One year old night weaning help!

[jazzyoldjim]

My son is 13m. He is a milk monster (bottle fed) and is still having milk at 7pm, 11pm and 3am. It's 7oz each time and on top of that he has a couple of bottles during the day. We've got into a bad habit of getting him back to sleep with milk.

We decided enough was enough as I feel he is now waking willy nilly and wanting milk all hours. It's affecting his daytime appetite for food.

Tonight I gave him a bottle at 7pm and put him down and he went to sleep in about 10mins. He woke up at 9pm shouting for milk. I went in and gave him his comforter and I have since been in 4 times (patted, shushed and said bedtime) but he is still crying almost an hour later. It is a constant moany cry. I know I need to stay strong but this feels so hard! He can't be hungry after 2 hours so it's purely comfort. Hand hold please?!

I sympathise with you OP.

You need to break the milk to sleep association.

DD used to love milk before bed, but it caused us problems too.

I changed her bedtime routine so that she has milk earlier on. Milk, brush teeth, stories, cuddle to sleep.

If she wakes at night, I give her water rather than milk.

It took about a week before she got used to it.

Stay strong!

Stay strong. The first night will obviously be the hardest.
You got this.

I have a 2yr old milk monster. I have night weaned her several times as we always slip back if she is ill or I'm I'll and I just need sleep.
From experience I would say that tonight will be rough (we did it again last night). It takes us 3 nights, each easier than the last.
Honestly, my daughter would exist exclusively on milk if she could.

A dummy might help? Our 2 year old still has a bottle before bed and I'm not planning on stopping that yet. She has a dummy overnight and it comforts her without the need for milk.

💐

I thought my LO would be a nightmare to night wean as she was also a bottle monster and fed to sleep.

Have you tried reducing amounts? I went from a 9oz bottle at bedtime to 7oz, to 5oz, to 3oz, one night apart. It was 100% a comfort thing. She did stop falling entirely to sleep with the bottles as the milk reduced, and cried a little bit - but a cuddle at that point did the trick as she was half asleep anyway, and she learned to associate cuddles with sleep instead? Good luck OP.