Day weaning - is this a thing?

[WindFlower92]

Hi all, feel like I'm asking a stupid question here! I've posted before about prepping my 7mo for nursery; she's ebf and won't accept a bottle at all! I've been reassured that she'll adapt once she's at nursery and might accept the bottle from someone different, but would it be worth trying to reduce the amount of feeds in the day now? So in theory she could go from 7:30-6 without milk in a couple of months time? Just so I know that nutritionally she won't need it and I can worry less? Has anyone done this and how did you go about it? Typically I feed her at about 6am, 8am, 1pm and then every two hours or so until bedtime. She wakes up normally about 2 times for a feed in the night. Is this possible or a stupid idea?

My experience was that the baby ate food and drank a bit of water, but no milk, when away from me. Then made up for it when I was available again. But I had an excellent supply, so I think she got lots when I was there just in the evening and the morning (I kept the very early morning feed and the bedtime feed going on work days).

The risk is that she starts feeding all night, to make up for not feeding in the day. Which is a pain if you’re back at work, though not so bad if you co-sleep.

Personally, I wouldn’t try cutting down in the day now, unless there’s another reason to do so. It’ll just give you a few months of looking after a grumpy baby who would like some milk. Nursery will be very distracting, they’ll offer her snacks and drinks, and it’ll be in a few months time when developmentally she’ll be quite different.

I’m never keen on the ‘teach them now, else they’ll never learn’ approach. Babies (and children, come to that) change so much and so fast, that I think waiting to see if there’s a problem when you get there is usually the best approach.

Don't worry would bey advice. Both of mine went to nursery aroun 8/9 months. Both EBF. Both bottle refusers. Both ate sufficient food at nursery and took water from a cup. My first did increase her overnight feeds for a while, in compensation I think, but that soon settled. Both healthy weights etc didn't seem to have any impact health/nutrition wise and I still fed them on demand at weekend/days off.

She will just reverse cycle

Thanks all - that's good to know, so I can just follow her lead!