Please help me gently wean 12 month old - bf bottle/ formula refuser...

[Ilovecake73]

Is this possible?! DD is spirited and eating well but has always been breastfed on demand - mainly now though just first thing in the morning, before naptimes and bedtime but she goes into her cot awake.

Can I try and encourage her to switch to cows milk as she is now a year old - fingers crossed she likes it having refused a few brands of formula... She has a sippy cup and is currently obsessed with drinking water out of anything she can find but it is quite messy and as soon as I put formula in she rejects it.

As we live abroad without any family to help out I'm the only one to put her to bed for naps and at night time so would like a little bit of me back. She now sleeps through the night most nights but if she wakes I normally feed her for 5 minutes or so and she is straight back to sleep. DH will try and go in instead but if she is hungry she will scream loudly until I go to her which I do as then the three of us are straight back to sleep.

I'm only prepared to go at her pace and happy to take a step back if she isn't ready but I just don't know where or how to start to try and see if she is ready. I've heard of the Jay Gordon method but can't find any information out about it anywhere.

We are getting married in a few months and moving house at the same time so am keen to try before all the change and so I can enjoy my hen do and wedding day/ evening. I never really saw my wedding day including breastfeeding a toddler... and I'd love to be able to enjoy my day and evening hen do without worrying about how DD coping without me!

Sorry I've just realised my subject heading make any sense! My DD is breastfed and enjoys approx 4 feeds a day but refuses bottles or formula given in sippy cups or adult water bottles, cups etc!

I bf my twins to 12 months and they didn't have any bottles (I couldn't face the hassle personally).

Does she take water out of a sippy cup? Eg at meals? I would get her used to one first of all.

Then once happy with it, give it mid afternoon - post nap- with milk in it. Along with a nice snack she likes.

Once okay with that (by which I mean taking a few mouthfuls) I would then move towards giving her a sippy cup of milk first thing in the morning.

Although this is a bit painful (no more nice snuggly morning feeds - the only one I liked!!), I found my pair were most thirsty/hungry for this feed and so if I took them straight downstairs and offered the milk in a cup, it was quite well received.

Once I had mornings going okay (again, not much volume taken but positive reaction was the main criteria for me), I moved onto bed time and milk with stories (I had never bothered with bedtime stories before but they love books so this was a good distraction for them).

I had about 3 weeks or so when very little ilk was taken, but they were not upset in any way and that was the main thing. There was some early waking etc but you just have to push through that. I made suRe they had a milky breakfast (big bowl of porridge) and offered cheese too but frankly a week or two to get used to it will it harm her.

Obviously this worked for me and thppyou might find it is not useful for you but perhaps some food for thought.

Ps DH did the first few mornings to break the habit of them coming straight to me but after that they didn't really mind.