Advice re: cutting down/out night feed (ff)

[larks35]

Hi, I have a lovely, healthy 10mo boy. He was breastfed on demand for 6m then gradually switched to ff ready for me to go back to work. At first he didn't have much milk at one sitting so was having six 4oz bottles over 24hours. He now has 6-7oz per milk feed and has five of these over 24hours and eats 3 good meals a day. The thing is one of these feeds is in the middle of the night and I really want to cut it out.

HV came recently for 8-12m check and suggested I started watering down the night feed until it is just water but from all I've read watering down formula is a complete no-no. Have I misunderstood her? I haven't been able to ring her due to work, but does anyone here know whether it is safe to do this? Or have any advice on how to cut out this (unnecessary??) night feed.

I personally didn't start to cut out the night feed until after my children hit a year old, but it depends on how ready your child is!
When I did it, I made sure that the equivalent milk for the night feed (i.e. 6oz) was given at an earlier time each night, until eventually the child was incorporating it into their day feeds instead.
Have you tried giving it earlier perhaps, or even dream feeding?
I know that some keep their child waiting a little longer each night instead, so if the feed is at 11pm, give it at 11:10 pm or longer if possible, and continue this way until the feed is cut out.
Another way that was suggested to me, was to just give water...not to water down the feed, but to replace the milk completely with water, as supposedly it means that the child wont like it and eventually wont wake up for a feed.
I think you have to do whats best for you, some of the things I have mentioned may not work! It will take perseverance on your part though, and he may refuse completely to give up the night feed until he is ready.
Hope this helps
xx

I cut the night time bottle down by an ounce at a time over a period of a few weeks but you can water it down too. One bottle being watered down is not a problem - if you did it to all of them, yes it would be an issue.