To think I shouldn't have to endure breast AND bottle ��

[RunAwayKey]

I breastfed and co slept with my toddler until 22 months, reluctantly, and hourly feeds often. I put up with it thinking at least I don't have to drag myself out of bed at all hours to reheat bottles ?.

So this ended with a lot of encouragement, and bliss for a few weeks... Then the bedtime bottle began. Fine I thought.
Next came the 4-5am hot milky request. Ok I thought, it's better than getting up then.
Next came the 10-11pm one. This is when she comes from her bed into mine, so again it's bearable.
But 1.30 am? No! No no no.

Why am I doing 4 bottles a night for a 2.5 year old?! My boobs suffered to avoid this ??

AIBU to have a full blown tantrum when she next wakes me up?!

Yep, just say no! When I decided to (finally!) stop giving my DD milk (she was still nighttime bf, 20m but I was pregnant and needed to stop) next night that she asked I said no, but managed to avoid a scene by putting on Sad face and acting like I was sorry about out too but that there just wasn't any... This seems to have worked for quite a few things I've said no to, BTW! Might be worth a shot?! :)

Just stop.

I fed my first child until 2.5 yrs old. It just became a complete dysfunctional nightmare of disrupted sleep for everybody.

Go cold turkey. Offer cuddles and reassurance and co-sleeping if you want to, but no milk. It took a (hellish) week to break the cycle for us. Worth it though. He stopped waking in the might/waking early within a week or so of having no drinks (other than a beaker of water beside the bed that he could get himself).

A child of that age does not need milk at stupid times of the night. Thats the bottom line.

cold turkey. ride out the tantrums. She will try of course she will but if your firm she will realise after a couple of days she's not getting anything.

don't cave. She will go straight to the high pitched shrieking or whatever that made you cave last time.

nutritionally she does not need this. In fact if you fill her up on milk at might you could cause her to become ill as she won't eat enough in the day.

another of course there are exceptions and I know some people experience reverse cycling, or consciously choose it. That's what the "probably" was for.

The vast majority of babies do not need to be fed overnight by 8 months, they simply don't.

Yeah sorry op but you can see your dd is completely in charge of you. She wakes for milk because she knows mum will always give it to her. The bottle is not good for her and neither is getting what she wants overtime.

Reward chart? Bottle fairy? Tell her she is too old for bottles and they are going to other babies.

Give her a cup of milk before bed and make sure she understands that is it until the morning. If she wakes, you say no milk and put her back to bed.

My 18 month old still has a bottle of milk before bed and with her breakfast. her teeth are absolutely fine and I will continue to do this until she stops asking for it.

we also had issues with her starting to demand feeds at night - not as bad as your dd but 2-3 times a night. she would wake crying and inconsolable and only milk would settle her. when I started keeping a record of her drinks and the volume she was taking in the day ot quickly became apparent that she wasn't drinking much during the day in spite of her having a cup in easy reach and a routine of sitting down throughout the day and having drinks and a snack. once I got her onto a routine of having more to drink in the day she cut out the night feeds on her own. not necessarily the case with your dd but I would certainly start by looking into how much she is drinking in the day.

good luck op and ignore the know it alls on here who will belittle anyone who doesn't do it their way.

Ok rooty pig I think we will have to agree to disagree. The vast majority of people I know who bf, fed well after 7/8 months at night the vast majority of people who bottle fed that I know did not. Not a rep representive view of mothering by any means. however LLL and kellymom etc which are expert bf sites will tell you night feeding is very common in bf babies way after 7/8 months. This child was bf so that is the only reason I don't find your assertion valid here.

Just say no! It really is that simple. It's also unnecessary calories.

Oh yeah it's common! And of course there's nothing wrong with it at all. It's just not necessary. If people choose to do it, all power to them. Carry on. The child will no doubt love milky middle of the night cuddles.

But many people cannot carry on waking into the night for so long, and I think it's important that they are reassured that no, their baby will not starve. It is absolutely physiologically fine and possible for babies to go 8 - 12 hours without a feed after around 6 months, if that's how you choose to do things.

Reverse cycling is actually instructive. It's evidence of that fact that babies will shift their feeding patterns quite happily into the period in which feeding is offered, in order to meet their nutrition requirements.

Sorry, just to add, it is awful for teeth unless they're being brushed after every feed

True rooty pig but babies reverse cycling are eating solids during the day too but not all their calorie needs are met by the solids.

Once mine were having 3 meals a day plus feeds in between, I dropped night feeds as they were getting enough nutrition during the day. It only took a couple of nights for them to stop waking for feeds.
After that, DH and I would simply comfort them back to sleep.

We can definitely agree it's no an exact science

We did watered down milk in the night for my two year old, suddenly taken off the breast because I was pg and found bf unbearable. I started watering down because he was chugging so much milk overnight, but he was sleeping through consistently in about a week. When I'm fed up of night feeds with DD we'll do this - offer bottles which are watered down between 8 and 7. It was gentle and effective.

I breadtfed both children for two years. and requests for Cows milk wereSTRICTLY their fathers job!!

(and reverse cycling is not dependant on solids, it can happen any time - in fact most babies are born doing it)

Dependent!

Sounds like you need to get a bit tough and ride out the storm OP.

I agree with others - she doesn't need milk in the night, and definitely not from a bottle (I'm presuming you mean a baby bottle and not a sports bottle or similar) - but I also know it's an easy habit to fall into almost without realising that you've fallen into it.

All three of mine were BF, with one bottle of formula at bedtime, until 7m; DS1 and 2 were sleeping through till 7am by 8 weeks, DS3 slightly later at about 8m.

I was very strict with all 3 that the bottle would be changed to a non-spill cup by 12/13m. Which is what happened. They all self settled from a young age, never had dummies, all good sleepers, etc etc.

But you know what, in the last few months DS3 (now 2) has managed to wangle taking his cup of 'muh' to bed, and then calls out asking for 'more muh', and has been known to wake in the night also calling for 'one more muh', and you know what, I've oh so easily fallen into the habit of just giving in to him rather than risk him screaming blue murder and waking the other two. It started off as a bedtime habit when I was at a low ebb, DH was away and I just wanted a bit of quiet time with my older two to read bedtime stories etc. I know DS3 doesn't need it. I know it's a bad habit. I know I need to get tough. He's my third child, for God's sake, I should know what I'm doing by now. Never fell into any of these kind of 'traps' with the other two.

But it's just kind of evolved. Thing is, in our case, most nights he just takes the beaker to bed, cuddles it and sleeps through, so our situation is not as tough as yours. It's only the occasional night that we get a wake up call. But I do sympathise.