21m old- nighttime bottles- help me stop!

[TheMysticMasseuse]

dd2 is almost 21 months. We stopped her nighttime milk at around one year and there was no drama involved, we just swapped milk for water and she adjusted quite quickly. To be absolutely honest I have no idea how and why we started giving her milk again at night when she wakes up (which is every night, as she has never ever slept through), but I guess that's not really relevant at this stage...

anyway, she's now gone from the occasional bottle of milk a few nights a week (she asks for it now, since she can speak) to waking up earlier and earlier in the night, literally screaming her head off for milk, and often waking up again after a few hours for a repeat performance.

I want to cut this out, partly because I suspect she now wakes up because she wants the milk, and partly because i don't think it's good for her teeth. However, I don't know how to do it!

I tried to go cold turkey last night but she screamed (and I mean screamed, holding her breath, banging her head etc) in my arms for about an hour until i gave in. I have started to water down her bottles so that it's half milk half water, and plan to keep doing it... at the moment if i offer her water instead she goes beserk.

During the day she is an adorable, angelic, bright and happy toddler. At night she turns into this milk vampire....

any ideas?

Me too. My son is two and tonight i plan on sleeping downstairs with him so as not to disturb the neighbours, hubby or my other son. I'm lucky not to have to work so am planning on going cold turkey with him and hope that the lack of sleep will be worth it in a few days or so (fingers crossed). Good luck to you.

With son nubmer one we told him that he was a big boy now and that we were going to give his bottle to the baby birds who needed it more. Did this with both his bottle and dummy and it worked no problem. Although it hasn't worked with son number 2

yes i thought of doing something similar with dd2, but i am so tired, i just cant face it

with number 1 we went cold turkey and as far as i remember it took about 3 nights. but dd2 screams far more! or maybe i've gone soft.

i can't believe i am repeating exactly the same mistakes...

ah, xkelx, i meant to add: GOOD LUCK! let me know how it goes

just got my ds over this same phase last month. he is 20 months and was the same. i put a night light in his room in case he was scared of the dark and let him go cold turkey. it is heartbreaking to hear them cry but it did work after 3 nights. people on here rave about wake to sleep method maybe you could look into that if cold turkey doesnt work

She sleeps in the same room as her older sister so i can't really let her scream too much or too loudly... and it is not the wakings that bother me so much (after 4 years i am so used to not sleeping through!), it's really the milk, i don't want her teeth to rot...

Thank you 'TheMysticMasseuse' will defo let you know how we get on, can't wait (hmm)

Does she still have milk before bed?

Do night weaning - just very slowly reduce the amount of milk by 1/2oz every couple of nights. With luck she will just not bother waking up. Make sure you add extra food/dairy to her daytime food to make sure she's not losing out on calories (extra yoghurt or some cheese, or small bowl of cereal before bed might work)

HTH

...and I'm very sorry, but in my very humble opinion I never could have gone cold-turkey with DS or let him scream, hence the slightly more gradual approach (which worked like a dream, btw)

will your dd not settle for an anyway up cup instead of a bottle[until its sorted out] this way her teeth will not be affected that much? try and look up the wake to sleep technique it might be an option for you. i think the idea is they are disturbed before there normal waking for milk time then fall back asleep therefore missing the milk timeslot. something like that i am no good at doing links or i would send you one

I did cold turkey with my dd, she also went beserk when offered water, wouldn't be comforted, headbanging etc.
It works really well if you can stick it out, it helped me to remember that she was crying, because she was cross with me, not because she was scared or upset. I suppose if the wakings don't bother you so much a less drastic approach might be more suitable for you.

i am no fan of letting them scream, and i never did it with either of my children. Even when we let dd1 go cold turkey on the night milk i was holding her and singing to her the whole time. Incidentally even when we stopped her milk she kept waking up at night for another year or so, only started sleeping through when she was ready for it at around 3 1/2.

I think I might start watering down the milk and gradually reducing the amount as suggested, and maybe in a week or two if that's not improving things i'll go to the spare room and go cold turkey.

waking to sleep goes against every single instinct i have, i just cannot wake a sleeping child!