night bottles

2 replies

LadyJazz · 18/03/2004 13:27

My dd turned 1 on Monday but she is still waking up during the night for bottles of milk( up to two a night). She refuses to drink any milk during the day so this is the only time I can get some in her. DH and I have had enought and want a full nights sleep. Any help you can give would be great.

OP posts:

Northerner · 18/03/2004 14:00

Hi LJ. My ds went through a similar thing at this age so I know how you feel. It sounds like she is relying on milk to get herself back to sleep, so you give it to her, then everytime she wakes she wants milk to go back to sleep. It's a vicous circle. At 1 year she doesn't need nourishment during the night, so you could try just giving her water and she might realise that it's not worth waking up for. Hope things improve soon.

karen99 · 18/03/2004 15:42

Hi LadyJazz, I went 'cold turkey' on night feeds when ds was 5mo (he is now 9mo). I'm sure it wouldn't be much different for a 1yo except maybe a bit more crying as she's so used to it. The first few nights if he woke before midnight he'd get a feed, after then he wouldn't and I left him to settle himself (about 10min of crying/grizzles). After 3 nights he didn't wake at all and slept through from 7pm-6am. He also had 4 bf in the day so I knew he was getting enough milk elsewhere.

Does your dd have a nap in the day? Will she take the milk then? I agree with Northerner that it is her 'comfort prop' and she will continue to wake until you remove it. It may produce a few tears in the night but she will learn to resettle without it. You could leave a spouted cup of water in her cot if you're worried she has nothing. IME (the little I have!) don't go in to see them unless crying is persistent. DS usually stirs most nights, sometimes for a few seconds, other times it takes 10mins, but 6/7 nights he does resettle himself very quickly.

It might be that once she starts sleeping through she'll start taking the milk elsewhere, eg. day nap, before bed. She can go a few days without to see if you can break the habit. In the meantime just ensure she gets milk with her cereal, cheese, ffrais etc.

HTH

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