Getting 3yo off bottles at night!!

[YoungGiftedwithflab32]

My 3yo ds still drinks bottles of milk/SF juice at night, I want to stop this so he an I sleep better and for potty training reasons.

He falls asleep with a bottle of milk then he will wake regularly for a bottle of juice, its been like this for about 2 years and it's the only way he seems to sleep for me, also a comfort thing. Sometimes he will wake just once or twice but some nights it can be up to 8 times in a single night (exhausting).
I really want to start potty training him now but feel he doesn't fully understand when I explain things to him ( I.e. your a big boy now so no more nappies its time to wee on the potty and wear big boy pants)

Any ideas how to get the bottles off him at night as I think this is the way to start , please correct me if I'm wrong. Any advice, tips and tricks welcome.

And I know how bad it is for their teeth having bottles, bottles of milk/juice at night, but for a child that hasn't had a full night's sleep for all his life I tried anything just to get a couple of hours sleep myself. Selfish I know! But I'm exhausted
He doesn't have a bottle during the day it is really only for sleep. And his teeth are brushed twice a day (he doesn't like it but they have to be done, and so far they are good teeth) and sees a dentist regularly.

Again any help welcome

[GenghisCalm]

Start diluting the nighttime juice down each night until it is just water. Once it is plain water they will stop wanting it unless they are thirsty.

[Thomasthetank456]

Watching with interest I have a 2 1/2 year old who still has s bottle of milk at night and 1st thing when he wakes. It's a comfort thing at night don't know how to stop them. If I say your s big boy etc he replies with no I'm not can't win . He just to wake in the night for 1 too which he seems to have grown out of. I would do the same if it means better sleep for you x

[YoungGiftedwithflab32]

Almost a year later update!

My darling D's, is autistic, we saw a consultant in January and I explained to her about the nightmare of nights we have with the constant waking for juice/milk, she told me to give him his bottle of milk as normal to go to bed with but stop the juice, she said he will cry for a few nights/weeks but it will settle down and he will sleep.

Well.... It worked...to a degree anyway, he still has milk to go to sleep with but no more juice throughout the night, I told him what the "Dr" said and he went with it!!totally shocked me how easy it actually was. I would say to him for the first few nights when he would wake " go back to sleep now DS, the doctor said no more juice in bed" and he would!!

We still have bad nights from time to time but I would say 80% of the time he will sleep almost all night. It's so great being able to sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time, although I think I'm so used to being woken up through the night that I do still wake every few hours but can just get back off with having to settle DS first.

Persistence is key, next step for us is to stop the milk altogether.

[boopdoop]

Don't know if this will help, but I thought it'd be a nightmare trying to stop my DS's bottle at bedtime, but we swapped and did a small mug of milk downstairs before going up to bed. First couple of nights he asked for bottle, but then didn't ask again and now sometimes has a cup of milk after tea and before bed and sometime doesn't. In a similar way to his you found the nighttime change, I thought it'd be really hard to change it but it actually was ok and he went with it. Good luck. x