My 1 year old waking every 4 hours for a feed.

[rlittle7]

Hi my daughter turned 1 3 weeks ago, so I put her on aptamil 3 as advised. These have been the worst 3 weeks sleep since she was newborn. She usually goes 12 hours without waking, and I don't know if it's the change in milk (I'm thinking it's weaker maybe than the aptamil 2) but it's a coincidence. I should also add that she is eating solids, but she prefers a bottle when she wakes and when she's going to bed. I'm thinking it's not filling her. Someone help as I could be cast as the walking dead this morning.

How much is she eating during the day? She needs 3 meals, 2 snacks and supper.

I am bit confused by weaker milk. What do you mean?

Aptamil 3 is not advised tbh. Cows milk is perfectly fine from 1 year

You have changed formula. There is no reason to use anything than the stage 1 milk but at 12 months I would be moving to cows milk.

At one year your baby does not need to drink milk in the night. Just offer water. Otherwise you are rewarding waking. There is no need for formula milk after age 1. Whole cow's milk actually is a better source of calcium than formula. If she regularly eats meat and eggs she will get plenty of iron in her diet. Try a high protein, high fat snack before bed, so you can feel reassured she is not hungry in the night (like scrambled egg made with butter, or toast and peanut butter).

She eats regularly throughout the day, mealtimes and snacks. I always try cows milk and water first before I give her formula, but she won't go back to sleep without her formula. She is in a habit but I don't know how to break it without losing a whole night sleep.

You could try very gradually watering the formula down each night so it turns into a bottle of water without her realising.

I would be tempted to give it to her in a cup on a night time and tell her the bottles are broken.

My DD had soya milk (dairy intolerance) over night at 13/14 months ish and she was genuinely hungry. It was only one bottle and it was not an increase in milk. The increase makes me think ether she is very hungry or it’s habit. What does she eat in an average day?

Who advised you to give her aptamil? What was she having before?

I haven't given her an increase really. Just she started on aptamil 1, went on to 2 at 6 months and then because she was still quite dependent on a bottle at night times, I moved her on to 3 at 1 year.

How many bottles does she need a night then?

My dd is bf and still wants feeds in the night, but I do believe it's mostly for comfort. Although saying that, when she's had a good evening meal she wakes less so I don't know. Try giving you child a good supper, weetabix maybe?

Can I ask , those of you giving a supper - what time do you usually feed them that? My DD has dinner around 1700 and bath and bed around 1830 so maybe supper at 1800?

The NHS doesn't recommend switching to follow on formula- it says research shows no benefits. Who advised that? Also, cows milk is recommended from 1 year of age.

My DS was also waking a few times a night for milk until we did gentle sleep training at 14 months. He didn't need the milk, he was just in the habit of waking. I imagine it's the same with your DD. She's looking for the bottle to help her get back to sleep when she wakes. You can help her to learn to self settle. It's obviously up to you but I'm so relieved I did it, otherwise I'd probably still be getting up 3x per night with DS.

I'd ditch the formula and get her on cows milk. Assuming she has teeth you need to stop the night bottles anyway.

Milk before bed, then teeth. It's a new routine so will involve a couple of nights of messing around and little sleep but worth it to break the habit.

Can I just ask what that involves please? The self settling?

She needs to fall asleep in her own cot with minimal help. This would ideally be, no dummy, no milk, no shush/ pat. Because whatever is around as she falls asleep will become the thing she thinks she needs to fall back to sleep when she wakes in the night. Google "sleep association".

Many children need a gradual approach to removing sleep association props, hence the concept of "gradual withdrawal" sleep training.

There really is never a need to use follow on milk, its just a huge gimmick to sell formula past 1 year, have you been trying warm cows milk?

Yes, as Brokenlink said. We used the 'gradual retreat' method to gradually get him used to self settling at bedtime and all night wakings. Worked really well but you have to be consistent. You can Google it, or I'm happy to send details if you want.

As a PP said all follow on milk, including the one you were using from 6 months, is just a gimmick developed by formula companies so they can advertise (they're not allowed to advertise infant formula).

Can I just clear up I'm aware of the fact that formula isn't needed, just stating that my LO is dependent on it for sleep at the moment. Will Google the self settling. Thanks.