Toddler still wanting milk at night

[BubblinTrouble]

Hi all

I could really do with your advice here. My DD, 20 months, is still waking up at night for milk. Some days she refuses to eat dinner and will have 3 bottles of milk before bed instead of eating dinner.

She will eat breakfast at nursery, snack and tea there but will miss dinner at home and fill up on milk instead. I thought perhaps teething / cold so was letting her have some milk.

But tonight she had her dinner and also had 3 bottles (including one at 12ish).

Does anyone have any suggestions? This isn’t normal is it!?

Thanks

Stop giving milk!

I think the only way of getting her to stop drinking that much is to stop giving it. But telling her & explaining that she can perhaps only have 1 and that there won't be any more. Maybe offer water instead when she asks for it? And chances are she won't want water so will stop asking.
My 2.5yo would understand if I said something to her like "we've run out and won't be able to go to the shops until the morning so mummy can't give you anymore I'm afraid". Or perhaps show her an empty milk bottle and say no more tonight etc. ?

Stoop giving it

I might check with nursery to see what she eats/drinks each day first before worrying. 🤷‍♀️

Are you giving bottles during the day? You say 3 before bed?! She really doesn’t need bottles now. Give her a sippy cup of milk. Does she have snacks and supper?

What time is dinner? What time is bedtime?

Hi All

thanks for the replies. I think you’re all right and we need to go cold turkey and just explain that there isn’t any milk.

she doesn’t have any milk during the day

typical food day looks like this

• Milk before nursery
• cereal at nursery around 8.30am
• snack of crackers at 10am
• lunch at 11.30am
• tea at 3.30pm
• dinner at 5.30-6pm but she doesn’t eat it at all usually. Tends to often be milk at this time
• milk at 7.00pm before bed
• milk at 1am

Is milk in a bottle or sippy cup?
try watering the milk down, what does she drink in the day?

It’s always a bottle. Does a sippy cup make it different? Apparently she has water throughout the day at nursery. We also offer her water in a mini water bottle thing but doesn’t drink loads at home. I will try the sippy cup and watering down too. Conveniently my Asda shop didn’t give me whole milk and semi by accident so it’s all playing out to not give her any hahahaa.

I give warm water prev boiled in kettle as first liquid upon waking as DC is more receptive to water since thirsty at wKing if that helps you. I just give about 50ml so as not to spoil appetite; the do same in afternoon.
I would tackle one issue at a time:
hunger
milk intake v actual food
bottles/cups

A 20-month old needs up to 1400 calories per day. I use a calorie logging app to track what I give on and off to check I'm not under-feeding. (I don't worry about over feeding since DC is quite lean).

At 20 months waking up hungry is not too unusual when growth spurts occur. Being awake for longer than a brief few minutes can also trigger hunger and thirst. Try some water and if DC doesn't settle give a small snack/milk. You can keep track and look for patterns and compare with that day's activity and food intake. Milk intake should be 2-3 cups per day (16-24oz). I queried the paediatrician who advised me if yoghurt/cheese/cottage cheese is consumed that day then reduce milk and increase water accordingly. Add oranges to the diet to assist in iron absorption as calcium can inhibit iron. I give orange pieces with yoghurt.

Lastly, nursery meals might not be satisfying your DC's nutritional and calorie needs. Often they are okay for calories, but lacking in nutrition.

Just some thoughts for you.

Swap to a cup, the bottle is soothing for her. Mine didn’t take a bottle after 13/14 months but still had milk via cup so it wasn’t a ‘meal’ but part of a meal etc 3 bottle of meal instead of meal in the evening is too much. You could cut down to one bedtime bottle but you might have a few difficult nights if she expects milk if she wakes

Agree with others, stop the bottle and they will cut down. Kids chug bottles but less so with a cup.

I worried about stopping bottles for ages with DC1 who was a complete milk monster. In the end I did it when we went away for a weekend and i forgot to take them with us. They didn’t even bat an eyelid, drank the cup of milk and that was that.

Thanks all. Some really good advice here!