swapping from BF at 11mo - any tips?

[katechristie]

DD is nearly 11 months and I'm thinking about stopping BF soon. I'm back at work in 7 weeks, and although I know at this stage she can go through the day without a feed, it's more the night feedings that I'm no longer coping with. Now it's at the stage where it's affecting her weaning as she's still not eating a lot in the day time - and I want more than a couple of hours sleep in one go!

Given that she's not really getting a varied diet yet, should I swap onto formula, or go straight onto full-fat milk and hope the diet picks up soon?

What would be the best times to offer her milk to try and boost her appetite for food in the day?

With DS I weaned off the BF at 12mo (he's only just turned 3, but I can't remember what I did really!) onto bottles, which we've not long managed to get rid of, so wonder whether to go straight for a cup (she's great on tommee tippee for water) or if a bottle will help at bedtime still? - she's still reliant on the BF to drop off, which is why I haven't even started the swap yet, as it's another issue to deal with and in my sleep deprived state i can't face it yet and I wonder if a bottle at bedtime might help her make the transition easier?

any suggestions to any of this would be most welcome, thank you.

bump anybody?

No reason why you couldn't give a large bottle of cows milk or formula at bedtime and see if that helped with sleeping and still continue to bf as and when.

What I used to do with my DS2 when he was your baby's age, was give him a milky cereal feed after his bath (weetabix, porridge, whatever) and then bf him to sleep so he went to bed on a full stomach and would sleep for much longer. I work shifts so am sometimes not there at bedtime and even at the age he would go to sleep without bf as long as I wasn't there. At that age, he was still bf in the night but only once which was doable ifswim. FWIW, I personally would give cows milk at that age but if you really think his diet is otherwise not great then perhaps formula or follow milk might be best. Up to you.

thanks. I tried a bottle of formula tonight at bedtime, she chewed on the teat grinning and giggling for 5 mins then pulled at my top, after which she had a BF to sleep again. Yes, I think I will go with the cow's milk, at this age I really can't be bothered with the faff of formula, especially if she's not going to take to it for a while anyway - just got a box of the stuff to finish off now.

I've thought that as we've come this far, I might as well continue and surely she'll eventually just drop the wakings as she fills up more in the day, but she just doesn't seem to be taking to food much, and I feel if I can just fill her up at bedtime enough to make her go a bit longer to feed less one night, then she might take more the next day. she still refuses cereal, but maybe I'll try a yogurt after her tea tomorrow, see if that helps. thanks for replying.