BF baby needs to switch quickly, but what to?

[user1473504687]

For reasons outwith our control, my DD's mother is going to be unable to BF from tomorrow. DD is 13 months and stopped taking bottles at about 6 months (I'd feed her expressed milk during the night). I'm a bit worried about how she'll handle such a sudden change and I have no idea what to replace it with since DD never really took any formula apart from the occasional 'emergency bottle' of Aptamil. Thanks in advance for any advice.

I was going to say actimel but at 13 months in not so sure - can't they go onto cows milk at that age as they should be eating a pretty full diet?

Aptamil even !

Cows milk is fine it may be a tough transition but she will get through it, you all will.

Maybe straight to a free flow sippy cup if she won't accept a bottle?

At 13 months dc2 is on cows milk [lactofree milk] He has a cup [tommee tippee] of milk at breakfast, in the afternoon after his nap and at bedtime - he sits at the table and drinks it. TBH I am cutting down to just the morning/evening milk soon as I don't think he needs the afternoon milk anymore.

Thanks. I'll get her some whole milk and try her on that. It is unfortunate that she'll not be getting all the other goodies that come from breast milk, but she gets wellbaby vitamins with breakfast and dinner. She loves porridge, so I can start making that with milk instead of water, just to make sure she's getting enough. The real struggle will be getting her to see a bottle as a feed again, rather than as a drink like the water she has in her cup. Fingers crossed. Thanks again. x

I would give her whole milk in a bottle, so she still has the comfort of sucking.

Hope it goes ok!

Yeah, I'll try putting the milk in her miracle cup instead of a bottle, hopefully she'll take more from that, though she does tend to take her time with water when it is in it. I might get a different coloured miracle cup so that it has a visual difference as well.

Should I start by warming it to BM temp and gradually bring the temp down until she's taking it straight from the fridge?

I wouldn't put her onto a bottle - I would start from "day 1" with a cup/beaker and I would give it cold too. We use this and it has some similarities to a bottle - the spout is soft, it's bottle shaped etc but can be held by them with the handle

She hasn't used a bottle in over 6 months, so I think I'll get a different colour Miracle Cup that will be for milk, that way there's an association with the difference. Thanks, everyone.

I weaned mine onto Chocolate milk! 😳
Very weak, just a teaspoon and French, with added vitamins. They're all late teenagers now and stall and thin, no cavities.

What are the reasons for not bf ? It's just sometimes people are told to stop when they don't actually need to.

I wouldn't use a bottle as you are supposed to stop them by 1 year. Some sort of cup and whole cows milk would be OK. If they don't drink much give other dairy products to make up the intake

I definitely wouldn't bother with bottles - you're theoretically not meant to use them after 12 months anyway. My 2 BF toddlers did much better with cups which were as unlike a breast as possible, and quickly learnt to down loads from a bog standard tommy tippie.