Going to sleep with a bottle - help meeeeeeeeeeeeeee

My babes are 14 months old, and still take two naps and go to bed around 7pm. UNFORTUNATELY, we found it was really easy to put them to bed with a little bottle. (I would always go and get it and they would always drain it). I know about bottle-mouth, but NOW when DD wakes in the night (and she does, right at 230am) she wants her bottle. We've tried CIO, and it worked temporarily, but we can't do it when we travel and she's not consistent, which means me and DH are up for hours in the night, patting and consoling, making sure she's not stuck in the crib slats, rocking her, etc.

Does anyone have any advice on how to stop the night waking? Does it come down to the fact that I have to RETRAIN them (Ackkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk) and get them to go to bed without a bottle? I can't even imagine how that will go over.

Any advice, mamas?

Kerry

 

Kerry, first do you travel a lot? Is there a break in this? Maybe if you do have one coming, you can give CIO a chance again. I know my guys still wake sometimes and are hard to get back to sleep. But we still practice CIO with them unless they are sick or it's something out of the ordinary with them.

I think as far as the night bottle is going, you could get rid of it. But you don't have to either. I don't necessarily think the two problems are connected. The night feeding needs to be addressed first and then maybe attack the evening before bed bottle problem. Maybe go to sippy cup there too.

:hug99: I wish I had better advice to give you. :hug99:

 

My guys woke alot from 12-24 months they go through seperation anxiety, night terrors it's a busy time for them, we did CIO and unless they screamed or cried for longer than 10 min. in the middle of the night I did not go in and they usually put themselves back to sleep. I only had to actually see what was up less than a handful of times. As for the bottle, mine were done with theirs at 13 months but what I would do is give them only water after a certain time and definately in the middle of the night maybe the novelty will wear off. Also, just switch to a nubby which is a sippy cup but has the soft spout like a bottle they are great for transitioning.

 

I would CIO and then stay consistent, even when traveling do NOT give a bottle if she wakes.

 

Just wanted to let you know I'm there with you. At one point the boys were taking a bottle to go down for naps and at night at this point its just in the middle of the night but seriously mine and yours should be sleeping through..........shouldn't they?! Wishing you the best of luck as we retrain our twins.

I'm going to take the advice from the pp and get the nubby sippies (do they only make one kind?) since mine won't drink from any other ones.

Erica

 

I wouldn't put milk in it. Try water. Then maybe she will realize its not worth waking up for.

 

Can you leave a sippy of water in her crib instead of giving a bottle of milk? I would stop giving the bottle, and also do some CIO if necessary.

 

We switched our girls to the little 4 oz bottles in bed. Then, a week later, we switched the milk to water. Then each week, we slowly decreased the amount of water until they only had an ounce. After a while, the bottles still had water in them in the mornings. That's when we stopped giving them all together. It worked well for us and there was no drama.

 

QUOTE(mich17 @ Aug 13 2008, 06:38 AM) [snapback]927679[/snapback]
I wouldn't put milk in it. Try water. Then maybe she will realize its not worth waking up for.



This is exactly what I did too.