Should i just stop feeding him at night??

[Dee78]

Hello all,

I am still having problems with lachlan sleeping at night, he is waking and drinking two to three fairly large bottles through the night when i know that he cant be hungry. Sometimes he will have a huge dinner, bottle and bed at 7pm, and then wake at 10.30 drink a massive bottle and still wake again at about 3am and then again at 6am. Its driving me crazy. He wont drink much milk through the day which is why im a bit hesitant in stopping the night feeds but he just wont sleep for long periods of time and im over it. i know that he can put himself to sleep on his own as he has done it before but if i leave him and dont give him a bottle he will scream and scream until i give it to him and then he will go straight to sleep!

I just dont know what to do!!!

Any suggestions???

[Lucy]

Dee, I must admit, I have not experienced this with any of my babies, but have you tried offering a bottle of warm water instead of the milk?

It is a tough one, for sure.

[Fee]

Cooper is going through this at the moment. I know he can sleep from 6.30 pm to 5.00 am and I know he can self-settle. But he goes through periods of night wakings and for a while there I could not get him back to sleep without a breastfeed. It was the only way to calm him.

Has your DS been doing this for long?

[shellbell3]

One suggestion is every few nights decrease the amount you give him in a bottle by x amount and hopefully he will then take that extra in the day and stop waking at night if he is only getting a small amount.
Maybe start doing it for the 3am wake-up first and see if you can cut that out then try the 10:30 one.

[christy]

I did that with Matilda at that age, I started decreasing the milk in her bottles until we got to 50mls and then I started diluting it as well. So it would be half water and half formula. Now at almost 3 she still wakes up and asks for a bottle and we get her 50mls milk to 50mls water... its mainly a comfort thing with her, but also she gets thirsty... I guess I figure its an easy way to get her back to sleep rather than fight with her and make everyone unhappy. However, if she wakes up more than once at night, she doesn't get another bottle now. She gets a small glass of water & then back to bed.

[Dee78]

thanks for your replies girls.

Fee, Lachlan has been doing this since he was born. He has not yet slept through one night. six hours is the most he has ever slept in one go.
I have started to decrease the amount i am giving him. I know that he isnt hungry so that makes me feel better about doing it.

I will let you all know how i go!

Oh - Lucy, i have tried the water and he just wont have it. When he has the milk he will drink the whole lot and fall asleep straight away!

[Magic]

Hi Dee
How are you going with the reducing of the bottle? I am in the same boat with Mitchell albeit that he is 7 mos old and still doesn't really take to solids. He goes down at 6pm, bottles at 10pm, 4am and 7am - getting up around 6. I heard of the reducing bottle volume via the Elizabeth Pantley book, no cry sleep solutions. But DH thinks that we shouldn't mess with "program" at the moment.....