Can I cut out formula all together?

[makeupmum23]

Hi mums

I have an 11 month old boy who has never once slept through the night since the day he was born. The last few months he wakes at least 3-4 times a night. I have tried everything from establishing a routine (bath, bottle, bed etc), the shush pat, controlled crying etc etc. He will not sleep through. I've tried anti-reflux milks, tiring him out during the day, limiting naps. Nothing has made even a tiny amount of difference.

I have started to wonder if he is having issues with his milk? The reason I never thought this seemed an issue before is that he happily drank it during the day, burped, was pooing fine, only had occasional wind and never seemed to develop any rashes to suggest allergy etc. so I figured it couldn't be that, however I'm starting to think maybe his stage 2 (has been on Aptimil for as long as I can remember) is disagreeing with him even just a little bit enough to make him restless at night with a bit of a sore tummy. He takes a dummy and sometimes he literally just needs to have it put back in, a little cuddle then laid back down, however its the amount he wakes in the night that makes me wonder if there's something wrong!

He has been a perfectly healthy, happy baby from day one, developing at a good rate. I feel like I should mention that he currently has 8 teeth so far (so could be the reason he wakes) and has another 3-4 currently cutting through so I fully understand this could well be the reason but he wasn't sleeping through even before teething and he doesnt seem bothered by his teeth during the day so I'm stumped.

Anyway - my MAIN question is:

is it safe at 11 months to cut out formula completely and just provide him with full fat cows milk, water and solid food?

He gets on fine with food and I don't feel like anything I've fed him has contributed to poor sleep as I mentioned before he has never been a good sleeper so even prior to solids he was still waking regularly.

Please no nasty/rude comments, I am a first time mum just looking for some advice. I am booking him into the doctors tomorrow to rule anything out but thought I would ask for anyone else's experience with formula/cows milk.

Thanks!

x

Do you feed him when he wakes in the night?

You can switch to cow's milk from 12 months but it's worth trying it now to make sure he likes it. If you think the formula is not agreeing with him then mention it to your HV and I expect they'll agree that it's ok to stop.

His little tummy is getting used to all the new foods at this age so it could just be indigestion. My DS could eat his own body weight in berries which doesn't always agree with him!

Hope it goes OK at the docs. Chin up

No it's too early to cut out formula and too early for cows milk.

The dummy is your problem - it's his sleep association hence he wakes and needs it to go back to sleep. The waking is normal but you need him to self settle without the dummy to sleep through.

Ps for you as well as you must be exhausted

It may just be that he isn't ready to sleep all night. At 11 months, my oldest certainly needed intervention a couple of times a night, and we were both dairy free (I was bf, no formula).
It's exhausting.
What do you think you would remove from his diet by moving to cow's milk?? The most common things that people are sensitive to occour in both if dairy is likely to be the issue.
Would moving back to stage 1 be possible if you think it is the stage 2 causing problems?

I agree with the dummy falling out probably not helping.

If he is a decent size and wasn't prem it should be ok. There is no magic transformation at midnight on their birthday, I don't think.

Have you tried having several dummies in the bed so he can find it? Or using a dummy tether attached to the cot side so it doesn't escape? Do they still do dummies with glow in dark handle?

If you said he was fine until you swapped to aptamil 2, can't you just go back to aptamil 1 for one month and then wean into cows milk?

Otherwise I'd just check with the health visitor if introducing cows milk would be a major issue.
I know there is a cows milk by Arla called Big Milk (it's kept with all the other chilled milks in supermarkets) This was recommended for my dd by a paediatrician when she first went onto cows milk (but she had issues with weight gain) but this is an enriched milk with added vitamins etc so you could always check with health visitor if that could be an option?

I'd swap back to Stage 1 formula if your DS had no issues with it. Also look at full fat goats milk rather than cows milk when you do move on. My little one struggled with cows milk and woke in the night with stomach pains, but has no issues with goats milk. Most large supermarkets sell it now so not difficult to get hold of. Good luck.

They can stay on the first infant milk until they are a year old . There's no need to be on stage 2 - it's all a marketing ploy because they can't advertise stage 1 milk!

Thank you for all your replies, they've been very helpful :)

Yes I think I should cut out the dummy as he only ever takes it when he's going off to sleep so I can see why this would cause him to wake up/cry when he spits it out in his sleep. I never really thought of that actually! I put him down for a nap earlier without the dummy and after about 20 minutes of basically crying half asleep, he fell asleep for a good hour. So I hope we can get some success tonight!

I will definitely take all the comments on board - he's booked into doc's for thursday so even if they say everything's fine at least I can cancel out any major problems :)