bottle feeding past 1yr...any advice on how to fully transition to no milk for sleeping?!

Gladys - posted on 02/21/2012

She's got 2 but not attached to them. In going to start putting one to bed with her

Caylynne - posted on 02/20/2012

Does she have any lovies? My daughter has to sleep with her baby doll. She rubs the silk ribbons on her head.

Gladys - posted on 02/20/2012

I guess my idea was not a good one. Tried to fill her up before bed time.... She didn't want her chicken for dinner, so I gave her cereal, she had like 4 spoons of yogurt, 9oz of milk. Tried to put her in bed bed with water after brushing her teeth, but no luck :'( I tried rocking her to sleep and she only drank 2oz of water if that but wouldn't go to sleep. Even though she was sleepy. Finally I gave her a full bottle of milk and she passes right out almost finished all of it!!! im going to continue to attempt to get her to eat more food. I think that is the problem I just do not know what im doing wrong?! I give her a wide variety of foods, don't do the same foods every day, rarely give her junk food. I'm going to look up a meal plan....

Gladys - posted on 02/20/2012

oh yes and she has her fav. Blanket that she cannot sleep without, but maybe I'll get her a hello kitty pillow =)

Gladys - posted on 02/20/2012

Thank you ladies. Katherine I've been doing this for a month now. I've been giving her less milk during the day (maybe 10 oz, but that might still be too much milk) and more food, water and juice. She's not extremely picky, but she won't eat much. I think this is why she gets mad at no milk to in bed. Im going to try giving her a full 10oz before bed as i hold her, then brush her teeth, then lay her down with a bottle of water for comfort.

Elfrieda sneaking a bottle into her mouth is a great idea. Im going to try that if my other idea does not work, but im sure I'll have to check her diaper sometime after that.

My pediatrician said only give her 2oz of water if she wakes up in the middle of the night but i just feel like she's still hungry and what im doing is not enough.

being a mom is such a guessing game/trial and error but im sure well figure it out!!!

Elfrieda - posted on 02/14/2012

With my son, we also had a hard time taking the nighttime bottle away. I would sneak up at 10:30 pm and wiggle a bottle into his mouth, he would drink it and then sleep through till morning. If he didn't get a bottle, he'd be up in the wee hours, totally mad and awake for an hour! Every once in a while I'd try to skip it, but was always "punished" by the 3AM wake-up. I started giving him 2 oz of formula mixed with 2 oz of water, so it was really watered down, then I went to straight formula again, but only 2 oz.



I think he was 14 months old when my husband said, "He'll be fine. If not, I'll get up with him." And sure enough, he was. It was right about that time that he started falling in love with his pillowcase, and that gave him lots of comfort if he woke up in the night. He likes to twist the edge around his forefinger and then suck his thumb. I admired his pillow with him (his grandma made it and I gave it to him when he turned one) every night as sort of a bedtime ritual, so maybe that encouraged him to attach to it, but I also put any stuffie that he had been particularly fond of that day into the crib with him. I really wanted him to get a "lovie"! I had my bears and a little blanket when I was a kid, and they were great comforts to me. If he would have something like that, it would make me feel better when he fusses in the night. It pleases me that his pillowcase is that to him.



Keep trying to get her off the bottle, but don't worry too much. 14 months isn't that old. Do it gradually and wait until you feel like she's ready. If you could get her to latch onto a comfort object, it would probably help.

Katherine - posted on 02/14/2012

My daughter just took the water. It was weird. She had no problems. Now she won't stop with the bottle and she'll be 3 in March!

She only get's it at nap time and bed and I've tried to tell her all of her bottles are broken, but she doesn't buy it. She'll tell me to buy new ones lol.

Yours should get used to the water soon. I think what you are doing is fine as far as giving her the water and rocking her to sleep. How long have you been doing this for?