Milk at night how to stop without MAJOR crying??

[girlsyearapart]

Hi am currently feeling veeery sleep deprived so would like to hear any advice please!

Dd2 is 16 months and can sleep through the night but gets into phases where she wakes every night and the only thing that will get her back to sleep is a bottle of milk. The waking phases are more 'normal' than the sleeping through phases..

I have tried giving it to her in the cot but no she wants it downstairs where you feed her then cuddle her until she is asleep then put her back to bed.

She knows how to fall asleep as she goes to bed awake at bedtime and naptime with no problem.

I tried patting her and shushing her the other night but I was there for an hour and she got hysterical so I gave in.

She has had very bad excema so we have always been more 'gentle' on her at night as the itching would keep her awake.

Now this is a habit rather than a real need to wake and I need to break it.

Dd1 (2.4) not sleeping fantastically well either since she got into a proper bed and I am 12 wks pg with dc3.

So any ideas?
I can handle a few nights of crying if people thing I might crack it in that time?

This can't carry on much longer- not least because her milk is prescription which may get stopped at 18 mo.

Argh Help!!







If you try to put her back before then she screams blue murder.

[Feierabend]

The only idea I have is CC... have you done that with her before? Or can you try giving her water instead of milk? At this age we put a Tomme Tippee with water in DD1's cot so she could help herself.

[girlsyearapart]

I'm not adverse to doing CC we did it with dd1 (though she was much younger).

The reason we haven't done it with dd2 is that up until recently there was no option but to get her up as it was the itching keeping her awake.

The more she cried, the hotter she got, the itchier she got etc ..

Also easier to do cc when you're not worrying about waking the other child/ren up.

I think it's going to be the only way though. I'm away sunday night and monday night but will go for the cc when I get back. (doubt DH would do it without me here)

[Feierabend]

I know we had the same problem with the CC which is probably why DD2 has got into her bad habits. Now though, although they share a room, her crying rarely wakes DD1 up. Good luck! Has the eczema got a bit better then? DD2 has it too but only mildly.

[girlsyearapart]

Her excema was horrific until she turned 1ish now a lot lot better but is also very related to what she eats as she is allergic to all sorts. We used to have to cover her hands all day and night, did wet wrapping, stayed up most of the night holding her arms etc.

The dds will share a room when dc3 arrives so hopefully this will be sorted by then..

Long time in the life of a small person 6 months so I'm hopeful

[bearhug]

Maybe have a look at Dr Jay Gordon's sleep plan?

This worked for us. My DS 15 months had got into a habit of waking at 2, 4 and 6 AM for a quick feed. the first few nights of offering only cuddles, no milk were difficult and DS made it clear that he was not happy. The key is not giving in of course.

3 weeks on he's sleeping through!!!!!

[PureAsTheColdDrivenSnow]

Night weaning could work. We did it with DS at 16mo (wish we'd done it sooner)

How much milk do you normally give when she wakes, and how many bottles are typical overnight?

DS still woke twice a night at 16mo. We picked the first feed (typically 1am) and for the first couple of nights reduce by 1/2oz, next 2 nights - another 1/2oz, then continued until he didn't wake for that bottle.

This resulted in what was the second bottle moving a bit earlier, but we then repeated the same technique with that feed.

Important bit is to make sure you're not cutting down on milk/calories during the day when you do this - get plenty of dairy into her in her food, this will help.

HTH

[Adair]

Both mine were similar age (14mths iirc)

I offer/ed water instead (in Tommee Tippee cup)

also 'warned' dd/ds that they weren't going to have milk only water at night - and said 'you can have some water'. they understand more than you think at that age.

(Having said that, dd has had the odd cup of milk at night since - and am considering a dreamfeed with ds to stop him waking at 5am...)