DS is 'addicted' to his cup of milk!.....can I 'introduce' a toy or blanket to replace it??

[swiperfox]

He's driving me mad. He is an absolute milk monster and has to have his cup all the time. Not a problem.
The problem is he has to sleep with it. To get to sleep he lies in his cot with his dummy and his cup in his hands. He alternates between the two - even when he's virtually asleep - he takes his dummy out, has a bit of milk, dummy back in. Over and over! I have to leave the cup in the cot because he does it through the night as well and if the cup isn't there he wakes up screaming.
I put sma in his cup at night because i dont like the idea of leaving milk for him to drink overnight in case it goes yukky.
I'm wondering if anyone else's ds/dd does this or if there's a way to stop it or get him attatched to a teddy instead?

He's just turned 1.

bump

Could you try slowly watering it down so that eventually it is just water he is taking to bed? At least then that wouldnt be so bad for his teeth.

worth a try - is it ok to water down sma from cartons? although i'd rather get him away from his cup altogether if i can...just not sure how to do it

once he's one he can have cow's milk

He's on cows milk - drinks almost 2 pints a day!! But i dont like to leave cows milk overnight in his bed in case it goes off so at night i use sma from a carton

If you try the watering-down trick, or even just replace the milk with water, he may give up his cup at night-time anyway once he realises that it's not milk he's getting to drink.

is it that you think he is having too mcuh milk? i don't think theres anything to worry about - leave him with his milk as long as you dont think its a choking hazzard or anything - i wouldn't worry

My dd is addicted to milk at night (out of a bottle) and she's just turned 3 now!!

It's a nightmare, I'm trying to wean her off but 3 hours of screaming on a weeknight is hard to endure!! sorry I'm no help at all

I leave her with cows milk btw.

If she empties the bottle she goes to bed with I refuse to give her more and will only fill it with water now (hence the screaming()

My ds is the same. He's 3 and a half and I did think he might grow out of it like my dd. Although my gran thinks he gets it from my dad who was the same until he got to about 6!!!

Has an anyway up cup with whole milk, which is full to the top and it's always gone by midnight, and he too sucks on it til he is properly asleep. He also still wears a nappy in bed which is completely full when he wakes so haven't even attempted bed time training.

Will watch this thread with interest

thats what we've got rodeo1 - i fill his anyway up cup to the brim and put it in his cot next to his head. Sometimes he has to be holding it to fall asleep.

I'm not sure if he's having too much milk or not...he's on around 2 pints a day which seems an awful lot to me!!!! Apparently dp was the same when he was a baby and they usd to cut a cross in the top of his bottles because they made the formula so thick to try and satisfy him lol
Even now he can drink 2 pints in one go!!

I personally hate the stuff so dont really know if its doing him any harm having that much?

Those who leave cows milk overnight - does it not curdle by the morning??

Sometimes if it's a hot night and she's cuddled it but tbh unless it's been refilled in the night there's never any left to curdle

sorry when I say refilled - I'm to tired to wash it so just get a clean bottle out.

Um... formula goes yucky too.

does it?! oops!! lol there was me thinking i was being clever lol

WE've been lucky so far and its been ok.

What do you thnk about him having 2 pints? too much?

What happens if you substitute the milk for water? Does he scream blue murder?

Personally, I'd work on watering it down. I'd be more concerened about it damaging his teeth by slurping on milk all night. I have a personal hatred of going to bed without clean teeth

we introduced a "bedtime banana" which seems to have done the trick. It gets eaten during the story, clean teeth, bed.
Good luck!

Tough one swiperfox. My dd (now 23 months) has always been very attched to her cup of milk due to having been breast fed till 14 months old, and i used the breast for everything - comfort, to get to sleep, as well as just feeding. Luckily once she was weaned she never got into the habit of having a cup of milk in her cot. What was wrong for me with her drinking so much milk was that it lessened her appetite, which is tiny anyway, so she wasn't eating much real food. I think you have to be tough and limit the cup. I stopped taking the cup of milk out with us (so that I couldn't give in if she wanted it) and i was v surprised how well she took it (though she was quite a few months older than your ds). I think it is reasonable for you to start by just being really tough about night time, simply don't give him the bottle, deal with the screaming for a few nights and i'm sure he would get used to it quicker than you'd think. I know it's hard, but tell yourself YOU'RE in charge & have the power to change things, and "this shall pass". You could try a teddy instead, when my dd went through a sudden phase of screaming instead of sleeping I tried giving her a teddy and she's been attached to it ever since - it worked (though it didn't replace the cup of milk!). Did you breast feed too initially, out of interest?

I bottle fed him - which is the reason why he is so used to having the milk there in the night - i used to keep a bottle by the cot for the night feeds and because he still doesn't sleep through, it got to the stage where once he could feed himself the bottle, he did. It's my fault really!!!

Does he eat solids well too? After 1 year the minimum milk intake is only 350mls (around 12 ounces) and it is advised not to give much more than a pint of milk a day as it can curb the appetite for solids. I would definitely try to cut down on the night milk (as well as daytime milk if it is affecting his appetite).

p.s. formula should be used within an hour or so once it is opened so it is not any better than taking cows milk to bed.

I watered his cows milk down for him last night and had the worst night ever lol

He woke up about half an hour after i got into bed and as soon as he took a sip of his 'milk' he realised it was wrong and started screaming. And screaming. And screaming.

In the end I had to ask dp if he could sleep in dd's bed so i could bring dd and ds in with me as he wouldn't go into his bed.

So today I am absolutely knackered - I don't cope well with disrupted sleep at the best of times!!!

He can have his milk back tonight!!

I am definately going to cut his milk down. Th e more I was talking about it yesterday the more ridiculous it sounded....2 pints!?!?! So today he has had weetabix for breakfast so it was more filling than toast and had milk in it and now he has got juice. I will give him a cup of milk with his dinner later and one to get him off to sleep. That should be closder to a pint than 2!!

He hasn't really been eating his solids lately which i'm now guessing is due to the milk - although he hates eating in his high chair at the moment too - he would rather stand at the coffee table.

He's hard work this one!!!!

You just put too much water in it Try with less.