8 month old bottle refusing dd wakes 4 times each night... please help!!

[sharond101]

I am at the end of my tether. My dd is 8 mo and wakes every 2-3 hours and only settles back down with a feed. She takes a deep feed like she is really hungry and I am worried my milk is not satisfying her but she won't take a bottle. I have tried several and cups and am now thinking cold turkey is the only way to do it but I am scared it won't fix the problem and I'll be worse off since as well as waking 3-4 times I'll be making up bottles of formula too. This started before weaning, around 10 weeks ago. I tried to night wean her but every night she screamed for 3-4 hours solid, waking the whole house up and doing my back in whilst trying to comfort her.

Poor you DS is like that. I've taken the path of least resistance and we cosleep. He wakes to feed sometimes once or sometimes 2-3 times but I hardly stir.
I appreciate co sleeping isn't for everyone though and I'm sure other people will be able to give you better advice!

I know this really isn't what you want to hear, but I'd I were you I'd just feed her. I know the exhaustion and the broken sleep is horrendous, but she's still very little and some babies just need more milk overnight than others, and for longer. Having said that, if you really think you'd find formula easier overnight then by all means try and go cold turkey on bf and introduce bottles, but comfort and the familiarity of bf are both big things for babies and it may not be easy to switch her to bottles now. If it helps, I was feeding 2-3 times a night at 8 months and by 9 months my son had just decided to sleep through - it was bloody amazing. I'm not saying it's a given, but it does happen!

I don't want to stop bf but if it would help stop her waking, then again, maybe it wouldn't.

Sorry you are nackered. Probably not what you want to hear but with my ds we co sleep, he is 13 months and Stoll feeds once at night but I barely notice. Is that something you might consider?