How to Get Him to Sleep Without a Bottle

YOu need to change your bedtime routine. He doesn't need a bottle to go to sleep. He eats enough during hte day. He really doesn't need a bottle at night...i.e. he is not hungry.

Try a bottle before a bath and then rock and read to him. Put him to sleep while is drowsy, but awake. He needs to learn how to fall asleep himself.

Have you tried a pacifier? You really want to break this habit soon. I have seen kids that have done this and their teeth either rot after they come in, or in one case, they came in rotten so they had to be taken out. The poor kid never had front teeth until his adult ones came in - which will add a whole other world of problems with learning how to talk and the possiblity of needing speech therapy later.

Don't want to scare you, but this is one habit that you really want to break soon - and it's going to be painful. I don't envy you.

Good luck
J.

It'll be hard, but I think you should stop giving him the bottle when he wakes up - or at least only give him water. Plus, if you consistently refuse to give him formula he should stop waking up during the night completely. Like I said, it will be hard. He will cry and scream, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Good luck!

Personal opinion here...
Do not give him anything other than the formula in the bottle. As soon as he is old enough to switch to milk make the sippy cup transition. Then its easier to get rid of the bottles. I found it was harder for ME to stop giving the bottles than for baby to accept it.
As for the bottles at night...
Do you offer him a snack BEFORE his bottle at bed time?
If not, try offering him a cerial bar then the bottle. That would give him a bit more weight in his belly to sleep on. Also please do not give him formula at night, for his teeths sake. Is he taking bottles at night as nutrition or calming. (how much does he drink? DOes he nod off pretty quick?) If it is just a comfort thing then try the pacifier If its an i'm thirsty thingtry a sippy cup of warm mint tea (I sweeten mine with a bit of sugar but just a bit) or water.
Just make sure to pull the cup away from him so it doesn't spill when he's sleeping.

From whom did you hear you had to wean him from the bottle 'soon'?

Really, a lot of the half-baked advice you'll be getting (and doubtless have been getting already) is nothing more than fear-mongering and invention.

1. Have you considered that what is waking him up is hunger? That would certainly explain why eating is what puts him back to sleep. I mean, if he needed to have some cold night air or some running around, the bottle wouldn't work, yeah?

2. Children should not drink unmodified cow's milk (or any other mammals' milk apart from their own mother's) until well past a year. It is tremendously high in sodium and calcium -- far too high for little kidneys to deal with when it is 1/2 or more of their daily intake of food. When the full mixed diet has replaced the bottle for all of his meals and most of his snacks, it will no longer be imperitive that he drink ONLY modified milk (formula).

3. When he is 5, he will not be waking in the night (not even out of 'habit') for food, and his need to fall asleep with food in his mouth will have gone away completely. Are you in a hurry, or is someone around you in a hurry for your lad to be 'already grown' on the dark suspicion that if you don't force him to get over being a baby, he won't?

What should you do? Carry on doing exactly what you're doing. It's working, no one is being traumatized or injured in any way. Don't fix what is not broken.

You may like to stop telling whoever is giving you this kind of advice what is really going on in your life, and answer all questions about feeding and sleep with 'we're doing fine, I'm so glad you asked.'