I am looking for some creative advice here. My daughter just turned 11 months. I am in the process of introducing cow's milk and slowly weaning her off of the bottle. Here is my dilemma. She still desires a bottle in the middle of the night. I know that she doesn't need it, it is more of a comfort thing however...Aside from letting her cry, what can I do? My husband is away all week, so it is just me so I have to pick my battles. I tried just giving her water and she still cries. I have started in the past couple of days giving her less and less formula in the bottle, i.e. 4oz of water to 2 oz of formula and that seems to satisfy her but I can only do that for so long. Does anyone else have any suggestions aside from letting her cry in the middle of the night?
P.S. She has a bottle in the morning and a bottle before bed.
Just make up the bottle and put it in her crib.
thing i would think about is, is she ready for cows milk
most dr's recomend you wait until the are 12 months old as their stomachs cant handle the richness of milk and they still need the extras that formula and or breast milk offer.
also some Dr's also say that giving cows milk too early can make children more likely to develop allergies. later on down the road
I just kept watering down the bottle until it was all water. After a few days, he didn't want it any more. Good Luck.
hi J.,
it sounds to me as if you are already doing the smartest thing you can do! watering down the formula gradually and allowing her to slowly lessen her own need for it without trauma is such a kind and stress-free way to go. it does involve taking a bit more time, which is hard to face when you're a sleep-deprived mom, but CIO will deprive both of you more. she WILL let it go, i promise.
:) khairete
S.
Hey Jamie
With my son, what we did is to reduce the amount of powder in the water over a period of time (2 weeks I think) - and then just transition to water - he did not get too upset. I think also if you keep in mind that transitions for kids that are are usually 3 or 4 days long, you could have a rough week, but at the end of it, she might have already forgotten about milk in the night.
My husband is not military but he travels all the time too, so I really understand how hard it can be at times.
Good luck,
you could check out Elizabeth Pantley's book, The No-Cry Sleep Solution (http://www.amazon.com/No-Cry-Sleep-Solution-Gentle-Throug.... she has a lot of suggestions, some of which are easier and/or more intuitive than others, but it might give you some insight and help you through this.
I feel for you; my husband travels a lot and being home alone with the kids when you're not sleeping through the night is grueling.
good luck!
My daugther didn't like drinking cow's milk so I continued breastfeeding her until she's 26 months old. Maybe your daughter needs to eat more solid foods/more milk at evening so she won't wake up asking for the bottle in middle of night. My daughter likes drinking cow's milk ever since and she's 6 and half years old now.
You could try 'dream feeding' her before you go to bed. My kids went down by 8 at night but I usually didnt go to bed until 11 or so. I would feed them a bottle (formula or straight regular milk) right before I went to sleep and that would satisfy until the morning. My youngest was about 16 months before he stopped this.
Hope this helps...good luck, I know what its like to be the only one home to get up with them!
I'm going to be honest the easiest way for you and her is to just stop offering and let her cry. Especially if your husband isn't home. What i did at night when i had to do it was when she woke up at night for one i would go on the porch and let her cry. It's easy if your not just setting there while they do it. But it will only last 1 or 2 nights. She's not hungry she thinks she deserves it. So when she goes back to sleep she normally won't wake up again. But she may be long winded...lol She just check on her and leave again. But don't go to her your fueling the fire by walking all the way in. Walk to the door and listen, if need be peak in but don't go to her. The most i would say is "NO bottle" But the more you interact with her the harder it will be one HER. Good luck it should only last a day or MAYBE two.
I don't know what your feeding schedule is like, but when I started giving my daughter some food before her nightly bottle, that's when she'd sleep through the night for me. It didn't ALWAYS work, but it was a LOT better than before that. I found giving her a graham cracker was great b/c it would be filling, but not hurt her stomach or bother her in any way. I'd give it to her about 30 mins before I wanted her to go to bed. Whatever you try, good luck!
J.,
Try putting some rice cereal in her night time bottle - it should help to fill her up so that she doesn't wake up in the night hungry. I weened my son off of formula w/ the next step - i gave him that for a week or so and then did half of the next step and half milk - he never even noticed! he's 22 months now and i still warm his night time sippy w/ milk - we read books and he drinks his "bahbah". Its a nice bonding time and I think the warm milk helps him sleep - maybe just an old wives tale but it makes me feel good! LOL
Good luck!
A. Haddigan
www.BabysitEase.com
Hi, just now seeing this post, not sure if you still need advice or not. But I went through the same thing with my son, and I do agree with Rachel about crying it out. It sounded so awful to me at first but my pediatrician recomended it and so I tried it and omg it worked WONDERFUL. Yes, it's very hard but it does work and they turn out just fine, I promise. It's not cruel. She is not wanting a bottle at that age because she's hungry it's just habit and she can't fall back to sleep without it. You and her sleep will be so much better if you let her learn how to fall back to sleep on her own. I have been there and done it and my son is now 4 and sleeps great.
