Techniques for Getting 20 Month Old off the Milk Bottle at Night...

Hi S.,

Try diluting the milk with water. (75% milk and 25% water)If she notices to the point where she is upset... don't add quite so much water... otherwise keep it... how I said.

Do this for a week or two and then add a bit more water and less milk. Then, again after a week or so, increase the amount of water. Soon it will flip flop... more water and less milk until.... the bottle is all water. And once it is all water... try a sippy cup instead of the bottle. I used this method with my twins and it worked! And the water can stay there all night and she can just wake up and take a sip and hopefully go right back to sleep.
Good luck, J.

Hi S.,
Have your daughter give the bottles to someone younger then she build her up as the big girl. Make a special trip to the store to get her a new/ special cup for night use only and only for water. I would also do this on a Friday when you don't have to go to work the next day. It will be rough but won't take to long (not more then a week or so of your daughter flipping out).

J. O
mom of Five

Hi S.,
I suggest reading the Sleepeasy Solution. They have a great technique for night weaning that involves feeding the baby an hour before he/she would normally wake up. It keeps them in a sleepy state, and you slowly decrease the amount of milk/formula they get. Their website is www.sleepyplanet.com. They have a DVD also.

T.

I hate to break it to you, but you are supposed to stop using bottles at around 12 mos just because of this problem. We didnt do it until about 15mos, and were able to make the switch easily once we discovered the Nuk brand sippy cup. Now that its so late in the game, its probably going to be a little rough, but if you take away the bottles (just pitch them on garbage day so you cant wuss out at 2am) after a couple days she'll give up.

Since she does well at daycare w/o the bottle, sounds like it may be time to switch to big girl sippy cups. Good luck mommy. There are frustrating times but they are sooo worth while. Love

Hi...just wanted to let you know what happened to us with my daughter. She took a bottle of milk at bed and would not go to sleep without it...I was too scared to take it away from her. My pediatrician suggested to do 4 ounces for a week, 3 ounces for a week, etc until it was gone. I tried that but one week turned into two weeks, etc and she was 2 1/2 and still on it. One day, I just said enough and went cold turkey. She cried for 20 minutes the first night, 10 for the second night and then she finally just went to sleep. Now, the consequences for MY weaknesses were that she has two cavities and the dentist said that it was from the milk sitting on her teeth all night. That was a terrible day, knowing that my baby had to have two cavities filled at 2 1/2 because of my weakness....so be strong. It will be hard, but it will be worth it in the long run...
I hope everything works out for you. Good luck.

I agree~ slow transitions are best if possible! I'm glad you asked this, because my son will be ready to get off the milk at night soon~ it's not good for their teeth to always have anything other than water sitting on them while they sleep.

We had the same issue with our daughter. She has a healthy weight and at 18 months I just couldn't take it anymore - she should have been sleeping through the night months ago! So I decided to use the advice I got from a "sleep aid book" for infants and children. They said to just not give her anything at all anymore, just stop cold turkey. I went with a slightly different route. When she woke up at night I gave her a cup that she only likes with juice and water (her milk cup has a softer spout). She went beserk on me and got really mad. Eventually I left her alone and just went in to try and calm her down now and then. She cried for 2 straight hours, my husband was so mad at me! But the next night she slept through the whole night and ever since! Good luck! I think it takes some tough love sometimes... :-)

Read Good Night Sleep Tight by Kim West. It suggests a great plan that will not make you feel badly.

Well in our household we kinda go cold turkey. At her age she does not need anything during the night or even a bottle before bed. It is basically a habit. Try a sippy cup and see if that works. If not, I say let her cry for it. She probably knows you are going to give it to her. If you let her know it is not an option she will likely give up after a few days. Those few days may be hard but it will be smooth sailing after that.

Dear S.,

It is important to stop putting anything but water in the bottle to avoid nursing-bottle caries. I am a dentist in Franklin Park. I write a column each month on various dental topics in an Italian-American newspaper called the Fra Noi. If you send me your e-mail address, I will send you some of my articles pertaining to infant care or you can call me at: ###-###-#### (____@____.com).

Sincerely,

Dr. D. R. Pietrini

Hi...I did with my older son...and it did rot his upper front teeth at age 2...so after $400.00 dollars later of dental care,so what we did is take all of his bottles and had him take them all and put them in a bag and tell him that another little baby needed them. So if you dont know another little baby, take them to one of those drop of clothing things or somthing like that. They will take them out of course, but he wont know the difference, he will just know that it is not the garbage. Good luck to you.