Cow and Gate Toddler Milk. Seems daft.

[TheNinkynork]

DS, (20 months) was EBF until 10 months when he finally decided to take a bottle of formula etc. His sleep is awful, he eats very little in the way of solids and loves cows milk / Mummy milk during the day. At night DH goes in with these horrid little plastic bottles of C&G and he settles.

It's a long shot but can you get cows milk in cartons for night use? Or should I be doing the cruel-to-be-kind thing and just give DS water? I really resent having to buy the C&G ecological equivalent of Fruit Shoots after all my hard work

confused...is the problem that you need to put cowsmilk in the fridge?

I find half a tommee tippee takes 30secs to warm just right in a stone mug

(don't warm the tt itself, tasts nasty)

but he seems old enough for water? My ds used to feed lots at night (he is younger though, 12 months), but now sleeps through and eats much more solids.

Why do you need a carton?
Am confused.
Just offer a drink of water and tell him to like it or lump it.

He's in our room (no choice) Moondog and a bit behind verbally. I was thinking that we should do a starvation / water night which would make him eat more during the day but DH isn't keen. I need to grow a pair and do it don't I?

How do yuo mena behing verbally?
(I'm a salt.)

I still don't get the carton thing.

Is the problem that he's used to the bottle the milk comes in? Could you wash one out thoroughly and simply put cow's milk in it?
Sorry, not sure I exactly understand...

wash one out, half fill it and encourage him to eat in the day? then drop and only offer water?

is he having one carton or more?

He has 2 or 3 little plastic bottles of "toddler" milk throughout the night in a MAM bottle. Sorry if I hadn't made it clear.

And yes, it is DH and I being lazy in that we won't go downstairs to fill his bottle up with cows milk three times a night when C&G do little bottles.

I suppose I'm thinking that he should be old enough to give only water to at night and to understand, but I don't think he will. He is very much a baby.

Moondog I wouldn't presume to demand SALT advice on this thread but if you can spare the time...

i think 3 bottles at night is too much, he is nearly two ad prob wont eat in the day on that much milk and tbh although it is 'toddler' formula with added iron and what not, decent food would be far better for him nutritionally

i think you should chuck the cow and gate and the bottles, give him cows milk in a beaker in the day or bf (they drink less from a beaker) and offer lots of yummy foods 3 meals plus snacks for a few days (you msay get 5 am waking for a few days as he will get hungry)

offer water (in a sippy cup) at night

Fire away Ninky.

Thanks Well I consider him to be behind verbally in that he doesn't really say any words as such, he still babbles. Does a terrific pig noise though when we sing, "Old McDonald". I suppose I'm unjustly comparing him to DD who was re-telling stories by 20 months. It would be good to know if there was or wasn't any cause for concern.

Anyway, I always thought that it would be easier to wait until his verbal and comprehension skills were a bit more advanced before taking away the comfort of night feeds, and possibly BF altogether. However, his sleep habits are killing us and perhaps if he has nothing to wake for he'll stop doing it.

Apologies also to anyone confused by this thread. Bit too much wine last night

Plenty of children don't really speak at 20 mths.Your older child was unusual.
Nothing to be unduly concenred over and don't think the milk will have an effect one way or another.It does seem a bit mad though (as well as expensive surely?!)

I can well imagine it is hard on you.

Ninky, I feel for you as dd has had fairly shocking night time sleep habits and milk at night (moo juice in our case) is often the only solution that seems to work.

We too had a period (against my better judgement) of using the horrid bottles for convenience sake. At some point we just switched to using cow's milk - put in a clean bottle before going to bed and discarded in the morning if not used. Perhaps something to consider?

RE tactics, I don't feel qualified to advise as nothing we tried worked (or was stuck to consistently by DH, but that's another matter)

I think it would be worth the effort of heating cowsmilk to reduce his calorie intake at night and stimulate his daytime appetite. Won't take long, just got to pick the least inconvenient week to try it in.

Of course there's never going to be a convenient week for even less sleep though is there

Thanks for the reassurance moondog, and everyone for the suggestions. It's nice also to get a bit of sympathy and to hear from people who have been there too