breast to bottle at 12 months?

[momtokennedy]

Hi

I'm also jumping in here. I am still BF my 12 mth DD last thing at night and first thing in the am. I went back to work a few weeks ago and she is NOT adjusting to daycare very well so I don't want to stop BF all together to stress her out even more.  My DH wants me to stop....I'm not going to be convinced by him though, but I am starting to think that it might help her sleep longer if I do.  Anyway, DD wakes at 5am every morning and I AP to get another hr of sleep in, this is when she nurses in the AM. Should I just stop AP and BF her in her room and see if she'll go back to sleep or just get up with her and offer her milk from a sippy cup? We have tried everything to try to get her to sleep longer ie: through the sleep issues section. I think it is just her habit now. We are also going away in 2 months so I thought I would wait until we get back as I know if she doesn't sleep well I'll have BF to resort to!

So, wait until Daycare settles down and we get back from our trip or start changing the 5am habit sooner?

Also, should I go to a bottle at night as I BF to very sleepy or just skip this step all together and give a sippy cup of milk? VERY NERVOUS about this one.

FYI: I have been anxious for the last 12 months and finally went to see the dr about it and was diagnosed with Post Partum Anxiety...hense me stressing about a vacation happening in 2 months! I just feel like I want to be fully prepared and have the right tools in place before changing/stopping BF.


Cheers
Sarah

[~*Nicole*~]

Since most peds say to switch off bottles near 12 months (though it's not a huge deal if you use them longer) I'd probably not go from BF to bottle and just go right to sippy cups. But I'd do it gradually and continue to BF as long as you'd like. You can probably just start offering her cow's milk in a cup in addition to BFs. Then when she gets the hang of drinking from cups, slowly wean nursing sessions as you are comfortable or by following her lead, etc.

That said, I do think the early morning nursing session is a habit. She wakes b/c she has the habit of waking and then she is able to fall back to sleep b/c she has the comfort of nursing. So you may find that if you stop nursing at this point and either work on getting her to sleep later or alter your routine so she might sleep later you can still nurse at the morning time you'd LIKE her to be waking and taking her first BF. But that is something that will likely take a bit of work to break. I think if I were you I'd wait until Daycare was sorted first actually. Esp. if she's not sleeping well there. That could be contributing to her early waking and then needing that BF as an AP back to sleep. If she's OT then letting her get that extra sleep is beneficial. But once she is adjusted you could work on it.

[gemma2313]

we moved to bottles at about 11 months with ds1. I was pregnant with ds2 so had no choice, my iron plummeted.

He went straight to milk (didnt like formula) and initially didnt like the bottle. He would drink milk from a sippy but I wanted to try a bottle at bedtime. I put jam on the bottle teat for about 3-4 days... and "tricked" him into drinking from it. At the beginnig I would try the bottle first at night, without jam first, if no luck then try with jam, (just a bit to make the teat taste sweet).. I would limit three attempts with the bottle and then wait 10mins before I offered BF. ( Ididnt want him to associate failed bottle with BF success). It took 3-4 days to accept the bottle instead of bf. Once the bottle was established I stopped BF completely. I actually found that the bottle at night filled him up more ?!? and it wasnt long before he stopped wanting his early AM feed anyway. I think we probably had a few days / weeks with earlier than normal starts cause I refused to give that feed and he quickly readjusted (he is/was an angel bub though).

I loved the freedom on not having the early am bf but did miss it initially, it was such a nice quite time together.

ds1 is now 23mo. He kept his evening bottle til about 20mo. He used to have it about 30mins after dinner (and only about 120ml - 180ml depending on how successful dinner was). I didnt want to introduce a prop.

 I replaced it with water at 20mo and he didnt want it anymore. I mistakingly introduced the bottle at a NF when on holiday at about 12mos... dont do that!! He really didnt need it but I felt like I had to give him something. Again it didnt take long, once I'd made up mind, to drop that occasional NF.

 He is now a very independant sleeper that sleeps 11 -12hrs with no fight. NW are VERY rare and purely a result of something being wrong, ie bad dream, teeth, temperature etc.
HTH
Gem

[momtokennedy]

Thanks ladies.  I think I'll wait until my next cycle of days off work and try working on stretching the early AM waking. My issue with introducing the bottle at night is that I know BF is what soothes her the most so I think that she needs that sucking although she won't take a soother or suck her thumb! Perhaps I could nurse her earlier at night and then try to put her down to sleep some other way. I bounce her during the day...I know I am a victim to lots of props but it's what works for us. That might help me eventually wean her. I think I'll still wait until after our holiday to really wean her though.