Would weaning from the breast or increasing the amount of solids your toddler eats help with sleep?

Dr Pamela Douglas22nd of Aug 202323rd of May 2024

blue eyed toddler breastfeeds

Weaning your breastfed toddler, or increasing the amounts of solids she eats, won't help with night-time sleep.

You can find out about toddlers and food here.
You can find thoughts about weaning your breastfed toddler or older child here and here.

If your toddler isn't gaining enough weight according to the WHO percentile charts, please seek your GP's support. But this is still unlikely to cause her to wake excessively at night. Only the most severe situations resulting in hunger are likely to impact your toddler's sleep, such as a severe conditioned dialling up with food. It doesn't help, and can make things worse, to weigh toddlers too often, since their rate of weight gain is likely to fluctuate from week to week. As the months pass, though, your toddler's weight needs to be more or less following her percentile line, not dropping down percentile lines.

Here are the three main things to know when you have worries about your toddler's night waking and possible hunger, and where you can find what you need in The Possums Sleep Program.

It's normal for toddlers to wake in the night. You can find out about this here. It's hard when I say it like that, because you're probably already beyond exhausted, and you might worry about how you're going to cope. You can read more here and here. I hope you'll work through The Possums Sleep Program, so that everything becomes as easy as possible even when your toddler still wakes at night.
Excessive night waking in a toddler is typically due to disrupted settings of her body clock, and requires a body clock reset. You can find out more here.
Weaning from the breast does not necessarily mean that your toddler will wake less in the night. You can find out about this here. It can be hard if you wean before you're ready, only to find yourself managing night wakes without your best tool for getting everyone back to sleep as quickly as possible, which is the breast.