Dd is nearly 2. She was EBF for first 6 months and always been very into bf. Seemed onto food no probs , started taking cows milk from a year no probs (that i can remember) from a bottle. She had expressed milk in a bottle occasionally from about 2 months or so.
She's always fed to sleep from a young age, this used to be always from the breast. I would lay her down and gently detach. My husband and mum can get her down for bed with a bottle, not sure if she would actually feed to sleep on the bottle then they'd detach and lay her down but i think it was more she'd finish the bottle, be sleepy, they'd hold her till asleep then lay her down. She started allowing us to lay her down awake at around 18 months i think? Hard to remember but it was a massive breakthrough for us! And eventually got to a point where you wouldn't even have to sit beside her till she fell asleep, you could give a kiss, tuck her in, and go. This would be immediately after she'd finished her milk (breast or bottle). A month or two ago, when she had a cold she seemed to regress to wanting us beside her till she fell asleep. She will now take cows milk in a bottle from me, although it depends, some evenings she'll have breast, some bottle, she decides usually. Whichever I'm giving though, she seems to have particular trouble and take ages to get to sleep with me. If my husband does it, he dress her, a short cuddle, puts her down, possibly stay beside her a few minutes and then leaves. Sometimes she still cries and he has to go back in but usually just to put a hand on her again for a few minutes and all in all it takes him much shorter than me. If i do this, she cries buckets and i have to go in and soothe her and sing and stay beside for ages. So sometimes, recently, rather than stay beside her i have given her some more milk in a bottle, as she's lying down in her cot, and she holds it and drinks and i leave. I was wary of milk 'pooling' against her teeth while she's asleep so would usually creep back in 15/20 mins later and take the bottle away. I have NEVER found the bottle in her mouth when i go back in, it's sometimes n her hand, sometimes beside her, sometimes tossed over the edge of the cot and she's rolled over. So i thought i was all good, no pooling. Now I'm reading online how you should never let babies feed to sleep with a bottle and I'm wondering... Did i get the pooling thing right? Is that the only issue? Am i buggering up her teeth?!