over 1 and trying to stop the early morning bottle - help!

[Sage]

Now hes over 1 i want to stop his first bottle or make it so he has it at a more reasonable time. On a good day he will wake at half 6, play with his toys for a bit and we go down at 7 for a bottle or sometimes straight to breakfast. But id say 4 times a week he will wake between 3am and 5am and DEMAND a bottle. If he has it hes asleep again within minutes. ive tried offering him a drink instead but he will not settle back down. Hes not cuddly at all so i cant cuddle him back down or he'd scream the house down! if i leave him in his cot he wont go to sleep and will either cry or play but when its time to get up he turns into the devil by 10 coz hes knackered.

so sometimes when i have a 10hour shift ahead of me i either give in or its up at 3am, trying everything to get him back off. How do i stop him?! Hes too old to be waking in the night for a bottle now lol but hes determined to keep hold of that bottle! he doesnt care the rest of the day!

does anyone elses LO over 1 still wake for a bottle? How do you wean them off potential night feeds

 

[Sage]

oh dear am i alone in this one

Does anybodies 1 year old still have a bottle in the night? or even a breast feed? How did you get rid of that night time feed?

 

[Misslarue]

Dan went through this stage at about 18 months. He just suddenly started waking up for a feed in the night. He stopped eating as much in the day as he was getting milk in the night. I spoke to my HV and she said 'well you know what you have to do!' So I stopped the bottle!

I was so worried that he would be up all night screaming but as it tunred out, the first night he cried for about 6 minutes. I comforted him but I refused to give him a bottle. My HV did say that I could give him a bottle of water or very watered down milk, but we went cold turkey. I'm very all or nothing!

He only cried the first night and by the second night he slept through again. I was so shocked that it happened so quickly.

 

[sarah jean]

this is def a hard one! i had to get my husband to take over. im from australia. we have a place called trasillian they gave us some good advice but when i tried it it just never worked.
apparently babies respond better to the dad doing it because mums are usually more sensitive to the babies crying, giving in to early etc so my husband had to do it!
they said to go in the room and tell the baby that you here put them back to sleep and walk away(self settling)
(repeating if neccessary which ofcourse it was ). if that doesnt work after an hour then offer them a bottle of water(they apparently after a few nights dont bother to wake if thats all they receive)
there was alot of screaming and crying(from me too)for about 5 hours each night but after about four-six days of sheer hell it worked.
my poor husband was wrecked at work but it was only one crazy week.
it gave me my sanity back!

 

[sarah jean]

oh and if your still breast feeding like i was it is epecially important that your husband does it because they can smell you. they just see you as "oh here is mum with my food" and if you dont give it they wonder why and get more frustrated(this is all stuff i have been told, not sure of the real facts but it did work for me)

 

[Sage]

cheers guys, i think im just guna have to go cold turkey because the longest ive gone at the moment is two days and it was sheer hell.

i tried last night and he woke just after 3am...put it this way he didnt go back to sleep at all!! cried continuously until about 7am. I got him ready as he goes to his nans on a monday because i have work. She said he had a nap between 8 and 9.30 then wouldnt go back down all day so hes knackered!! i got him home at 6pm and he was a complete mess i feel bad because its all my fault because i didnt give him a bottle

I just pray he doesnt wake tonight because i dont have the balls to deprive him again its going to be so hard i feel so mean but i am doing the right thing aren't i?

 

[sarah jean]

you poor thing! i would stick it out for a few more days... but i do get how hard it is and no one would think anyless of you for doing what you think is right for your baby mummy knows best. and that is what it boils down to. there is no right or wrong you just do what works for you. my son is 27 months and he still has 3 bottles of milk in the day, when e gets up when he goes for a nap and before bed at night!i only stopped his early morn feed because i was a mad women without my sleep
if the waking early morning is causing hassle and distrupting to you or your baby keep trying but if you are only tryin to get it to stop because you think you should.... well its up to you but i really hope u have luck with whatever u do