Baby won't take bottle at night....weaning...

[starryfish]

Okay I am trying to wean my baby to formula and she is taking formula at other feeds but has refused the bottle at night. She will take the first 2oz but then hits the bottle and refuses it after that. 
Things I have tried (and failed):
-mixing BM/formula
-only formula
-having my DH give it to her instead

The only thing that somewhat worked was doing the bait and switch. I fed her 2oz, and then when she refused, waited (and tried to wait her out), but then nursed her and then switched her to bottle when she was sleepy. Obviously this won't work long term once I am not producing anymore.


Any suggestions? Should I try to up her previous bottle of formula (she takes her previous bottle around 530 and gets her bottle/nursing at 730)? I have a small/medium BM stash in the freezer, so I could give her BM bottles for a while.... 

[grover]

Can you space out her last two feeds more? We bottle feed (A is 4 months) and she takes 7 ounces at 7 am, 6 ounces at 10/1/4, and then 7 ounces at 7pm. Formula is more filling than BM, so when we went from combo feeding to EFF, we spaced out the bottles more.

[starryfish]

Jul 21, 2017 9:37:10 GMT -5 grover said:

Can you space out her last two feeds more? We bottle feed (A is 4 months) and she takes 7 ounces at 7 am, 6 ounces at 10/1/4, and then 7 ounces at 7pm. Formula is more filling than BM, so when we went from combo feeding to EFF, we spaced out the bottles more.

Yea I think this is a good idea. Right now we have been combo feeding (BM at daycare) and formula at home to make sure she took the formula ok (she has a milk allergy and is on RX formula). Tomorrow we will try to do all formula and will space out her feeds more. I am so used to her eating every 2.5-3 hours since it was BM. 

[janegold]

Does she eat any solids in the evening? I'm still BFing 2x a day (wakeup and bedtime) but lately I have noticed he barely wants to nurse at bedtime (which is leaving me super engorged the next day). The last couple days, I have tried nursing him before he gets any solids in the evening, and he's been doing better.

[starryfish]

Jul 21, 2017 10:00:32 GMT -5 janegold said:

Does she eat any solids in the evening? I'm still BFing 2x a day (wakeup and bedtime) but lately I have noticed he barely wants to nurse at bedtime (which is leaving me super engorged the next day). The last couple days, I have tried nursing him before he gets any solids in the evening, and he's been doing better.

yea she had a pouch at 630. She refused the bottle, but will happily nurse for 20-30+ minutes after refusing the bottle. 

[sillygoosegirl]

How old? Is it possible baby is waking more for comfort than nutrition at night at this point? Mine would never take a bottle at night either, but we found she slept equally well (or, later on, equally poorly) regardless of how we put her back to sleep when she woke up...

[starryfish]

Jul 21, 2017 11:08:31 GMT -5 sillygoosegirl said:

How old? Is it possible baby is waking more for comfort than nutrition at night at this point? Mine would never take a bottle at night either, but we found she slept equally well (or, later on, equally poorly) regardless of how we put her back to sleep when she woke up...

7months. This is her bedtime bottle that she is refusing bc she wants to nurse. 

[lilac05]

I haven't been around much lately, so I don't know why you're weaning her. If you're just done breastfeeding or want/need to do it for your own health/happiness, then just keep doing what you're doing and try some above suggestions. (Even BF, after a few months, DS1 was very happy on a 7AM/10/1/4/7PM schedule. No comfort nursing between feedings because I didn't want to/couldn't do it mentally.)

She may not actually be very hungry at 7:30 if she just had a bottle at 5:30 and is getting some solids. You could try to just see if she'll go to sleep after that and see what happens. (I'd do that on a weekend night when you can sleep a little during the day in case it doesn't work.) The hard part about nursing is that you have no idea how much baby is taking. She may be mostly just nursing for comfort and is actually just taking a couple of ounces. 2oz at bedtime doesn't seem like much, but it may be all that she needs right then.

If, however, YOU are not bothered by the bedtime nursing, it's OK to just keep nursing her at bedtime while doing formula at all other times. Your supply may surprise you. Mine stayed sufficient for my youngest to nurse only at night for a year+ after he stopped nursing in the morning and during the day. With my oldest, I did only wake-up and bedtime for 6+ months. It wasn't even a problem when I missed a night or two because I was out with friends, at a meeting, or whatever. If your supply does deplete, then you will figure it out at that point...but she will have experienced that dwindling supply and will probably be more receptive to a bottle if she still needs more at that time.

[minionkevin]

Jul 21, 2017 11:30:24 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

I haven't been around much lately, so I don't know why you're weaning her. If you're just done breastfeeding or want/need to do it for your own health/happiness, then just keep doing what you're doing and try some above suggestions. (Even BF, after a few months, DS1 was very happy on a 7AM/10/1/4/7PM schedule. No comfort nursing between feedings because I didn't want to/couldn't do it mentally.)

She may not actually be very hungry at 7:30 if she just had a bottle at 5:30 and is getting some solids. You could try to just see if she'll go to sleep after that and see what happens. (I'd do that on a weekend night when you can sleep a little during the day in case it doesn't work.) The hard part about nursing is that you have no idea how much baby is taking. She may be mostly just nursing for comfort and is actually just taking a couple of ounces. 2oz at bedtime doesn't seem like much, but it may be all that she needs right then.

If, however, YOU are not bothered by the bedtime nursing, it's OK to just keep nursing her at bedtime while doing formula at all other times. Your supply may surprise you. Mine stayed sufficient for my youngest to nurse only at night for a year+ after he stopped nursing in the morning and during the day. With my oldest, I did only wake-up and bedtime for 6+ months. It wasn't even a problem when I missed a night or two because I was out with friends, at a meeting, or whatever. If your supply does deplete, then you will figure it out at that point...but she will have experienced that dwindling supply and will probably be more receptive to a bottle if she still needs more at that time.

Her DD is allergic to dairy and she has had to drastically alter her diet IIRC.


pandce.proboards.com/post/12745966


If she is going to continue nursing, she is going to continue being dairy-free, which is the challenge.

[lilac05]

Jul 21, 2017 11:51:24 GMT -5 minionkevin said:

Jul 21, 2017 11:30:24 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

I haven't been around much lately, so I don't know why you're weaning her. If you're just done breastfeeding or want/need to do it for your own health/happiness, then just keep doing what you're doing and try some above suggestions. (Even BF, after a few months, DS1 was very happy on a 7AM/10/1/4/7PM schedule. No comfort nursing between feedings because I didn't want to/couldn't do it mentally.)

Her DD is allergic to dairy and she has had to drastically alter her diet IIRC.

If she is going to continue nursing, she is going to continue being dairy-free, which is the challenge.

Thanks.  starryfish, disregard the second half of my post, then.  We only continued nursing like that because it worked and it was easiest for us.  If continued nursing would have meant even a moderately altered diet for me, I would have been done ASAP.  If YOU want to keep up the dairy-free nursing, more power to you...but you've done a fantastic job to make it this far!  Hopefully one of the tips you get here will help you make the transition quickly and smoothly.

[starryfish]

Thanks all. I will try spacing her evening bottles out more. :-)