1 year old and waking in night after switching to cows milk

[aimzbub22]

Hi

My LO recently just turned one. Since about ten months her first bottle of the days has been cows milk and I usually split that with her cereal and then her last bottle of the day would be formula. Since switching her last bottle into a cup and now being completely on cows milk she is waking several times through the night. Before this she was sleeping through the night. She started sleeping through from ten months which I thought was a coincidence with starting her on cows milk, but apparently not now she is completely on it.

When she last got weighed the health visitor told me that babies tend to wake in the night if they are not getting enough in the day, she has three meals a day, and she only 18 pounds at a year (she has always been small) so a lot of the time her appetite isn't that big with being so dinky.

Another thing I got told us that it could be an allergy that is causing her discomfort during the night. Or that the milk can be a bit harsh to start off with and it takes a little time for her tummy to adjust.

And other ideas would be grateful. She is having her jabs in a couple of days so I will be talking to the doctor about this if she is still not sleeping through

Try putting her back onto formula before bed and see how you get on? If it gives you all a better night's sleep then there's no harm in it. We didn't switch to cows milk before bed until 19 months!

You could offer larger portions at meal times, or offer some light supper before bed?

Is it definitely hunger that is waking her up? You say that it is happening several times a night - is she having milk each time? Can you settle her without a feed? There could be other causes of night waking totally unrelated to the milk (teething, cold, random noises etc)

I think you probably would have noticed a milk allergy before now, if she has been having it since 10 months without any problems. Is she in obvious discomfort when she wakes up?

I wouldn't be inclined to put it down to the cow's milk either, but she may indeed be hungry. You could reduce some of the bottle-milk quantity and see if she might eat more solids that way - her gut's old enough now to really get the benefit from solids and after a year they don't really need morning and evening bottles.

I got told she still needed 16 oz of milk and two bottles were fine by our health visitor. She slept through last night. I just think it was a one off, and she has just had her 7th tooth pop through. Fingers crossed that was the reason