CC in the night. Support please.

[AnnaBanana25]

I want to cut out night time bottles for my 21 month old. I think it has grown into a habit that he doesn't need and am worried about things like bottle mouth. He had no other bottles in the day, having a cup in the afternoon and night before bed. But he wakes and screams if he doesn't get a bottle.... I am thinking cc is the best way forward as although initially there will be more crying, we have tried to wean or settle without it and it just prolongs the crying as he's confused as to why we are there and he's not getting what he wants from us- the bottle. He is well... sleeps well for naps.... eats well so...

Had anyone done cc in the night for this reason? How has it gone? Logically it makes sense but would be nice to get some support.

Could you gradually dilute out the milk over a couple of weeks? Until it's just water?

I wish you luck with this. Night time waking and night time crying is hard on everyone. Everyone does better on a good night's sleep.

I have three children. One slept like born to sleep. One took until she three until she slept and nothing helped until she was old enough to hear and understand reason. The third responded brilliantly to cc. It was a while ago though so am afraid I can't remember the specifics.

Am not sure if you know that cc is quite a devisive topic on mn. So I would not be surprised if you get a mix of responses. Not all will be supportive.

Yeah I know and have seen the unsupportive kind of comments. We have tried to dilute and gradually give less milk, even 1oz less and he knows and asks for more. I can't think of what else to do and have not been a fan of the idea of c c but it will be worse in the long run if he carried on with bottles in the night. I just hope he responds well to it, he isn't to anything else.

It's not so much about our sleep. I'm used to operating on zilch these days. It's about ds, I think he will ultimately be happier and it will be better if he doesn't drink bottles in the night.

I did CC with my DS but it was when he was much younger than your DS is and for reasons of repeated waking. However, it worked fantastically and I suppose the concept of it is the same whatever the reason you choose to do it.

I will tell you how my routine went as though I was doing it for bottle reasons (using the same words and behaviour as I did for repeated waking).

When toddlers starts screaming then go into him, lie him back down and gently but firmly say, "It's not time for milk (insert name), it's time to go to sleep" and then leave the room.

Wait two minutes and repeat.
Wait 4 minutes and repeat.
Wait 8 minutes and repeat.

I never left DS any longer than 8 minutes. I kept my words and actions the same each time I went in.

Like o said, I did CC as DS was waking 3-5 times a night and getting him back to sleep was a nightmare but I think the same approach can be used to stop giving bottles.

The first night was the hardest but it got better every night and by about the 4th night DS was sleeping through 7-6.

How old when you did it, writer? (I have a non sleeper too..)

He was about 9.5 months.

Mines 5.5... Still too young I think :(

I did CC at 7.5 months. Best things we ever did! She was waking 4 times a night for a bottle. It took a good week of consistency, but now she sleeps 6.30-6am every night apart from if she's teething or poorly.....or moving about in her sleep which she is currently doing!! Good luck.

Waiting for a good time to Do it now. I want to start on a weekend but this week is going to be very busy at work whereas the week after is ok.... think it's worth waiting as I want to make sure we are consistent.

Definitely wait for a good time. I waited until my DH was off work for a week so we could tackle it head on together and it didn't matter if we were both exhausted.

Have decided for today and tonight. Sleep has gotten more difficult as he has started to refuse naps with me but this results in so much more upset and tears. 8 minutes in. Feels quite terrible but clinging into it will be less years in the long run . :-(

Auto correct. I meant clinging onto it will be less crying in the long run.

FWIW - I was told that when doing CC for nap time, if DS was still awake after 45 minutes then just to abandon the nap.

I think using CC to self settle works better at actual bedtime and then self settling at nap time tends to follow.

The first night we did CC DS lasted 50 minutes until he went to sleep and then it reduced every night. On the 4th night he went off to sleep on his own without us needing to go in to him at all.

When I wrote that.. he then went to sleep a few minutes afterwards. It didn't last as long as I thought. He tends to go down just fine for bed but recent nap times and the waking habitually are the issues. Think he will be fine going to bed tonight but how it goes during wake up is another thing.