11 months - advice please

[Boblina]

Hi not sure where to post this so here it is. My 11 month DS is a poor sleeper and I am not sure why. He started becoming a worst sleeper when i started weaning him (we did go on holiday more or less a couple of weeks after). Well I have kept the bottles (he is bottle fed)because I am worries that it I decrease he will sleep even worst. Not sure if I am making sense here. Well as I say he is 11 month and he still have 4 bottles - when he wakes, after lunch (around 12:30) bed time (7 pm) and then at 10 pm. I know that is too many but not sure which one to stop and how. how many bottles does your 11 month old have and what times? How did to stop? Did he/she stop sleeping. I should know all this as I have another DS but he was totally different (prem, loved to sleep, etc). I know I need to stop the bottles just want thoughts on which ones to stop first and how. So would welcome your thoughts and what you are doing. Thanks

HI
I think u need to stop the 10pm feed as he should be having 7pm then sleep through at this age but very difficult when not sleeping well. I'd possibly get rid of morning bottle too, just needs a bottle perhaps b4 afternoon nap and b4 bed. Substitute morning bottle for beaker cup once used to beaker substitute 10pm feed for beaker, usually when offered beaker they dont drink as much as if in bottle. I assumed you've already tried to offer water in the beaker instead but this would be next step. Decrease milk. If waking him at exactly 10pm, try waking him yourself at half 9, then 9 then half 8 etc til just needs that one feed at 7pm.

Yes he has a beaker during the day (well not milk) but he does not really drink. An ounce if that. I do think too that I should stop the 10 pm and morning just want some more sleep. I love my sleep. Thanks for your thoughts. I shall try the 10 pm advice. Too late to try tonight but shall give it a go tomorrow. As for the morning if I am brave enough I shall try it in the morning. Mind you probably not best to do both at once.

Least if u try morning one u dont lose any sleep, get his used to beakers of milk. I'm guessing if wanting bottle then doesnt have dummy. Sleep is usually about routine, any changes to that and he probably will fret for a while but if u need to get him in a better pattern then i think u r just gonna have to make the changes and live with it for a while.

I don;t think 4 bottles is too many atall. I really don't. My ds is 11m and feeds first thing, mid morning , mid afternoon, before bed and then in the night too.

I think it really depends on how much food he is eating. My DS started waking up around this age for an extra bottle (sometimes two) around 10ish. I really worried about it - more so because it was making me tired and therefore unable to think particularly logically - but after a while he stopped.

When I did drop bottles, I replaced them with a drink and a snack and found that ate better at mealtime as a result.

My advice - try it dropping bottles, but don't force it if it doesn't seem to work. Weaning can take a while.

Hi

my 12 onth old has just a bottle on waking and a bottle before bed straight after dinner around 6 pm.
She has been on this many bottles since about 10 months when she started showing signs that she wanted to drop feeds.. signs being that she was taking less and less or the previous feed was putting her off the next feed. She was also eating like a sparrow but has increased her food and water in a cup a lot since dropping the day time bottles.

If you are wanting to drop bottles, I found the best way to do this was not to just suddenly drop but to give less and less volume over a period of about a week to 10 days.

sometimes night waking and bad sleep can be directly affected by not getting enough sleep through out the day. My DD doesn't sleep too well at nursery and on the two dayus a week that she is there, I she some times wakes at night and we have had to give her a small amount of a bottle to settle her. I think she gets more hungry because she has used so much energy trying to stay awake all day.

We dropped the before breakfast bottle first with both DDs. DD2 is 8 months now and has 3 a day.....mid-morning, mid-afternoon and before bed. In a few more months we will drop the morning and afternoon bottles and offer a snack and drink in a beaker.