11 month old night feeding

[NickyEds]

My 11 month old still has milk at some point during the night. His sleep has been terrible since he was 6 months and, although it's got better recently, I'm afraid I do use milk to get him back off to sleep. At his 9-12 month review the hv definitely inferred that this needs to stop. He's not having milk at all during the day but eats 3 meals and 2 snacks- he's a fantastic eater. He's following his growth curve perfectly. Does anyone else still give their 11 month old milk in the night? Apart from "bad" sleep associations is there actually any harm in it???

[FATEdestiny]

My DD was still having a beaker of warm milk in the middle of the night at 2 years old, sometimes twice a night.

It stopped when I got her weighed and realised how heavy she was - given her active lifestyle and healthy diet she was very overweight for her age. I swapped bedtime drink to water and likewise middle of the night drinks (which she soon stopped waking for) and within 6 months she was back to a healthy weight.

Like you, she was a bad sleeper so I used milk to get her back to sleep. I just needed the tackle the sleep issue, rather than over-feeding her with milk in the night.

Remember that after 6 months old or so, a baby/child should not need any calories during the night.

[Stubbed]

HV advise against it because of damage to teeth and calorie intake. Tbh the longer you leave it the harder it will be to stop.
I stopped night feeds at 9 months, took a couple of days with ds and a week with dd but it's worth it to be able to sleep through (or go out, I was ebf)

[PassTheCremeEggs]

Why doesn't he have milk during the day, is that his choice or yours? He should still be having feeds at least in the morning and evening - at 11 months it's still about 25oz a day they need. Is he making up for it in the night?

[NickyEds]

The milk in the day is his choice-he just spits it out/refuses it and is generally not interested. He has a bottle at bedtime but tends to fall asleep after 3/4oz and a bottle in the morning but again, only maybe 3/4oz. The bottle in the night tends to be around 4oz ish too. There's no way he's having 25oz a day but the hv said that this didn't matter and that we should just offer a bottle in the morning and one in the evening with none at night(irrespective of how much he's taken at the feeds).
I'm dreading having to night wean as we're just coming out of a 5 month period of terrible sleep!
Did you just offer water at night stubbed?

[RonaldMcFartNuggets]

My 21 month old still wakes for some milk. I really need to wean him off but it's so easy to just give in and he goes right back to sleep rather than scream forever

[Roxie85]

My dd used to feed overnight but she didn't need it she was just a horrific sleeper. We tackled the sleep issue head on at 8 months as I was so exhausted (used to take us 2hrs to fully get her off to sleep and then she'd wake a few times at night) and as soon as the sleep was being sorted she dropped her night feeds within a few days. I don't think it's a massive issue them feeding overnight and if he doesn't take milk in the day he will need something other than solids, but if it's because of sleep issues I'd work on them instead and it might in turn solve the feeding.

[NickyEds]

Roxie85 Can I ask what worked for you with the sleeping issues? His sleep was truely dreadful up to about 2 weeks ago, he was waking every 90mins-2hrs. He was measured at his review and had grown 5cms in 7/8 weeks and 3 new teeth had emerged which I put the really bad sleep down to. I think I'm just so bloody grateful that he's now only waking 1/2 times a night that I didn't worry too much about the milk.

I've heard the 25oz figure a few times now. The hv was very specific about only giving 2 bottles a day and given that they can't possibly expect him to have 12.5oz bottles are you just supposed to offer f in a sippy cup all day? When I try to give him f like this he just ignores/refuses it- when I did manage to get a bottle down him he just threw it up.

[FATEdestiny]

Nicky, you can get milk from a lot of different things not just as a drink. For example in cereal, yoghurts etc.

The sleep issue - you just have to grit your teeth and do it. It involves screaming hysterics and very little sleep for a couple of days. But if you plan for this you can sort it within a week. Easier said than done.