How did you drop the night feeds?

[GeordieMamma]

I’d really like to hear how you managed to stop feeding at night.
My son is 13 months and will get through approx 12oz of formula a night and waking every 1.5-2hours. I can count on 1 hand how many times we’ve gotten more than 3 hours sleep in a row.
He goes straight back to sleep after some milk (just water or dummy rarely help to settle him). So I’m pretty confident the milk is a habit for him to wake up for. I’d like to try and cut it down and eventually cut it out altogether through the night. I don’t think he’s actually hungry either as he’ll only drink 2oz at a time, max. He’s just drinking small amounts throughout the night. He eats well through the day and is really active so I’m pretty sure this is a bad habit we’ve gotten into!
Any advice is appreciated .

Definitely sounds like he is waking as habit rather than hunger! Also worth considering his teeth as he gets older, and formula through the night won't be good for them. We watered down the formula gradually over a couple of weeks. I know they say don't water down formula, but that's for little babies who need the nutrition. At 13 months your DS doesn't need formula at all and could be on cows milk so think it's absolutely fine. Just gradually increase the ratio of water, I found by the time it was over 50% water my DS just stopped waking for it! On the odd time he did I just gave water and he eventually didn't bother at all. No crying, nothing, just gradually got bored of waking! Do it, changed my life!!

Thank you @hodgepodge21! I will certainly have a go at that. He didn’t really take to cows milk tbh maybe I should offer that through the night and water it down as your described. I really hate the thought of him crying so I hope this works for me too.

Mine is 14 months old. I mix cow's milk and formula - 60:40 or 70:30. He just stopped waking up for his 2-4 am feed one fine night. He makes the sleepy noises and if we bring him into our bed, he gets snuggly with either of us and goes back to deep sleep. He has his last feed (as described) at 11 pm, and wakes up at around 6. It was honestly a surprise the first night I didn't have to get up at an unearthly hour and slept through the night lol..

Am hoping gradually he stops needing to be brought into our bed and sleeps through on his own soon.. fingers crossed..

Thank you @Anurulz. I hope that day comes soon for you . Unfortunately co sleeping doesn’t seem to help my boy, still have the same amount of wake ups!

Aww, I was hoping the cosleeping might help you as well. I don't know if mixing the formula and cow's milk would help. DS didn't notice the change in taste so much and gulped it down.