What age do you stop the bedtime milk feed?

[BartiiMus]

DS is nearly 12 months. EBF until 6 months when I went back to work and he had bottles or solids in the day and BF at bedtime, in the night and mornings.

Now he's on 3 good solid meals a day plus a bottle in the afternoon. We still BF as part of our bedtime routine but he only drinks for 5-10 mins, then wants his book (which is the next step of our routine).

At night I can get him back to sleep without BF sometimes, but mainly he wants to suck a bit. He never feeds for longer than 1 minute in the night though (per wake-up).

So I'm wondering if he is
a) slowly self-weaning off the evening milk feed
or b) slowly self-weaning off the breast and I should offer him formula/cows milk in the evening instead.

He doesn't sleep through the night but I don't think it's hunger-related as he usually eats well during the day (and when he doesn't he properly feeds in the night as opposed to just a suckle to get back to sleep).

I just tried it without one night with both DCs. Bedtime was pyjamas, feed, teeth, story, bed - one night I just skipped the feed. Both were fine with it - DD at 10m and DS at 11.

Thanks thats interesting. I asked my friends but the only thing we could come up with is the advice to stop bottles at 12months...it didn't mention whether to put the milk feed in a cup or not

Am a bit at the idea of stopping but it will give me a bit more freedom. And as it's DS who is instigating it I feel better about it.

I think you'd be apprised at how much he can still get in 5-10 minutes. That's always been a full feed for DS. If you don't want to stop then carry on. He'll stop when he's ready and in the mean time your still supporting his immune system with all those lovely anti bodies.

Oh and DD bedtime feed was the last one to go at 2years 10 months. Many carry on longer then that and there is no need to stop it until they are ready.

FWIW, my DD still has a drink of warm milk at bedtime and she's 3.5.

My instinct is that at his age he could Probably do with more than one milk drink per day. If you are enjoying it, carry on, I always loved the bedtime BF best. You may well find that he will take a bottle or cup of cows milk instead to give you the freedom of having someone else do bedtime, and you can BF when you are there.

My dds are 4 and 8 and still drink milk after bath / shower and before teeth, story / reading and bed. Why would you stop?

butterflies I've never really liked drinking milk so didn't when I was younger (although BF in the evening until 15 months) so I don't know if a child should be drinking it IYSWIM?

I suppose he can get quite a lot in 5 minutes, it's just strange that he used to jump at the chance to have breastmilk but now stops of his own accord.

He has porridge in the morning, plus yoghurt and cheese everyday so I'm not worried about his milk intake.

I did think that maybe my supply was running out but I can still handexpress a bit after a feed so I don't think it's that.

I think I'll keep offering it as he does seem to enjoy it, even though it's only a short feed.