How did you drop the middle of the night bottle?

[MeOldChina]

DS is 17months.

Bedtime routine:
Meal
Cuddle with drink of milk (barely touches this)
Bath
Story
Into cot awake with teddy, blanket and white noise around 6.30-7pm.

All good so far. But every night he wakes wanting a bottle. Usually around midnight, sometimes a bit later. If we do not give him the bottle he will cry and whinge for a long time. I go in to find him sitting or standing up.

I know i need to drop this bottle. I've been giving him it watered down for a long time but it doesnt deter. He does not require a bottle to fall asleep at bedtime. He usually has one at nap time.

We were at this stage recently with my 18m (and had the same with dc1). Honestly, just drop it. The first night there was about 2 hrs of whinging/crying/dozing where I just lay on the floor next to the cot repeating ' Milk in the morning'. Second night 20 mins, third night nothing and slept through ever since. I just had to work up to not getting much sleep that first night.

We slowly cut down on the amount in the bottle, and at the same time added more water to the formula, so he wasn't relying on it to fill him up.

I just went cold turkey with the mid night bottle with my now 15mo a couple of months back. You may be in for a few rough nights to begin with but it took me less than a week to get rid of it and he has slept through ever since. I just kept going in his room settling him back in bed comfy with his blanket, kiss on the head and said good night and repeated.

I just went straight to water in the bottle. He was not happy but I just said only water at night milk in the morning. He only woke a couple more nights and settled after that.

DD was younger than your DS, but we had success with the reducing-the-amount method - she stopped waking for the bottle of her own accord.

What I didn't anticipate was the night feed returning a few months later! It started with she was teething and barely ate any dinner - so when she woke crying in the night, we knew it was because she was hungry and felt we needed to give her milk. But after a few nights of that, the habit had formed again! Giving her less didn't work that time, but a couple of nights of cold turkey did it.

I'm going to have to bite the bullet aren't i? I was expecting the bedtime one to be a PITA but the middle of the night one fills me with dread! We have the prep machine in our room so its too easy to just do it and straight back to sleep!

We did the reducing the amount method. Gradually cut it back, I was amazed he stopped waking for it.

Well I tried cold turkey last night and though it was a whingey battle for a few hours, he did go back off at 3.30am with some shushing.

Well done op. Keep it up now, if you go back he will cry even more the next time!!

Keep it up tonight! This is it!

Oh we struggled to drop the bottle for a long time. We slowly dropped he milk ounce by ounce until we got down to 3oz and then slowly introduced water. He always insisted on the tiniest drop of milk and it had to all be warm too! This happened over about 2 months.

In the end we had to just be firm and refuse DS the bottle. It meant 2 nights where he woke for the usual bottle we had to just keep telling him it's bed time and offering water as room temp. Was exhausting 2 nights but DH and I took it in shifts to do. 3rd night he stirred, we offer water and he rolled over and went back to sleep.

Good luck x

I would encourage the bedtime one instead or another similar filling snack before bed. Mine had a cup of milk before bed until she was nearly fine (but dropped all nighttime feeds at 9 months). If he’s good and full going to bed, he’s more likely to not wake hungry.

Thanks, he does still have milk at bedtime but it's so soon after tea that he doesn't generally want much of it. I can't move tea forward be much either due to when i get home from work. Determined to crack it.

DH has been on nights but won't be again for a while. He has less willpower than me!

What if you gave the bottle in his cot before he went to sleep? Rather than after his meal? That might help him settle and sleep through? We found we were waking DS up to give him his dream feed at 11ish so decided to up his before bed cot feed and drop the other one and so far so good. Good luck!

We did a dream feed at 10-11 until DD was 14 months..then and only then could we remove it..she ate hardly any actual food (and still doesn't!)

I have stopped now due to dentist advice but I used to put a 360 cup in her cot. With milk I mean.
and when she has a cold I put water in.

With both of mine we reduced the amount of milk in the bottle and they just stopped bothering for 2oz. DS just slept through after that. DD took longer and we went back and forth with milk and water and teeth and illness etc, so it can take a little while. She was younger though. She is now 14m and has consistently not had a night feed and slept through for about 2 months now. We did have a phase though of a bottle about 5am which seemed to get her back to sleep, so watch out for that one too

Hope the cold turkey goes well!

@YouBoggleMyMind that's what we were doing before but I was trying to break the bottle/sleep association. He now goes down fine at bedtime just with his teddy and blanket, and means we can get his teeth cleaned in the bath too!

Plus he would always wake in the night anyway even after a massive bottle at bedtime!

We're on night 3 folks! Was awake at 4.30am this morning but I put some stories on his radio and he nodded back off listening to those for a couple of hours 👍

Also if you want to shake up your routine. DS was off bottles by 15m and his routine was a cup of milk after bath and whilst reading books before bed. Then brush teeth. Sometimes he drank it all, sometimes not. It was that bit further away from dinner though

Sounds like you're doing just great @MeOldChina

Are you still making formula for him?! Move him onto cows milk instead of formula for a start. That might discourage him. Are you sitting in with him while he has the bottle? Just give him the bottle and walk out of the room. Or put it in a non-spill cup.

I know you're going cold turkey, but personally I don't agree with that approach. As an adult, I still might want something to eat or drink at night. And I'd me mighty pissed off if someone told me I couldn't. If he settles down quickly after being given it and left alone, just leave it be. No point having him up all night unsettled cos he's hungry.

@Fatted is it safe to leave a baby with a bottle of water in their cot?

I'm really struggling at the moment. My DD 17mo had a bad stomach last week so we stopped the milk while she was poorly. Decided it wouldn't be a good idea to reintroduce it at night time so she has just been having water in her bottles instead which has been fine but now she's teething and won't settle properly.

If anyone can advise the best way to go about it? The past 2 nights it's been 2 hours per night which is very unlike her. Most of the time she'd go through without even waking in the night.

We've been g

Urgh fat fingers!

We've been giving him the bottle then walking out for a while. It worked in that he almost always went straight back to sleep without us needing to do anything else but it was every night and i have been struggling to get back to sleep afterwards fairly often. I have to be up at 5.45 for work.

This is the only thing i can think of that i have taken the cold turkey approach with, but as i said upthread, i've been giving smalller quantities and watered down milk for a while now and if anything he'd just been waking more consistently.