Most 5-month-olds need zero to one night feeds. By this age, many babies have the stomach capacity and caloric reserves to sleep a stretch of seven hours or longer without eating. The American Academy of Pediatrics notes that by 4 months, most bottle-fed babies can go seven hours without a feeding, and by 6 months, most breastfed babies can do the same. At 5 months, your baby is right in the middle of that transition.
What the Guidelines Say
The AAP suggests that by 4 months old, babies should be down to one nighttime feeding, and that feeding should come at least five hours after bedtime. By 5 months, the recommendation shifts further: start trying to phase out that last remaining night feed by gradually reducing the amount you offer. Healthy babies at this age do not need nighttime calories to stay well-nourished.
That said, “can go without” and “will go without” are different things. A 5-month-old typically needs about 30 to 35 ounces of milk spread across five to six feedings in a 24-hour period, with each feeding around 6 to 7 ounces. If your baby isn’t taking in enough volume during the day, they’ll make up for it at night. The goal is to concentrate calories into waking hours so nighttime feeds become unnecessary.
Breastfed vs. Formula-Fed Babies
Formula-fed babies tend to drop night feeds earlier because formula digests more slowly than breast milk, keeping them full longer. Many formula-fed babies can reliably sleep seven hours by 4 months. Breastfed babies often take a bit longer, closer to 6 months, because breast milk moves through the stomach faster and feedings tend to be smaller and more frequent.
If your 5-month-old is breastfed and still waking once to eat, that’s within the normal range. If they’re waking two or three times and genuinely eating full feeds each time, it may be worth looking at whether daytime feeding frequency is high enough. Breastfed babies typically eat 8 to 12 times in 24 hours, and shifting more of those sessions to daytime can reduce nighttime demand.
Waking From Hunger vs. Waking From Habit
Not every nighttime wake-up means your baby is hungry. At 5 months, many babies are in the thick of a developmental shift in sleep patterns, and they may wake between sleep cycles without actually needing food. The distinction matters because feeding a baby who isn’t hungry can reinforce a pattern where they rely on the breast or bottle to fall back asleep.
A few clues can help you tell the difference. A genuinely hungry baby latches eagerly, swallows actively, and takes a full feeding. A baby waking out of habit may nurse or suck for a few minutes, then lose interest or fall back asleep quickly. Growth spurts can also temporarily increase nighttime hunger. The common growth spurts happen around 3 months and 6 months, so a 5-month-old isn’t in a typical spurt window, though every baby’s timing varies. Growth spurts usually last only about three days and come with noticeably increased appetite during the day as well.
How to Reduce Night Feeds
If your baby is still eating once or twice at night and you’d like to move toward fewer feeds, the most effective approach is to make sure they’re getting plenty of milk during the day. For a bottle-fed baby, aim for five to six full feedings of 6 to 7 ounces during waking hours. For a breastfed baby, offer the breast frequently during the day, especially in the late afternoon and evening.
Dream feeding is one technique that can help. This means offering a feeding right before you go to bed, usually around 10 or 11 p.m., while your baby is still mostly asleep. A study tracking 313 infants found that babies who received a large bottle-feed at bedtime starting at one month old slept for stretches averaging 62 minutes longer by the time they were 6 months old, compared to babies who didn’t get that bedtime feed. Dream feeds alone won’t transform your baby’s sleep, but combined with consistent daytime feeding and good sleep habits, they can extend that first long stretch of nighttime sleep.
If your baby is currently waking twice a night to eat, try gradually reducing the volume of one of those feeds (or the time spent nursing) over several nights. Many parents find it easiest to drop the feeding closest to morning first, since the baby is closer to their natural wake-up time anyway.
Does Starting Solids Help?
You may have heard that introducing solid foods will help your baby sleep through the night. There’s some truth to this, though the effect is modest. A large study of over 1,300 breastfed infants, published in JAMA Pediatrics, found that babies who started solids at 3 months (while continuing to breastfeed) slept slightly longer and woke less frequently than those who exclusively breastfed until 6 months. However, most pediatric guidelines recommend waiting until around 6 months to start solids, and the sleep benefit alone isn’t a strong enough reason to start early. If your pediatrician has already given you the green light on solids, they may help a little, but they’re not a magic fix for night waking.
What’s Normal Right Now
At 5 months, the realistic range is zero to one night feeds for most healthy babies who are gaining weight well. Some breastfed babies may still genuinely need one feeding, particularly if they’re on the smaller side or if daytime feeds are short and frequent. Formula-fed babies at this age can typically go the full night. If your baby is waking three or more times to eat, it’s worth examining whether daytime intake is sufficient and whether some of those wake-ups are habit rather than hunger.
Every baby’s timeline is slightly different, and dropping from one night feed to zero often happens gradually over a few weeks rather than overnight. The transition tends to be smoother when you focus on loading up daytime calories and letting nighttime feeds shrink naturally rather than cutting them off abruptly.