How to get 17-month-old with CMA off special formulae bottle at bedtime

[WeeG123]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice on how to get my 17-month-old with CMA off his special formula bottle at nighttime? We’ve tried coconut milk etc. warmed
up but he doesn’t take it. We still feel we need to give him something at night as it comforts him and helps him settle to sleep. He is a great sleeper and would like this continue. Bedtime is the only time he takes a formula bottle. He’s off it completely during the day and takes coconut milk in his Weetabix etc.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you

Why the need to take his bottle away? Risking disturbing his sleep pattern isn't a risk I would be taking....

Our health visitor said he should technically be off all formula now as he’s 17 months. I feel as though we’re being judged as he’s still on formula

We had the same problem at the same age (have you been told they’ll stop prescribing formula at age 2?). We added an ounce of oat milk to the formula bottle and gradually increased the ratio until the bottle was all oat milk. If worked but took a little while!

We’ve actually not been told they’ll stop prescribing aged 2. We assume they would stop when he turned 1 but we’ve just kept schtum and not said anything.

thank you for the advice, I’ll try it!

My daughter was in formula until 2.
She was 20 months before we could start reducing it and adding in oat milk.
There was no chance of getting her off formula at 17 months she needed that little extra time to adjust. She was slow to wean. Our dietician recommended stopping her prescription formula at 2 although her paediatrician would have been happy to keep prescribing it if we hadn't got her off it at about 24-26 months. I can't remember exactly we had gone down to 1 bottle a day at 23 months and then gave that until we ran out of formula

Is there a reason you are using coconut milk? Oat and soya are usually the more typical ones as they tend to be more fortified and closer to the nutrition of milk.

Like others, we did a mix of formula and oat milk and he would accept it.

I wouldn't worry about him being 17 moths and still on allergy formula. We were still on two bottles at 18 months and this was advised by the dietician due to his weight gain being slow/multiple allergies.

Thanks for this! Coconut milk just seemed to be the one he preferred out of them all. We did try the others but coconut milk was the one he liked most.

My 18 month old cmpa toddler still has a bottle at night, he's hit and miss with how much dinners he's ate so it's a top up really. It's oat milk and he drinks about 8z, we brush his teeth afterwards then it's water at night if he wakes. Textbook says he should be off milk for he'd but then mkst of the women I speak to at lmaygroup habe some form of milk up to age 2 even as part of bedtime, it just depends on the needs of the child.

Have you tried the alpro toddler soya if your little one isn't also allergic to soya. It's much sweeter than the oat milk