will night weaning meant the end of bfing? and will 2 small cups of cow's milk a week damage a nearly 1 year old?

[kveta]

DS is nearly 1 and has started feeding more and more in the night - his latest is 1 before bed, 1 at 1.30 am, 1 at 3.30 am, then 1 at 5-ish. it's bloody killing me, as I'm at work most of the dy too - he can nap at the childminders/nursery, I can't nap at work!
so DH and I are talking about getting TOUGH and night weaning after his 1st birthday (when DH has less on at work). However, in the sleep mn webchat, the lady said that stopping feeding at night automatically meant the end of feeding altogether, so I'm a bit wary. I'm happy with an early morning feed, then he normally has a mid-morning feed when at home or nursery (next to the office), and a mid afternoon feed every day, then his bed time feed. so 3-4 feeds a day at the moment, plus the 3 night feeds. if I cut out the night feeds, will that be the end?

Also, 2 days a week he's with a childminder - he was getting EBM, but I just cannot express anymore. no time, plus no desire to do so. I have him currently just having a dairy based snack - yoghurt or fromage frais mid morning, but was thinking of getting him drinking a small cup of warmed cows milk to get him into the idea of drinking something other than water from a cup/milk from somewhere other than me. will this be ok 2 days a week, do you think? he was only having about 90 mls of EBM with her, so I thought a similar amount of cow's milk would be ok. any comments?

thanks!

I dropped night feeds at 10 months and breastfed until 15 months with no problems - I don't see why dropping night feeds should necessarily affect daytime feeds (although I guess he might get cross with you!).

Don't see how the cow's milk could possibly be a problem either Guidelines are that babies can be offered cows milk as a main drink from 12 months, so two cups a week is hardly going to hurt.

excellent, I want to keep bfing until 2/he self weans if possible! he will get cross with me, but tough, I've not had a decent night of sleep in over a year now!

will try the cows milk I think, he may not even drink it, but I feel I should be offering him something milky when I'm not there!

Hi there, all I an tell you is that I worked 2 or 3 days a week and dropped night feeds around a year. I fed on mys days off as mid morning and afternoon breast feed, most mornings and mostevenings. This was fine and we fed till dd weaned herself around 18 months.

Your supply will adapt to what ever you want to do :) nd you've fed for so long!! well done :)

DD will be 1 in a week and has been having cows milk (maybe 4 cups a week) since about 10 months. I knwo they're not supposed to but I was going back to work, and mum and MIL would let her have it (nursery wouldn't but they will when she's one). She has so many bfs that I can't see it being a problem.
We had no problems getting her to take a cup either - if she's thirsty she downs the lot, if not she drinks some and plays with it - other than the initial coordincation/ knowing what to do with it issues she had at 7 months ish (had water in it then).

In my experience, night weaning did not affect day time bf. I had to stop at night for similar reasons, DD was about 1 and was waking up to feed more often and it was killing me. I stopped going in - sent in Daddy instead - DD held out for 15 minutes then went to sleep, the following night she tried again - send in Daddy, she shouted 'NO' really loudly then went to sleep. From that day on she slept through. I continued to bf during the day and around work/nursery quite happily for another year.
DD also had cows milk at nursery as she would never take a bottle without any ill effects. She generally preferred water though, although will drink milk now (age 3)

Hello :)

We haven't been night feeding for a while although the early one is still quite early - between 5 and half past. It's been that way for a few months now. Also have introduced small amount of cows milk most days. You'll be fine, I'm sure!

If you google Jay Rayner, he is the guru on night weaning without giving up altogether :) Of course he can have cows' milk, though tbh as long as he is eating well then it probably isn't necessary - just see if he likes it.

boogeek, did you mean Jay Gordon? :)

No need to catastrophise night weaning-I think it's fair enough! We did it at 10 months, so I admire your commitment!

I did it by saying "I'm not feeding til 4am/5am etc etc" and DH soothed DS. It was really quick and not too painful.

I would offer the cows milk - DS has never taken much, maybe one cup a day when he's at nursery or on my day off. He has a BF when he wakes at about 7am and then another about 5pm. Now he is 17 months I have noticed that there is nothing there at any other time but he has never been bothered and still asks and suckles for a while anyway (there are clearly a few drops but not a feed). I work three days BTW so this may account for some of what I'm saying.

HTH.

Ha ha ha! Of course I did