Night weaning

[Mountainhighchair]

I'd like some advice on night weaning my 9 month old. She is up every 2 hours wanting a bottle and it's no longer sustainable for me as she often takes ages to settle afterwards now. She goes to sleep on her own at night and for naps no problem. She has a dummy but it's attached to a sleepytot so if she wants it in the night she can easily find it herself. But she is dependent on milk to get back to sleep. We have got into the cycle of her taking in more calories at night than in the day.

Any tips welcome

First make sure you give her extra milk in the daytime if you start refusing it at night.

Then ensure milk drink is completely seperate from going to sleep. Do betime/naptime milk down stairs before starting the bedtime routine.

Then make sure she goes to sleep in her cot, not on your arms.

Then I'd just go for it. Just stop offering it during the night at all. Set up alternate comfort instead. I'd lie down next to the cot (cot was still in our room at that age) and keep shushing, patting, dummy reindeer and generally reassuring through the wake up until asleep.

Give it a couple of weeks and she'll lose the night feed habit.

I've tried giving her extra in the day but she won't drink it. She often refuses her bedtime bottle. She's just got too used to taking it all in at night

She always goes to sleep on her own in the cot, she knows how to self settle but relies on milk at night wakings

She won' t take the extra milk during the day because she doesn't need it of course, she's getting it during the night! Therefore, the first step has to be reducing her intake during the night: I'd do this by gradually reducing the amount you give her, say by 1 oz every two nights for every bottle? I think this is kinder than just going cold turkey, which would mean genuine hunger and distress for her (and you!).

I know that scrumptious!

I would prefer to try gradual reduction, we did controlled crying to get her to self settle for bed and naps and it worked brilliantly but I really don't fancy doing it for all night feeds, just feels too much.