Dropping night feed - 14 mo

[grub17]

My 14 mo currently has about 200ml of cows milk at bed time, a dreamfeed of 260ml of cows milk about 9/10pm and then occasionally another bottle anywhere from 4 to 6am (again about 260ml).

This hasn't really worried us too much, however, with number 2 due in a few months we'd really like to encourage him to sleep through with just a bedtime bottle and a morning bottle iykwim.

So tonight I brought his dinner time back from 6pm to 5pm to encourage a bit of a bigger bottle feed at bedtime (usually dinner is at 6pm but its so close to his 7pm bedtime he's still full). He had most of a 260ml bottle at bed time.

I'm planning on ditching his dreamfeed tonight and just see how he goes. The last few nights of non-dreamfeeding he's woken at midnight, had a bottle, bum change (huge poo last night!!! wtf??) and then back to sleep til about 7.30am

My plan is to let him set the schedule ie no dream feed but also start 'watering down' that midnight bottle until it's just water and then hopefully he'll just decide he'd rather sleep and have a milk first thing in the morn.

I am seeking advice and to hear how/what others have done. We have been stuck on his 10 month old routine as we moved interstate over chrissy and he's been sick for a month so didn't want to add any extra upheaval to his life.

I really think he's old enough to go all night without a bottle now but as you all know, children have their own ideas about these things

Is one bottle at bedtime and one first thing enough for him? He also occassionally has half a bottle after lunch, just before his sleep. It's a very big sleep trigger for him and as we moved to Darwin I don't mind him having as much milk as he likes iykwim. He's a pretty good water drinker during the day but absolutely wants milk at night.

Thanks for reading

[AndiE]

I'll state up front that my two boys have slept through the night from an early age, so I can't help you very much. But I was going to suggest you giving your DS water instead of milk after he goes to bed. Maybe that's a first step in breaking him of the habit? I'm sure you could go "cold turkey", but that might create a few tears in the dead of night which you would probably be keen to avoid (heck, I would!). Maybe water might help ease him into going milk free, and then he might not wake at all looking for it. Good luck.

[grub17]

thanks andiE. I'll try that. Surprisingly, last night went well. he called out at 9pm and 11pm but i left him a bit and he just went back to sleep til 6.45am Hope it wasn't a fluke!

[AndiE]

Sounds promising grub - fingers crossed it's a continuing trend

[danita]

hey, as you know i live here in darwin to, since moving here i just switched the milk to water in Ds bottle as its soo hot here and he would wake very thirsty he used to still ask me for milk but after about 3 nights he started just asking for his water bottle worked a treat not long after he slept through the night and still does...GL with it all

[TaRhLi.]

Hey Grub

Tara only has 2 bottles now and had done pretty much since she went on to cows milk.

She has her dinner between 5pm-5.30pm and then will have a bottle about 6.30pm of around 240ml-260ml (depending on how much dinner she ate) and then into bed between 7pm-7.30pm. When she goes to bed we always offer her water and she will have a drink and then she goes down for the night and when she wakes up in the morning - between 9am-9.30am she will have a bottle of about 260ml-280ml. If she does wake in the night we will only offer her water to drink and 9 times out of 10 she refuses it and just goes back to sleep.

Good idea bringing dinner time forward as this will give him enough time to digest food and then having more milk which will hopefully keep him going over night for you. Good luck..