Swapping milk to water for night feeds?

[BelleBoyd]

My DS is 13 months and falls asleep with his bottle..yes I know all wrong..should fall asleep on his own etc..
With my first I had the same problem but she was breastfed and eventually got her off night feeds at 21 months when I stopped breastfeeding. I also did CC with her at 7 months which worked a bit but had to keep repeating the process every time she was ill.
With my DS I don't want to do CC as my now 5 year old DD is a light sleeper and she's awake all night and gets really anxious if he's crying.

Anyway so I'm thinking would diluting the bottle feeds at night working towards just water work??
He currently goes to sleep at 7pm, wakes at 11ish, 3ish and then 5/6 for the day. I give him his bottle to go back to sleep for the night feeds.

[FATEdestiny]

Children with teeth really shouldn't have anything other than water after going to bed (and brushing teeth) anyway. This includes milk.

So working towards water (perhaps in a beaker rather than bottle? then a cup) would be a good idea.

[Monkeybrain10]

We have recently managed to wean our baby off night breast feeds to water - this involved my dp having to do the night shifts (hooray !) . We just offered only water and cuddles between his bedtime bottle and morning breastfeed. I realise your baby is older but I'd just swap straight for water. As long as you're comforting him it will only take a few nights for him to get used to It. Good luck !

[BelleBoyd]

He's only just got two teeth a few weeks ago but yes realise it's not the best thing. I'm a single mum so will just be me.
I'm going to dilute by half tonight and then by 1/4 and then totally water and hopefully he'll wake less.
He's never slept through so it might be tricky.

[FelixFelix]

I've done this with my dd. Just before Christmas (she turned 1 on 22nd dec) she was going to bed with a bottle of milk then waking up 2-3 times and guzzling a bottle each time! I did the gradual retreat method to remove the falling asleep bottle. I basically put her in the cot, sat next to it and shushed her until she went to sleep. The first few nights it took her a long time to settle but then I moved further away from the cot each night. I can now put her in the cot then close the door and she will go off to sleep. I swapped the night bottles to water and she stopped waking up as often, and naturally she went down to one wake up and would go back to sleep with her dummy or a tiny bit of water in a bottle.

Fast forward to now (15 months) and a few bad colds after Christmas - the night time bottles of milk have snuck back in. I won't be making that mistake again!! I've swapped her back to water and she's down to one wake up a night but will only go back down if she has a bottle to suck. I've got no idea where to go from there. It feels like I'll still be going in at 2am with a bottle of water when she's 18

Anyway, it can be quite easily done. I wouldn't even water down the milk, just do an outright swap. Look up gradual retreat for a good way to teach them to self settle and get to sleep initially, as I was very skeptical at first but it does work. There's a very good thread on here called 'What worked for us' with lots of helpful info, which is worth searching for.