9 month old night feed

[hodgepodge21]

My 9 month old little boy is a really good sleeper (or so I thought), sleeping 6:30-6:30 in his own cot with one quick bottle (formula) at around 4am. However I just had my 9 month check with the health visitor and she seemed really surprised he still needed a night feed. She was also worried about his teeth if he is still having a night feed, especially as it's in a bottle. He definitely wants milk in the night - he usually has between 150-180ml (and also eats well during the day) so I was just going with the flow. I know he needs to be off bottles at 12m but I was going to worry about that in a few more weeks. However this has obviously made me really worried I'm doing the wrong thing! She has told me to wean him off it, by either going cold turkey or reducing the amount each night. But then I'm worried he is going to be hungry or just cry for hours! I just wanted to check if it was normal for a formula fed 9 month old to still have a night feed? And if not, what I should be doing!

Tell you HV to do one, that’s nonsense!

I’m BF and baby feeds loads still, I’m not going to stop.

I think cups are recommended after 6 months though, not bottles? We’ve never used bottles but I’m sure it said that somewhere. We use cups for water and would do for milk if I couldn’t BF

Thanks @Megan2018 for your reply! Good to know you think it's a weird thing to say too. Thanks for the advice about the cup too - only problem we have is that our DS can't use a cup it's one of the things he didn't do so well on his assessment with. We have tried a cup with every meal since 6m but he just doesn't get it, chews it instead! We have only recently started having success with a sippy cup in the last couple of weeks and even then he spits it out everywhere! So don't really fancy that during a night feed. I will keep persevering and can then hopefully swap to a cup once he gets it!

We had the same issue with our daughter. We put a sports bottle of water in her bed and gave her a slice of toast before bed and it seemed to satisfy her. The milk was definitely a comfort thing for her, I don't believe she was genuinely hungry. Once she realised she was only getting water and not milk she gave up her complaining but it did take a few nights.

It’s completely normal for a baby that age to need milk overnight. You have a third of his life again before you get to 12 months.

Hmm I’m going to go against the grain here and say your HV might be right. My DS was still waking up at that time and happily drinking a bottle of milk at that age, so I just presumed he needed it. When my mum heard this she was dubious and said that she didn’t think he needed it at his age. That night I didn’t feed him - I just cuddled him back to sleep and it was pretty easy. He probably just took the milk for comfort when actually he could easily do without. He started sleeping through not long after. I would give not feeding him a try - he might go back to sleep much more easily than you predict. If he doesn’t you can have a bottle on standby.