How to wean off bottle?

[AleaEim]

Looking for advice on two things really, how to night wean and also how to gradually stop bottle before bed.

I combi feed my almost 11 month old dd (breast during the day and usually one 10 oz bottle of milk before bed). She did go through a phase of waking for the day at 4am at 9 months so we introduced a bottle at this time which got her back down for a few more hours. In the last couple of weeks, she started sleeping through so I figured she didn’t need a nighttime feed anymore. Something seems to be changing as she has started to wake during the night again.

Monday night she woke at 1am, I rocked her and she went back until 6am. Last night she woke at 1, rocked her to sleep but she woke 5 minutes after being in the crib, gave her a quick breastfeed and same thing again, up 5 minutes of being in the crib. Then I gave her a 10oz bottle and she’s been asleep since.

I guess I’m worried that I’ll get her into a habit of waking for a bottle when I know she doesn’t need it. Especially since it’s advised to wean her off the bottle at 12 months. I was hoping to just wean her off bottles sooner rather than later as she will be 12 months just before Christmas and since we’ll be staying with relatives then, I thought it would be good to do it before then. Also she’s starting nursery just after Christmas so didn’t want too many changes all at once. I could be wrong but I don’t think dd cares much about the bottle, it’s more about the milk, she’s a v hungry baby. Never stops eating.

Any advice much appreciated.

Their sleep changes all the time and they go through phases. I’ve always gone with it at that age, they’re still very young. My DS is almost 2 and 99% of the time goes through the night fine but very occasionally asks for milk in the night and I give it to him. My dd was still having the odd drink of milk in the night until she was 2.

Did you give it in a bottle or a cup? I just worry as dd has 8 teeth so bottles could affect her badly over time? Did you take them off formula at exactly 12 months and switch to cows? How did they react to that?

We still did a bottle as it wasn’t every night. We kept formula until around 15 months then stopped, we gradually introduced cows milk from 12 months. 15 months was when he dropped the bedtime feed so he only had a bottle of cows milk occasionally during the night, then used a sippy cup in the day for water and his morning milk.

The advice is a guide, it doesn’t have to be exact. Its also aimed at the extremes, I have seen three year olds out with a bottle during the day for example. The odd bottle at night whilst they’re still young is fine.

That seems like a lot of change in a relatively short space of time.

Could you stop the bottles now and offer a cup instead? She might not like it but she will get used to it after a couple of days hopefully.

Once she’s hit 12 months you can think about some gentle night weaning.

Hopefully, if you do it that way around it will be easier aA she won’t be having the same quantity of milk at night from a cup

Ah I see, how did you gradually introduce cows milk? Did you give smaller amounts first to see if they liked it? I don’t think dd will have a preference, she just loves anything consumable, although I did offer water last night but she wasn’t having any of it.

Yes it is so I was happy when she appeared to be sleeping through and giving up night feeds but now that doesn’t seem to be happening.

Thats a good idea to try a cup now. The only thing is, she absolutely guzzles down milk, I use a medium flow and she’ll polish a bottle off in less than 5 minutes and that’s with me taking the bottle from her and enforcing breaks. A cup might be even worse, I suppose I’ll just give her breaks with it.

We switched one of the bottles for cows milk and then after a while switched the next. Then switched to during the day cups only.

Just re staying with relatives.....we went to stay with family for a month when my son was 13 months. He was night weaned, sleeping through the night. It completely threw him off. He was super happy in the day but clearly the whole change gave him some anxiety as he was up 3x or 4x night and would not go back down without milk.

We've been home for a month and last night was the first night he didn't have any milk since before we went away!

So don't make too many changes at once, they don't take it well at all!

And also take it in your stride a bit, they change a lot.

And to be honest, I'm 36 and sometimes wake up really thirsty so I can imagine they're the same

Good to know. She’s pretty easy going in new places, loves new people but I realise she could change by then.

Yep, we travel quite a bit as we live abroad. Once he hit 12 months, it got exponentially harder because he just isn't as adaptable. Toddlers notoriously love routine and I can see it for myself now.

Hi, I’m just coming back to this thread as I started using a cup of milk instead of a bottle, dd doesn’t mind at all but sometimes she vomits all the milk up when she gets bad wind. We’ve tried the fast and slow flow version but sometimes the slow flow is worse for giving her wind, she drinks from the fast flow setting so fast and it also makes her sick. Any tips on this? I’m wondering whether to just stop milk before bed and just breastfeeed her, I had worried she wouldn’t sleep during the night anymore if I did this though as my supply has reduced a little.

If BFing her is an option, I’d do that. BM contains Melatonin so hopefully it will help her drift off to sleep naturally, plus you won’t have the concern if her vomiting.

BFing is based on demand so it will easily adjust to fit in this new feed.

Hmm yes I hope so but my supply decreased when she was 6 months due to medication , she might not need as much now though.