Hi Moms,
I'm appealing to your collective wisdom out there. My son seems to be very firsty at night. We no longer give him milk at night, just water, but on some nights he can drink two 9 oz bottles of water and go through 4 wet diapers. Needless to say, this is ruining our sleep. He also does not like his milk sitting down in daycare (probably because most of the time he drinks it in a car seat on the way to daycare, or in bed, before going to sleep)..
Did any of you experience something similar and how did you change these habits? I'm trying to avoid drastic solutions (like having him cry for hours, so hoping to find an alternative if one exists!).
I'm curious why you won't let him have milk at night. My daughter is 18 months old and we still do 3 cups of milk a day. One in the morning, one before nap, and one before we brush teeth. I think they still need 20-24 ounces of milk a day at that age. Also any chance your son could be diabetic? To be that thristy is pretty odd I would think? I would pay a trip to the doctor. But I think he probably needs more milk.
I wouldn't give him so much water at night. If he is that thirsty let him have milk so that it fills up his tummy and stays there. He may also be drinking so much water because he is HUNGRY. At 15 months old they are not great at telling the difference between their thirst and their hunger given that they used to have a mostly liquid diet. Try giving him some more to eat before bedtime with a milk sippy. Hopefully that fills him up right and he will sleep nicely for you!
Is the room warm or the air dry? Keeping the heat lower or running a humidifier might help.
Personally, I often drink during the night, so I don't necessarily find it unusual that anyone else does.
I would try to encourage him to consume more liquids during the day and ask daycare to do the same.
At my daycare, they encourage them to drink water and it encourages my daughter to ask when she wants it at home.
How is his drinking during the day? And what about his diet? Does he get a lot of prepared foods (they are often high in salt content)? Honestly, I would talk to the doctor - that amount of liquid at night sounds very unusual. If he isn't getting enough during the day, I might see him making it up. However, I would be concerned about something like diabetes or a kidney infection. I have no medical background, but tha tis what popped into my head. I would at least ask an on-call nurse.
I think having milk before bed is still pretty important at this age. I continued to give my daughter milk...warmed up right before bed until she was almost 2, then I just cold turkey stopped. However, when she was about 16 months or so, I transitioned from bottle to the nuk sippy cup. Your son is probably hungry before bed, and not so much thirsty. If he wakes up in the middle of the night thirsty, then give him a little drink of water in a sippy cup. Sometimes, I gave my daughter more milk if she woke up in the middle of the night, it soothed her back to sleep.
