Help with huge grown up children & sleep - absolutely no one with a baby should read this!!!!!!

[Bugsy2]

My ds is 5.5 and has been a poor sleeper from day one. He still wakes up during the night, still has milk in a bottle to try & get him back to sleep & still wakes up at 5.30am every day!
I know I'm not completely hopeless as dd who is 3 is a good sleeper.
Anyone had any luck trouble shooting with older children. I am slightly curtailed in that the two children share a room.
I can live with the early wake up, as these days he just toddles off downstairs & watches tv - but could really do without having to get up in the night to provide warm milk for a 5.5yr old.

Bugsy2 my DS1 also clung onto his bottle for a long time - was nearly four when we got him off it - and then would not drink milk out of anything else. However we did then find that he would drink Provamel soya milk (comes in a blue carton) although not a lot of it - one glass per day. He does however eat loads of cheese, and has dairy yogurts - so I have tried not to worry about the milk itself.

All the best Bugsy!

you do know that milk has sugar in it and will rot teeth. you are supposed to brush their teeth after their night-time drink

good luck woth cold turley

Thanks Mud - as if I didn't feel bad enough already!!!!
They are both still at their father's, so I have drawn up two sticker charts for "sleeping through the night", one for each of them on different coloured paper with brand new shiny stickers. When they get 7 in a row, they can choose a prezzie from the £1 shop (which they think is heaven).
I am going to do this first & then the bottle - I don't think I can face both at once, which I know is wimpish!

good luck bugsy. I agree - it has to be done.

BTW might it help if your dd slept in your room for the first couple of nights in case of screaming?

Progress report: star charts are working really, really well. He is sleeping through & so pleased with himself about collecting the stickers in the morning. Hooray and thank you all for the kick up the bum to do it!