Advice on giving up the BT feed

[Buntybear]

Hi,

At almost 13 months I am still doing the WU and BT feeds. Now I have started back at work I am thining of stopping the WU feed to give us more time in the mornings (tho shall miss our time lounging round in bed for an hour!) but just thinking I will give him a sippy of milk whilst I do his brekkie.

It is the BT feed that concerns me as it is such an integral part of getting him ready for sleep. Has anyone BTDT and have any advice on how to make the transition easier? Also do I need to replace it with a milk drink? We are only on oat milk at the mo so not so much nutritional benefit as cow's anyway 

TIA 

[deckchariot]

The bedtime feed was the last one dd gave up (at 14 mos).  We did replace it with a sippy cup of milk.  Dh would always read at BT while I bf - so we switched to books that had lots of pictures that she was interested in and he sat in the rocker with her and the sippy and read while she drank.  She was way more interested in the books/pictures than my boob, so it was easy.  She was beginning to fuss at the BT feed because she was more interested in the stories, so it worked well for us (though I was super sad!).

[Tay]

You don't HAVE to replace with a milky feed for BT, but I also found with mine that it made the transition much easier. DD (who's 3.5yrs) still has some milk at BT, but now she has it before bath and with some flavourings.
xxx

[~*Nicole*~]

We were using bottles at this time and had switched all our other milk feeds to sippy cups. I just decided to change up DD's BT routine and gave her a cup of milk downstairs before we went up. Then went up, did PJs and stories and put into bed. She didn't even seem to notice BT didn't involve a bottle and her belly was still full of milk. We had also already switched to all cow's milk at this point. After that we slowly worked toward all her milk feeds being offered during meal times. She still really liked having her morning and evening feeds separate, but we got there!

[Buntybear]

Thanks. He still seems so keen on both these feeds at the mo am putting it off again! Nursery this weds to fri so thinking might try dropping wu feed then.

Re the BT feed - how much milk would you offer in a sippy? Do you offer it warm? Should I just go cold turkey with the bf? It has only been 2/3 weeks since he dropped the NF so bit concerned he gets enough in his tummy to get him through the night 

Am making sure that we have stories/lullabies after the BT bf as he still gets very sleepy during the feed (esp as we have dropped his CN and he esp tired at BT now). Would it be best to get DH more involved now as DS doesn't associate BT so much with me and the bf now?

Thanks!

[deckchariot]

I would definitely get dh involved now - then if weaning the feed is really hard, dh can do BT without you (and your boobs...).  We gave dd about 4 oz of milk in a sippy cup and yes, I did warm it up.  We went cold turkey as well.  She was ready, so I think that's why it worked so well with us - and dh was there too, so she began associating BT more with the stories/prayers/songs than bfing.  good luck!!

[Tay]

Same here, we never measured but I would guess it's around 4/5oz and we did warm it up!
Good luck!
xx

[~*Nicole*~]

We probably did a lot more oz thank that, but DD has always been a big drinker and still always eats well so we just filled up a sippy. I did warm her cow's milk until she was used to it straight from the fridge, but not a ton. Just enough to take the chill off.