Bottle and milk obsession

[charcb]

Hi all. My baby is 16 months. He is absolutely obsessed with cows milk. He's been recently been weaned off the breast , although I can't remember if his obsession with milk started as a result of weaning. He eats mostly well, but then has what I would say is easily 1 litre of whole cows milk daily.

At nursery he'd drink this in a sippy cup but at home he refuses it and wants a bottle. I'm a bit concerned as I was told he had to be off the bottle at a year old and that he should only have 400 ml daily of milk. He easily exceeds this. Nursery taught him to sign milk and now he does if all the time.

The bottle and the milk is his only comfort, he doesn't use a dummy or has a comforter. When he wakes up at night (which he does 2-3 times! I'm exhausted) he will ask for milk - I don't fight it anymore as I need to work the day after so I do whatever it takes to get us both back to bed asap.

I'm unsure what to do, any tips? I'd like to get him onto a sippy cup, ideally reduce his milk intake in favour of foods and (ideally) stop the nighttime wakings for milk - I know, I'm maybe asking for too much here!

At night offer water only- may have a few hard nights no lie
milk after food - I would do one after breakfast (encourage cereal with milk)and milk before bed
all other drinks water in a sippy cup.
All change is hard but you are in control of what he has access to.

More important than how much milk he has is how much food he's having, really. Is he eating 3 good meals and 2 snacks? A good range of foods?

Honestly, it sounds like you just need to pull up your big girl knickers and be the grown-up here. Less milk, no more bottles, no more milk overnight. I hope you're brushing his teeth after each bottle.

I was start my dropping the bottles during the day. He doesn’t need them and is probably filling up on milk so isn’t getting enough food so needs to wake for milk. Make sure you offer supper just before bed time too.

A litre is a huge amount of milk for him to be drinking.

Maybe some of the posters in this thread need to take a chill pill. More worrying than how much milk my child has is how rude some other people are - I hope this is not the behaviour you're teaching your kids.

@charcb I agree. It's astonishing how rude people can be. As far as the milk is concerned. Give him skimmed instead of full fat. you could do a gradual change. Or add water to it. Good luck. Broken nights are awful.

Thank you @beccahamlet and everyone else with helpful suggestions. I've now reported the post of the person who knows no manners and thankfully mumsnet has deleted it without question. It's almost as if some people think that because they are posting in a forum anonymously they can do whatever they want. It's sad really that some kids are growing up with parents who behave like this as it's behaviour that will perpetuate in our society. At least it makes my worries about sippy cups and milk intake pale in comparison!

Anyway - Thanks for the ideas everyone. We will transition to water only going forward, possibly by diluting the milk until it's just water.

Will he eat a banana? If so offer him one before bed and that may help him sleep through the night. The water in the milk sounds like a good plan to. Could the 'bottle fairy' make an appearance and leave a cup for him, maybe one with Spider-Man on on or whatever he is into? Could you say 'oh no the Milks run out' , and offer him water instead for a bottle or two to wean him off

Thanks @quietnightmare - hadn't thought about the bottle fairy concept for this or the replacement cup! Great ideas. Thanks.

dont change to semi skimmed- your child still needs full fat milk, just less. No need to dilute the milk either, just transition to 2 bottles - 3 max a day. Offer yogurt and cheese to help up the dairy intake for him