DS wont take a pre bed feed....

[Olipop]

Hi .. my ds is 6 1/2 months old and is eating a good three meals a day. He's breast fed and I have introduced a bottle of expressed milk at bedtime (so that dh can take his share of the bedtime routines!). He started off fine and would take 5-6 oz of milk for about a week but now doesn't seem to want to take the feed. He screams blue murder. I can occasionally trick him by sticking a dummy in for a bit and then switching the bottle in. I have also tried various different teats. I don't think its the bottle causing the problem ..simply that he doesn't want anything. However, this means he is now waking at about midnight needing milk. He then wakes again around 3am and again at about 5am. Any ideas anyone? (Oh and he hasn't seemed to reduce his daily milk feeds that much since weaning and I've tried bringing his solid tea forward to 4.30pm). Thanks!

Just bumping myself as fallen off the end of the page!

Maybe he doesn't want the bottle, but you. I bf both mine, and they each had their "comfort" feed. For DD, it was pre-bed, for DS is was around 6am (5am if I was unlucky) this is the one that they ended up dropping last -- but was as much about cuddling mummy as it was the milk. Just a thought.

Thats what I was worried about. I felt like I had finally got a little bit of independance back but maybe not! Also, I find it very hard to put him in his cot awake if he has a breast feed at night. He tends to doze off on the boob. For some reason DH thinks that giving him formula is the answer...really really don't want to do that though. I don't see how that will help if he wont take a bottle.

Around 6 mths (though DD was closer to 9 mths ) I introduced a book to mine (something really simple a couple pages). So we did feed, then book then bed. He may cry, but with mine this only last a few days. Good luck.

Just checking I've not missed it but you haven't sadi what 'bedtime' is. DS was FF which if anything I hear is true the actually that fills them up more. We found DS cutting back on his 7pm feed when we started to introduce proper solids (as oppose to just tasters) around 6 months. we got round it by doing milk at 7am ish (wakeup time), just before lunchtime nap (11:45 ish), straight after nap (2.30 ish) then no more milk before bed time. He had a bit of water with his tea time solids instead. That way he had a really good milk feed just before bed and still (at 22 months) has a big cup of warm milk before bed time. I also used the tiered system of feeding so when milk was at a mealtime - breakfast and lunch, he got to drink 1/3 milk, then 1/2 food, rest of milk, then finish whatever he liked of food.

hope this is useful - i was a bit regimented though so might not suit. Good luck getting your evenings back!

The other thing to try, is you don't mention if it is you or dh who is trying bottles at last feed. He would take it better from dh, as he isn't "expecting" something else. Also you could try to introduce a bottle at a less comforting time, then once he is happy to take it. Try again at bed. Again it is best if DH is the one to introduce bottle. But I do know some bf babes that accepted bottle from mommy at the start.