11 months old and the BT feed

[Buntybear]

HI,

Am have concerns about our BT feed. He does not and never has fed to sleep for naps as we have always really followed EASY but BT is a different matter.

I have understood that the feed is the last thing before bed and we have followed this but it does make him very sleepy if not asleep. Tonight for example we are on a 1 nap day (going through transition) so he is very ready for bed. So he basically fell asleep whilst feeding. I have added to our routine recently putting him on my shoulder to burp him, singing a lullaby, putting him down and then putting cream on his face (eczema). This is in the hope that it will put a space between the feed and sleep. I will try and extend this gradually. Tonight he slept through all that. Last night (2 nap day) he went down sleepy but then roused and cried for 1/2 an hour (seperate issue but just giving info on situation).

So my concerns are 1) I have created a feed to sleep habit 2) what happens when I drop the BT feed and 3) when and how do I drop the BT feed?

TIA

[lulunut]

It sounds like you are doing the best you can with the BT routine.

Not sure if this is correct but this is what I did.  I would change him and take him to another room to BF.  He would be very sleepy almost gone!  Then everyone gets kisses, this woke him a little.  I would brush his teeth and read a story.  He would be snuggled into me and mostly asleep.  I would put him down.  He too would sometimes wake a bit later but I would PUPD until he went down again.

I started to give him a bottle at dinner and just started to give it too him later and later.  It eventually got closer to BT.  I would do bottle first then BF.  He only took little bits from me then one day he just refused, so I stopped offering.  That was the end of it.  Sad, but it worked.

I hope this gives you some ideas!

[~ Vik ~]

Dylan often fed to sleep at bedtime too - mostly when he was younger, but even around 18mo or so it still happened, especially if he was ill or had a bad nap at daycare.  We never had a problem with his independent sleep because of it, though.  I think that as long as it's not a prop that's used for all sleeps it's not *as* much of an issue, kwim? 

Our weaning went pretty much the same way as lulunut - Dylan just gradually got less and less interested in the bedtime feed.  I would offer and he would take a little or refuse it entirely.  He still wants it on occasion (a couple of times a week at most) but for the most part we're done.  When and how you drop the bt feed is really up to you - are you actively weaning or are you planning to have him self wean?  Here's a link with some more info for you, if you're interested:  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=157385.0

[EloysH]

I think it would be totally fine to keep it just before bed. I really don't think you are creating a prop at all luv.  For Ds1 that's what I did for BT too,  and it never really caused a problem for us. When it came time to wean, I kept that as the last feed to go.  Sometimes he could fall asleep on that feed due to a big day, sometimes not.

 When it came time to drop that feed - I kept it till 14 months, he was ALWAYS interested....one night I just sent DH in with him with a cup of milk.  After a few weeks we changed it to water to preserve his teeth.  He really didn't miss it, it was more about me in the end 

[Buntybear]

Thanks everyone, feel a bit better about it now  . Am going to have to create a new post now about DT feeds as I haven't got these right yet!

Love your new avatar of Kai Eloise!