2.4yo waking for milk twice a night

[vvviola]

I will admit that large parts of this are my own doing, but I can't see a way out of it, so I need some help.

DD2 has always been a bad sleeper, it started with undiagnosed dairy and egg allergies and progressed from there. She was BF until 23 months. We went cold turkey with night feeds from about 22 months. She still woke twice a night, or more, but was usually happy with a cuddle.

Then somewhere along the way she got really keen on her oat milk bottles (after refusing point blank for 2 years), and then she got sick (various stomach things followed by ear infections followed by chicken pox) right around the time I was in the last few weeks of my Masters so giving in and getting some sleep seemed like the only option.

But now I've finished study and she's still waking twice a night for a full bottle. And she's pretty insistent about it. And I also want to get rid of bottles completely even for bedtime (she currently has 1 & half bottles at bedtime)

So, cold turkey on everything and deal with a week of screaming? Or gentle phasing out starting with nap time (which only happens about half the time when she's home although she's pretty reliable at crèche)?

Or some other magical approach that won't involve me being awake all night with a furious toddler?

I think I would be tempted to go cold turkey at that age - could Santa take her bottles in exchange for a present? Or even the elves next Sunday and leave an advent calandar in exchange?

I would tell her she can have a glass of milk before bed and then water when she wakes up if she needs something.

Good luck!

That's kind of my instinct too, but I was kind of hoping I could avoid the accompanying screaming.

The elves might work but I won't risk Santa - she freaked last year when she so much as saw a picture of Santa so I'm keeping Santa as totally positive this year in the hopes of avoiding it this year.

Her sister was down to a bedtime only one at this age, and that was dropped at about 2.7 with help from the power of Granny (who unfortunately lives thousands of miles and a few continents away so is no help this time )

Yes, at 2.5 I'd be tempted to do the cold turkey route. Also, FWIW we don't pretend Santa is real because it freaks the children out. The children know it's just a nice story, like Scrooge etc.

Have you tried NIGHT MILK? It is more filling than normal milk.
Also, make sure she is eating enough in the day as that can be a reason why she wakes up in the night.

Chrisbenedict - she's allergic to dairy, so she has oat milk.

Miraculously after I posted this she slept through the night for the first time ever!

Now if I could only figure out what we did differently

Eek! We tried cold turkey. It was not a pretty sight. Total hysterics, getting sick, gasping for air

I gave in after 2 hours. Probably shouldn't but couldn't keep going with it.

We're trying cold turkey again tonight. We were shopping today and picked up 2 new sippy cups and made a big fuss about them being big girl bedtime cups.

She asked for her big girl cup at nap time and eventually went to sleep ok without the bottle. And has asked for it again tonight. She's currently refusing to actually lie down to go to sleep which is pretty usual for this stage of the evening, but doesn't appear to be missing the bottle too much. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

The question is, if/when I do manage to get her to sleep and she wakes up again (currently usually around midnight and 5am) do I offer the cup, or nothing at all?

With my ds I didn't go cold turkey straight away, I gradually cut down the volume of milk and also watered it down, so by the time we stopped it he was having water anyway. That way it was just the comfort he lost, not the calories.

Worth a try if cold turkey is too traumatic for all concerned! Also, have you explained to her what will happen if she wakes up wanting milk - she might accept it more if it isn't a surprise.

Yep, we talked about it a lot today. I suspect it will still seem like a surprise to her at the time though. And I'm beginning to wonder if I should have just said no milk at all instead of cup.

All was going well, she even managed to almost drop off a few times... then she realised the cup was empty. All hell broke lose. Finally asleep in my arms. I suspect it will be a long night.

Well I call it a success

She woke twice (as usual), but didn't take much longer to get settled back to sleep, asked for her big girl cup both times. Added bonus was that she drank much less so I didn't have to do a middle of the night nappy change, or sort out wet sheets in the night or morning.

We'll see how tonight goes now that it's no longer a novelty!