1 year old still waking up for night time feedings!!

[Leahmoo16]

Hi
So my little boy has just turned 1 years old and he hasn’t been having a formula bottle during the day for about 2 weeks now however he still wakes up during the night for atleast 3 bottles.

He always used to sleep through from about 7 months old but since he got his first tooth through he hasn’t been able to sleep through again! 😓

I’ve read a lot online about how to wean him off the night time bottles and a lot of people have suggested slowly watering down his milk for night time feeds until he’s just drinking water and then he shouldn’t want to wake for just water so that’s what I have been doing but it seems to be making him wake up more.
Before he only used to wake for 1-2 bottles in the night but since watering them down he’s been having atleast 3-4 bottles per night now and waking up at 6am when he would always sleep in till 8.

I feel like my only option is to go cold turkey with the night feeds but I honestly hate hearing him cry especially when me and my partner are so tired from getting up so many times with him in a night.

Has anyone had any experiences with this or any helpful advice I feed him 3 meals a day but at this stage he finds it hysterically funny to eat half and then chuck his other half of lunch and dinner to the dogs instead of eating it himself and even when I remove the dogs from the room he will still chuck food on the floor 😓 just worried that he would he hungry in the night but I can’t physically force my child to eat all his meals during the day.

Needing help ! 😂

Watching with interest as we have the exact same issue with 11 month old dd.

Actual food is just a sensory toy at the moment.

I found my DD struggled with just finger type foods, and threw most of it on the floor. For this reason I added in purée foods too and spoon fed her, often with the distraction of a toy to get as much in as possible!

Her food would sort of be like this at age 1-

0700 formula
0830 weetabix or porridge made with rest of formula, bit of toast after (mainly on floor!)
1300 ish - purée meal (either pouch or homemade), yoghurt, some fruit
1730 ish- dinner - same as lunch, maybe a babybel too
1830 baby rice made with formula

She would need a lot of distraction with toys and singing etc to be spoon fed, as just hated (and still does!) sitting still.

My aim was to get as many calories as possible in during the day. That way if she ever woke in the night I knew it was unlikely to be hunger.

She’s 16 months now and doesn’t really eat any purée now, it just took her a while to learn not to throw everything on the floor!

My DD stopped at 13 months when I started to introduce a morning and afternoon snack. She still does not sleep through ( not normal for many more years) but just wakes for cuddles.

Thanks Sipper- I’ve c&p that timetable so I have something to go on

At 14 month ds was still having 4 bottles a night. What I did was drop a milk feed at a time and replace with water.

So I gave a feed at 10 when I went to bed, and then didn't feed until 1am and then 4-5am. Still got up and comforted and settled back to sleep. Then pushed the time back slowly so no milk until 2am then 3am, which is when it went down to 2 feeds 10pm and 3 then up for breakfast at 6-7. Kept moving the morning feed later until it was 6am.

He started to go until 7-8am at about 16 months, only now at 22 months have I stopped giving him a bottle at 10 because he'll now eat it when he goes to bed at 8 and sleep 12 hours.

The first 2 weeks were hell but it got better quickly after that. Also found that once he stopped eating so many calories at night he ate more during the day.

I may be in a minoroty here but I really don't think a one year old should be having multiple bottles of formula in the night, or any in fact. We had a nightmare with weaning our son and in the end had to cut the milk first and hope that eating more followed. It did, very rapidly.

I did the watering down thing and it worked great for us but if you've tried that I would say the next step is cold turkey on the night feeds. You will have a hard few nights but don't have to just leave the child to cry, you can comfort in other ways. I personally believe that one is old enough to learn that eating is a daytime thing. I'm sure others will disagree but how are they supposed to settle into a normal routine of eating in the day and sleeping at night if they're getting bottles of formula on demand at night? Good luck!

The simple answer is to stop giving him bottles in the night. You’re his parent not his best friend and whilst nobody likes hearing a child cry it’s actually good for them to learn they can’t have everything they want and that it’s the parent who is in control.
Tolerate a couple of unsettled nights for longer term gain. A simple message of it’s not bottle time it’s sleep time repeated as necessary.
He’s a year so most of his nutrition should be coming from his meals and lots of overnight bottles put good, healthy eating at risk. H doesn’t need constant food.

I think I spoilt my kkds. Couldnt stand to see or hear them hungry. Just fed them when they were hungry and they grew out of it naturally. I know I dont have to chip in but I think its worth considering a softer approach than a strict routine based on timetables rather than flexibility. Hope you get more sleep soon xx

I agree with a couple of the PP's in that a 1 year old doesn't need multiple feeds during the night. It's more probable that little one is waking for comfort more than for hunger. My DS did the same after initially dropping night feeds so I started to give him a bottle when he woke for a couple of nights until I though "what if he doesn't need milk". The next night he woke so I went in to him, soothed him and he went back to sleep of his own accord. It stopped happening soon after.

If he has a dummy or comforter of some sort, try going into him when he wakes and just comforting him. Leave the room for 15 minutes and see what happens. If he's getting really distressed, comfort him and maybe try what other posters have said about watering down. If he's just having a bit of a grumble/whinge leave him to see if he settles and pop back in to check on him if not.

I had exactly the same with my ds. I went cold turkey on the bottles and it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be.
Food won't just be a sensory thing he's just not hungry because of all the formula!
Ds was the same, two weeks after ditching the milk at night he was eating three meals a day and really enjoying his food.

I went to see my hv as it had got so bad. She said that because every time he woke I put a bottle in his mouth he saw that as how he got back to sleep. Every time he was coming into a light sleep he was waking himself for a feed.
After a couple of nights he knew it wasn't coming so although he stirred a bit he didn't wake properly.

I think you need to stop feeding him in the night, at that age they don't need it and is probably just habit. If you don't want to go cold turkey you could try just offering water and gradually reducing.