Does anyone else have a 2 year old who still has milk in the night ?

[Tillyscoutsmum]

Just wondered really... DS is just 2. He has milk before he goes to bed every night. He then wakes asking for milk, probably about 3 times per week. There seems to be no pattern to it - for example, how much he has eaten during the day seems to make no difference. I know he can't be hungry and think its just habitual.

Anyone else ? Any suggestions how to stop it ?

I broke the habit with mine when she was about 11MO but I suppose the principle is the same. I did it cold turkey, and just dealt with the moaning, but others have said they water the milk down bit by bit until they are just offering water.

Cold turkey took 3 nights. I don't know how long the other method takes.

On the rare occasions that my ds asks for milk in the night I just tell him that it's all gone, would he like water and daddy will go to the shop in the morning.

He may whinge for a couple of seconds but is usually fine with the water.

Thanks. I think its just an association thing (i.e. he has it to drop off to sleep at bedtime so if he wakes in the night, he thinks he needs it again to drop off to sleep). He still has milk in a bottle at bedtime Maybe, if I dropped the bottle and reverted to sippy cup, the association would stop ??

I know what I have to do but at that time of the night when he's standing there shouting "milk" at the top of his voice, its the path of least resistance

We just leave a tippee cup with milk in the bedroom and dd2 helps herself, she's 3. We're going to try and get her out of night-time pull ups in the summer so will be stopping the night-time drinks also.

I went cold turkey with both my children at 2.5 yrs, as as I was worried about their teeth.

Had a week of hell with DS, then he completely forgot about the bottle. We did 'the bottle fairy' with DD and she accepted it completely.

Maybe pull the 'bedtime' milk forward, so it's before story or whatever, and then break the association that way?

Nagoo - that could be a plan (wait for the thread about me moaning about having to read a story at 3am though )

My 2.5 yo wakes at about 5am itching (she has eczema) and thinks the only way she can get back to sleep is milkie. So yes

No one has mentioned teeth!
It is not a great habit to give milk as it contains sugars etc and will cause tooth decay if given like this over night. My DS is also just 2- I was very sad to have finished giving a last bf just before bed for this reason during the summer. He now has his last milk at tea time (6ish) and has teeth done in the bath and then a few swigs of water with his stories before bed. We give water if we think he needs it in the night- which is rare unles he has a temperature.
Your DS will be asking for milk out of habit and will soon adjust his daytime intake to compensate if you stop giving it at night.
For the sake of his TEETH stop now!!!

Jazz- my oldest children are 14, 16 and 18 and not a filling in their heads (the only filling there was was in a milk tooth in DS's head at age 15- he still had his baby molars until relatively late and they were all worn by then). Same child-rearing methods as DD3. So maybe more to than simple give them milk, get bad teeth.