When did you drop the bedtime feed?

[Livingoffcoffee]

Soon after my DS' 1st birthday we transitioned his morning BF to milk (from a bottle). He's still happy having a BF before bedtime, but I feel like I'm drying up...

When did others drop the bedtime feed? He's also eating so much during the day, not sure if I need to give a bedtime bottle or just drop it altogether?

Any advice welcome x

I wouldn’t move to a bottle at 1 personally. It’s just another thing to then have to get rid of. My kids were both formula fed by 1 so my experience is different, but i was actively weaning them off bottles around then.

I’d probably try and get him off the morning bottle and have milk in a sippy cup and then transition the evening routine to milk in a sippy cup too before teeth brushing. My DD is 2.5 and still has her bedtime milk and I’ve no plans to stop it any time soon. We use the 360 cups

I stopped around 12 months because my Dc had teeth at this age and so dropping the bedtime feed saved me from having to brush their teeth again mid-way through the bedtime routine and I didn’t want them going to bed with milk deposits in their mouth. I was also confident that my Dc were getting enough calories during the day because they were good eaters.
I had also heard that prolonging the bedtime feed can affect a baby's ability to learn to fall asleep on his own.

I BF my DC and the bedtime feed was the last to go -- they were probably both just under 2 years. DS moved on to a sippy cup of cow's milk for a while after that, but DD has never liked cow's milk.

I think by the end they fed for comfort rather than hunger/thirst, but I was fine with that.

It’s totally different for every child. I stopped bf at 15 months so I stopped offering the breast then (cut down to every other day, every 3rd, etc). I had developed quite a bad vitamin d deficiency, so though ds was less and less interested, really I had to stop because I became quite ill.

He continued to have a cup of milk at bedtime til around 22 months though and then mostly asked for water and wouldn’t drink the milk, so we stopped that then.

My first was mostly bottle fed though and she continued to have a cup of milk at bedtime until just before she turned 4.

We moved the bedtime feed to before bath time when DS1 was 7 months old, but he’s now 4 and still has a glass of milk with a banana before bed as part of his evening routine.

Around 9mo - we switched to a breastfeed before dinner instead. And now shes just about to turn one and she's decided she's had enough of breastfeeding pretty much and just has a cup of milk a few times a day with meals and snacks. But we stopped feeding to sleep around 5mo so milk and bedtime weren't overly linked for us by then.

Oh and she uses a 360 cup but until recently it was a weighted straw cup. She's got the hang of tilting now though!

Thanks all. FTM here so just making it up as I go!

His bedtime feed we do before going up for bath/teeth/story, so it's not really tied to his sleeping. I'm happy to continue, even if it's just for comfort - so may just let him be and decide when he's over it. Guess I can still let myself have a night away every once in a while and know he'll be okay.

When transitioning away from the bottle, are you using the same cup you use for water? Not sure if that would confuse him or not?

My 2 year old still has bed time milk although it’s about half an hour before bed at the beginning of the routine so we can brush teeth after. I would get a “special” milk cup rather than a bottle and avoid confusion with the water cup at that age

We just use the same cup, but we do baby signing so when there's milk in it I sign milk and likewise water so she knows what's in it! Milk gets a far more enthusiastic response

We mostly use the 360 cup for milk and a straw cup for water. Purely due to ease of cleaning. They aren’t completely set in stone though, and with 2 kids using sippy cups we have what feels like every type of cup under the sun, so it just depends what’s clean!

Well he was not impressed with the sippy cup this morning! I gave in and just transferred the milk to a bottle, but wondering if I just need to say - that's the cup we get milk in now, if he doesn't want it he just doesn't get milk this morning??

It does take them a while you get used to it! Both of my kids it was only a few days though at 12ish months. It’s kind of up to you if you want the bottle gone or it doesn’t bother you. I’d say though that it seems like the earlier you make the transition the easier it is

13 months here just dropped evening/night time feed I don't think he's even noticed and it's not disturbed his sleep but I would be happy to keep going for another couple of months if he was waking in the night hungry, thankfully he's not