Nearly two year old still waking for milk in the night

[tobedsaidsleepyhead]

Anybody else experienced this? How do you stop them? Want her to sleep through the night but she still asks for milk whenever she wakes. Not helped by still being in same room as me but I can't change that for a good few months. Just want her to be able to sleep properly - an me of course. She also goes to sleep on my bed, how do you transfer them to wanting to sleep in their own bed?

Is she bf or ff?

Depending on how fee I would offer water instead as this is what HV said to me my little one only 1 and hasn't had milk on night for 4 months

Watching with interest as I am in nearly an identical position. My dd is bf and I do try give water. It's so hard and I am exhausted

She's on cows milk. I think I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and see what happens if I just don't give it to her. Some have said after a few nights she'll stop wanting it.

Hello, I'm an experienced health visitor and I just wanted to give you some advice.

There are a few methods that i would recommend that work that you can use depending on your parenting style and also how old your child is I know you have said 2 but 2 years 0 months is very different to 2 years 11 months! But people still peg them on the same age bracket by just saying 2 years old!

If your child is capable of understanding, (they probably know more than you think!) Spend the next couple of days talking and explaining that mummy is not going to give you milk at night time anymore and that milk will come at breakfast, be nice about it but firm that that is what the goal is. If your child is interested back this up with stickers or other small rewards for not crying for milk in the night.

Method one: offer less milk over a few nights, so assuming that they have their milk in a cup of some kind, just put a wee bit less in over a few night until it is not worth waking for. I have known this method to work but from experience it is not the most effective!

Method 2 : water it down. Assuming that your child is getting enough vitamins and nutrients through food during the day now, it is absolutely fine to water down full fat cows milk, again over a few nights make the milk more and more watery until it is just plain old water! The good thing about this one is once it's water you can put a cup of water in or near their cot or bed so that any waking in the night they can independently get themselves a drink. The only issue with this is it will need to stop when toilet training starts in the night.

Method 3: cold turkey- lots of parents don't like this one but from experience it is the quickest way. Just don't respond with milk at night, be prepared, there will be tears but these don't usually last more than a few nights with the first night being the worst. Remember to prepare your child by explaining what is going to happen, do not surprise a child of this age as it will only lead to confusion and anxiety as to why you haven't appeared with milk for them.

HTH OP - 2 year olds are hard but most of it is creating solid boundaries and standing firm, hope you get some sleep soon!

We really struggled with this with DS.

Lots of tears and waking later we decided to make a big deal out of decorating a box together to put his baby bottles in so that he could give them 'to the fairies' to give to the new babies who needed them.

Sent him to the tree at the bottom of the garden and he gave a little speech, made a fuss about him being a big boy etc and it worked brilliantly!

Won't drink milk out of a cup so has a cup of water at night now if he wants one.

Good luck, hope you crack it!

At her age she doesn't need milk through the night for nutritional purposes it's just become a habit. Before you put her to bed tonight you could tell her it's her last night of milk and then put whatever cup/bottle she uses in the bin in the morning give her lots of praise and get her a small treat as a reward. When she wakes up asking for it remind her of her treat. I got dd a small teddy when she gave up her dummy and gave it back to her when she asked for her dummy over the first day or so and the dummy was quickly forgotten.

My DD just turned 3 last week and still wants milk at night. If I tell her no, no milk but some water etc, she just kicks up a fuss

She starts kicking her legs and slapping her comforter around, crying, "milk! Milk!" And if I try to comfort her in any way she bats my hand away

We night weaned our two at 2 & 2.5. It's a good age because you can explain stuff to them. I'd have a mantra ready, say "not now, you can have milk in the morning" and offer cuddles (we were cosleeping anyway) or water if they wanted. They were used to me delaying milk in daytime if we were busy with something so it was a familiar sort of thing to happen. It was much smoother than we expected actually.