20 months and still waking up for nighttime bottle Help!

[oasis]

My 20 month old DD has never wanted a bottle first thing in the morning when I cut her bottles down to two a day. She has always woken up in the middle of the night for a bottle and even when she has rarely slept through the night has refused a bottle in the morning. I know that this is a ingrained habit now, but how do I get out of it? And how many bottles of milk should she have per day? At the moment she is having 16floz, is this enough? Too much? Have tried beakers and cups for milk and she will have none of it.

[koalabear]

You have two issues here - the interupted sleep, and the intake of calcium.

Re calcium, I would have thought that 16 oz is fine. Maybe you will find that when she gives up the nighttime bottle, she will want the morning bottle. In any case, I wouldn't worry about the timing of the milk during the day and whether or not she has milk in the morning, as long as sometime during the day she is getting about a pint (or equivalent in cheese, yoghurt etc).

RE sleep, We used Richard Ferber's sleep book to help with us (very useful, available through Amazon - I'd sell you mine, but we are still using it for no. 2).

Good luck

[Latz]

Try looking at the Baby Whisperer - or even Gina Ford - different methods - like the Baby Whisperer one myself - maybe its just comfort or maybe just thirsty - water not so attractive although you might have a couple of tough nights until she gets used to it - worth it in long run.

[Marne]

My dd is 2 and still has a bottle in the night, sometimes she will sleep through but most nights she will wake at 3am and ask's for milk, ive tried watering it down, giving her a cup but she wont stop crying until she has her bottle. She does'nt need it but i dont know how to get her out of the habit. Sory i have no advice for you oasis but thought it would help to let you know your not alone on this one.

[Latz]

have a look here

[pinkmagic1]

2 bottles a day should be enougth at this age plus yoghurt, cheese etc. It sounds like the night time bottle is more of a comfort thing than anything. You could try just offering water when she wakes in the night and the controlled crying teqnique. Its not pleasent, but we went through a period of night waking with DS a few months ago, also 20 months and after 3 nights of controlled crying he was sleeping through.

[oasis]

Thanks for all the good advice. Must say I do like the sound of the Baby Whisperer advice on watering down the bottles gradually, think I will give that a go and see how we get on from there.

[MrsWood]

Oh, we had that until around 22-23 months when she suddenly slept through the night. It was few days later when we finally accepted she's given up night feeds for good - before we just thought she must've been really really knackered to sleep throughout. We really didn't know what to do - she'd wake 2-3 times a night, and no water or watered milk would do - milk and milk alone. It was a nightmare and I symphatise, but if nothing works - rest assured, they do grow out of it.

[Babyblue2]

I'd agree with koalabear. We used Richard Ferber's book too, for both our DDs. Its call How to change your child's sleep patterns. Very good. I'd recommend it.

[lunarx]

ds went thru a stage like this around 15 months (he's almost 20 months now).. we started offering water when he'd wake up, eventually, he stopped waking up. the hv assured me that he should not be needing any additional milk during the night...

[kbaby]

my DD 20 months has only recently cut out night time milk.
We went cold turkey, we didnt get much crying but instead went back to bed and went sshhh very loudly until she fell to sleep. After a few nights it worked and although she stil wakes and asks for milk a sshh and sometimes water is all it takes to get her back to sleep.
You should just try cutting it out as it may be easier than you think.
The correct amount of milk is 12oz per day at this age.