Stopping breast feeding but DD doesn't take a bottle. How do i feed her in the night?

[multicolourcat]

DD is 9 MO and i am going to give up breast feeding by 12 months. She does not take a bottle, so i will give her cows milk in a free flow. I am curious though, what happens when she goes through a growth spurt and wants feeding in the night, or just continues needing to feed in the night as she currently does (feeds once or twice in the night at the moment), as the free flow is quite messy and i think would wake her up a lot if i was to offer her it in the night. Has anyone had any experience of this?

thank you :)

This is a tricky problem! One issue is that milk feeds at night that aren't breastmilk aren't good for the teeth and can lead to cavities, so if you can get by with giving her water that might be better.

Have you considered breastfeeding JUST at night? Not trying to push you to keep BFing, just suggesting an option :)

Hi, I am not an expert, but I don't believe babies of that age need feeds during the night (have read this on other BF threads I think). Our DS started sleeping through the night (from about 11pm dream feed) from about 10 weeks, so maybe she likes it rather than needs it. Maybe that could help with a plan of some sort of comforting during the night rather than feeding? I think if she is growing through a growth spurt she could take in more during the day through solids/milk rather than needing to feed at night.

A lot of babies don't sleep through the night at 12mo. You have to do something (what your refer to as comforting) to put them back to sleep. One of the ways is feed to sleep, and it might be actually the easiest. I've tried things like rocking, cuddling, shh/pat, and tbh feeding seems fastest. And other methods don't magically stop DD from waking up at night either.

Oh and DD slept through from 11 weeks till 6 months. She definitely looks like she needs feed once through the night atm. I can tell by how long and how enthusiastic she's feeding. There are times she woke up through the night and barely bother to latch on. Since around 6mo, she's stopped latching on at the sight of a boob, and will only feed if she wants to now.

why don't you cut down in the day but still feed at night?

you would need to cut down gradually anyway, to reduce your chances of getting mastitis, and it gets round the bottle problem too.
you may find that she naturally starts sleeping through anyway in which case it won't be an issue