. Golly’s Guide)
0–6 weeks: 45 to 60 minutes
6–12 weeks: 1 to 1.5 hours
3–4 months: 1.5 to 2 hours
4–6 months: 2.5 to 3 hours
Last Edited: January 7th, 2025