what milk r peeps little ones on

[donnacb]

my dh is 15 months and has a milk intolerance. he is still breast fed as every milk we try him on he wont take. he would never have a bottle. drinks from a cup juice fine. hes had nutrimigen pepti. he likes rice milk but it has no calories and our dietician wont give him soya. so any extra advice greatfully recieved.

Keep breastfeeding?

dh thinks it the evil
of all evils as we have sleep issues with ds

I have to agree with the breastfeeding. DS is 19 months and is still breastfed. It is only in the last 2/3 weeks that he has started sleeping through (except for the last few nights as he has a chest infection)

Sort out the sleep issues separately. You can do extended bf and have kids who sleep through! DS1 slept through from 6 months, bf to 18 months, DS2 slept through from 9 months, bf to 16 months and counting.

Yes, but getting him to take a bottle seems like a pretty evil strain on you.

Sleep issues and breastfeeding are not connected you know. You just get sleep issues and bottle issues.

At 15 months he is pretty much old enough for you to feed him when you want to (when you would give a bottle for instance) and for your dh to sort out your son's sleep issues at night.

You mention concerns about his weight on your other thread, so really I would have to agree to keep breast-feeding to keep up his calorie intake.

its definately the mst east thing to do. its just everyone ive spoken to have said there littles didnt sleep thrugh until they gave up breast feeding hence dh connecting the 2 and me 2. does my breast milk really have enough calories in it. im also dairy free so not sure. the dietician also suggests giving up. has anyone managed to breast feed until there child can take cows milk. Maybe ill post another link. thanks everyone. theres such high expectations these days i think you just get caught up. havent had time to post for a long time so nice to get some positive feedback. i dont feel too much like a crap indecisive mum today but sure it will return

Breastfeeding and sleep are not linked at this age, you can sort out the sleep seperately. Why does your dh think formula is so magic that it can make babies sleep? It's only converted milk, vegetable fat, vitamins and sugar.

I breastfed ds until he was 2.5. He was a crap sleeper until 6 months, a reasonably bad sleeper until 12 months (a grobag improved things a little), and then we moved house and he was a bit further away and we didn't wake for every single noise and he became an excellent sleeper and still is.

Breastmilk has more calories than formula, and besides at this age he will be getting calories from solid food. Your dietician sounds ill informed and as if she isn't listening to you. Breastmilk is recommended with suitable age appropriate supplementary feeding until age 2 (and beyond if desired).

You being dairy free is irrelevant, cows don't drink milk either!

If formula was such a guarantee for sleep, then there wouldn't be so many "sleep solution"/Ferberising type books -- since most babies are entirely or mostly formula fed.

it doesn't matter if your ds never has to have any cow's milk. lots of other foods contain calcium if that is what you're worried about. many cultures have gotten on fine without dairy in their diet. Cow's milk as a food item for babies and grownups is unheard of in Chinese, Japanese and Native American cultures.

My experience and this is only my experience, is that when I gave up breastfeeding at 11 months and 3 weeks, due to my son biting and not stopping, over and over and drawing blood , well my experience was that, the day I gave up breastfeeding which is not what I wanted, ds slept through the night that night at 11 months and 3weeks of age for the first time ever in his life. that day he finally gave in and took the bottle later in the day, and that was that as I had no choice, I got a fear of him being near my breasts due to the biting. So with me sleep and feeding were connected, but I am not for bottle feeding and if I have another child I will feed it for as long as possible myself unless the next one likes a good bite.

donnacb, I had to give up breastfeeding dd when I went back to work. She was milk and soy allergic so I had to give her nutramigen (was prescribed by the GP). Because she absolutely had to have a bottle, I literally locked myself in the house for 3 days and stopped breastfeeding (expressed minimally when full to bursting point) - I stopped breastfeeding her and held out till she was hungry and only offered her the nutramigen. It took many many hours of screaming, but eventually when she was starving, she took the bottle. About 2 days later, she was on the nutramigen totally.

I'm telling you that because belive me, it's not for the fainthearted. If you taste nutramigen, you'll see why your baby prefers your breast milk and believe me, if you have any option at all, I would really try and persevere with the breast milk because I doubt, if you try and mix and match the breast feeding with the nutramigen that it will work. If you knew you had the offer of fairly sweet breastmilk or that horrendous tasting stuff, I know which one I would always go for! One other tip - if you really want to give up breastfeeding and go for the nutramigen, warm it up to body temperature because it seems to go down easier with babies when it's warmed up (I think it tastes a bit better).