How to stop dd wanting to sleep with the bottle in her mouth?

6 replies

EyeballsintheSky · 21/02/2009 22:40

I know, I know, accidental parenting and all that and am guilty as charged!

DD is 13 months and will only sleep with a bottle. I have tried replacing milk with water, replacing bottle with dummy, quietly stealing bottle when she's drifting off and replacing bottle with a cup but she throws a wobbly. She clings onto the bottle for dear life and shrieks if I so much as move my hand towards it.

I don't want her teeth to drop out so how the hell do I get out of this one?

OP posts:

LoveaDAISYcal · 21/02/2009 22:52

I think this is one of these times where you are going to have to just grin and bear the screams until she gets over the fact it isn't there.

Or try shhhhssh patting or CC or something.

Or perhaos you can try to lose the bedtime association by giving her the bottle downstairs, then taking her upstairs for bed and a story?

mrsdisorganised · 21/02/2009 22:58

Oh Eyeball I really sympathise, also sharing the same problem with dd4....never happened with the others....it's a nightmare! Will be watching thread with interest, although I know that really the answer is as LoveaDaisisycal says, will have to 'grin and bear it', earphones and soothing music may help!

Original poster

EyeballsintheSky · 21/02/2009 23:00

You're probably right and cold turkey is the only way, but it's going to turn me grey. I don't think she'll even lie down without it. She has no idea how to settle herself (and we co sleep. Oh god shoot me now!) and relies on the bottle to do it for her.

OP posts:

mrsdisorganised · 21/02/2009 23:05

Well this is all my own fault so will have to suffer the consequences! DD was breastfed until 11 months when I and she had another severe bout of thrush/ cracked... (sorry tmi) she was feedin/comforting from me all night and I was exhausted! So I brought in the bottle for comfort (when I should have really just left it well alone!) and now she's 16 months and waking up through the night for the blinking thing! So I am still knackered...Oh and btw there is nothing wrong with co-sleeping imho, they were inside you for 9 months!

LoveaDAISYcal · 22/02/2009 00:18

would lying down with her yourself get over the fact that the bottle isn't there?

It's a hard one.

6inchnipples · 22/02/2009 22:52

I had this problem with ds now 4.
Breast fed until 14 months and got to the point he would only sleep woth breast in his mouth which after 14 months was becoming very tiresome, to say the least! I also gave bottle to break habit resulting in him waking during night asking for milk.

Tips that i would give from my experience are

don't worry too much about his teeth, my ds has lovely teeth unaffected by this. Infact dd1 has more obviously affected teeth from a dummy (she did sleep thru sooner tho but has open gape in teeth.)
water the milk down gradually, this way it reduces sugar content so less of worry re teeth and hopefully dc will lose interest in the milk.
reduce the amount of milk you give gradually by 1 oz a week, this worked for us along with adding the water and making feed weaker.
try not to worry and remind yourself its a passing phase, i remember it well with ds now 4, dd now 2 and i now currently co sleep with dd2 who likes nipple in her mouth all night (hence the 6 inch nipples!!)

I always find at the time these things are hard but do pass quickly and you soon forget. ds now sleeps like a log!!

HTH
Good luck.

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