does 11 month old still 'need' milk at night?

[moljam]

I stopped giving him his bottle in night as he was taking whole night to drink 8oz in many feeds so now offer water but after reading thread on here,do you think he still needs it?hes happy with water but still wakes lots has sip of water and rolls over back to sleep.

IMO - no. he should be taking enough milk / food in the day...if water is satisfying him enough in the night..he is thirsty, not hungry or relying on it to get him back off to sleep.

i think if you reintroduce a milk feed. it will be a step back.

what happens if he has no water in the night?

dont know havent tried!do you think i should stop that too?

agree with lulu...physically he will be able to manage without it. To me this sounds like habit waking - and why not! If you wake and get attention and some sips of water, great.

I decided to stop offering anything in the night if ds woke (he was younger than 11 months) kept attention to an absolute, unrewarding minimum, and this did pay off very quickly; he stopped waking at night, and has nearly always slept through brilliantly.

He's always been an early riser, but that's another thread!

My view was that I could cope with getting up in the night, no prob - but it wasn't actually kind to ds not to allow him the chance to learn to sleep through the night; unless I showed him that was possible, how would he know?

Had he kept on and on and on waking, I'm sure I would have reassessed whether he needed anything; but he didn't.

Why not give it a go, see how it goes?

i give dd a feed at night but that's only because if i do she'll sleep til 8.30 rather than 6... bad mother...

wow..sunnyside..are you me!! i would have said exactly that....they have to learn how to settle alone ! my children can have my full,loving attention in the day...but not in the night ad infinitum..IMO.

spooky lulu....how nice to find someone on the same wavelength!!!!

i was the mean mummy who put the babies in the cot, in their own rooms, from day 1.

sunnysideup-thankyou!so true about giving him a chance to learn to sleep.we actually cosleep so im right there next to him so if sucking to get back to sleep as comfort he shouldnt need to.

would you have any suggestions about getting lo in cot?i love cosleeping but wonder if im waking him?we have a travel cot.

now this is spooky lulu - are you ME??

DS was in his own room from day 1 (well, day 5 when home from hosp!) mainly because our bedroom then was so implausibly tiny that there wasn't even room for a moses basket in the room, so the decision was made for me. I did have the baby monitor turned up to max mind you, so I could hear his every adorable breath! But I think it worked well, as ds was so used to being in his room that we started to give him his evenings up there from the first week or so, and he slept really well. It certainly didn't harm his ability to sleep well, anyway!

Though hats off to you for cosleeping moljam - and as you say, your ds has comfort built in to his arrangements so you shouldn't feel bad about not offering him anything if you don't feel he needs it.

LOL sunny!!

moljam..never done co - sleeping ( obviously!!!) , but at 11 months, he should be able to go in to a cot, maybe still in your room..then when he is used to that.. into the cot in his room....

BUT if you are enjoying co -sleeping..don't stop!!

moljam, if you want to stop co-sleeping then I think you'll need to invest in an ordinary cot - I'm not an expert but I believe it isn't recommended that babies go in travel cots long term. The mattresses are certainly thinner and less comfortable.

If you go to a cot, I would recommend a 'gro-bag', as they do give a feeling of security, and also ensure that the baby doesn't kick off covers and get cold, or get entangled or under covers....I loved them, ds slept well in them!

Maybe if you do go down the cot route, get him having his daytime naps in there first?

we use grobag,which i love.i might try naps in travel cot before we decide to stop or not.i do love it but something has to change,it might be to do with cosleeping, it might not.i just dont want to confuse him too much while we try to work out whats wrong!
thankyou,youve all been very supportive!

moljam,

No he doesn't need to eat.

Whatever you decide to do be consistent.

My ds was easy to train, we always had him in a cradle in our room And after the whole sleeping through thing was established we switched him to his own room. He didn't like the idea of falling asleep alone, but after two months he finally realized it was a battle he was going to lose.