Waking and crying for bottle

[christmasmummy]

My D is 12 and a half months old. I have been really lucky and she has slept through the night since she was 8 weeks old. She would occasionally wake and i would give her a bottle.

For the last few months she has fed herself her bottle and used it to get herself back to sleep.

Her first birthday was a couple of weeks ago, a couple of days after her birthday she woke in the night and i have her water in a cup instead of a bottle. She would not drink it and cried for a couple of hours, i went in and did controled crying.

Since then she has woken every night and done the same thing. She won't drink water, so is not thirsty and i dont think its hunger as I put her to bed at seven and she wakes at about 7.30 and plays for about an hour before breakfast.

I think she has got used to sucking her bottle, she has never had a dummy, sucked her thumb or got attahced to a toy. So i think that she sees her bottle as her comforter.

Has anyone else been though this? I dont really want to go back to giving her a bottle. But I hate seeing her crying every night. I thought two weeks of controled crying would have sorted this, as all the books say it should take a week, but it has not.

Any advise would be gratfully recived.

Hiya, Don't know if this helps much, my ds is the same age as your daughter - judging by your name almost exactly? He usually goes through but has been night waking for the last couple of weks and also won't go back down without milk.

He is currently going through a mega growth spurt so I figure thats fine and give him the milk, once he is finished he goes back to bed without it.

Alternatively we allowed dd2 to have her bottle in bed with her as she would then settle herself and it took months to get her to sleep at night without it, it was horrible.

So your problem could be a combination of the 2. I have never used controlled crying with any of my children and have always used a combination of the back to bed method/pick up put down/ or disapearing chair routine depending on their ages. So I really can't comment on how well it works as I have no experience of it.

I am sure someone else will be along soon!!

hello, i should say that she is definately using the bottle as a comforter my little boy did this too, i just let him gradualy grow out of it as i did'nt mind him having a bottle of milk he was about two when he just kind of weaned himself of it,if you don't mind her having the bottle then i would just continue with it as disturbing her routine may cause more problems in the long run,and she may need the extra calories from the milk, one is still quite young to not have a night bottle(in my experience i'm not saying i'm right just from discussion with freinds and family)and if it is offering her comfort i cant see as it will hurt to give it her.hope this helps,xxx

Thank you both for your comments. I am still giving her a bottle at seven before bed, but just not letting her keep the bottle.

I think i am just going to have to continue like tw1nkley did with dd2 ...

i would offer a dummy to suck rather than sucking on a bottle of milk, as sucking milk for ages is not good for the teeth and also bacteria breed v v fast in room temp milk

what time is she waking in the night>?