Zach's weaning diary

[JumpingIn]

Well he's 18 months and still regularly waking for bottles of (formula) milk in the night, sometimes multiple times. We'd got it down to none at one point, but then illness and teeth and development and guilt over putting him in nursery happened, you know how it is!

Anyway I've had enough. If nothing else it's terrible for his teeth (ok, and my mental health and his nutrition too) Yesterday he had one before bed, 2 in the middle of the night (1 am, 3am) and one first thing in the morning. Guess who didn't eat breakfast!

So I explained to him after his morning feed that we wouldn't be doing bottles anymore, that they're for little babies and he's a bigger boy now. That we could do cups and I'll leave one by his bedside for the night time. He understood what I was saying because he pointed to the bottle, shook his head, then seemed very sad for a little while before declaring 'buhbye' and helping me get rid of the bottle. So now he is aware of the plan at least.

Not too hopeful about tonight!

Any other later bottle/night weaners around? How did it go?

 

[redneckhippy]

If it makes you feel any better my 22 month old is the same. My DH and I decided his 2 yo old birthday is the absolute bottles go in the trash day. He takes cups just fine but bottles comfort him and help him fall asleep. I'm dreading bedtime without them. Lemme know if anything works well for you!

 

[AngelUK]

I weaned one of my twins off bottles at night at around 1y old and the way I did it was to water down the formula more and more till it was mainly water. He lost interest and then actually didn't wake any more for them. Might be worth a try? If he has milk even next to his bed, he might still wake for that but not water.

 

[kellyc1987]

My 20 month old still has a bottle of milk (cows) before bed and one at 7am. I'm dreading weaning him off if the bed time one!

Out of curiosity is there a reason you're using formula instead of cows milk? (Seriously curious, no judgement)

Let us know how it goes!

 

[Rainbow82]

Have you thought about just swapping the milk for water? If he's eating well in the day he won't need the calories from the milk at night and probably won't find water quite as comforting so will eventually be less likely to wake?

 

[JumpingIn]

Thanks all. I know it's not unheard of to still be bottle feeding at this age, but because it's become such a big issue for us I think the best thing will be to ditch them. Yes, we tried the dilution thing but he just refused those bottles but then woke every half hour until we gave him full strength, even just with a little bit of dilution.

As he was sleeping through without bottles at around 13 months I know he can do it, and he was happier when he wasn't too.

Kelly he's not on cow's milk because he is allergic to it. We begin our dairy introduction process next year but cow's milk is the final step in that process, which can take months. He is similarly allergic to goat's milk and is intolerant of soy. He doesn't like the taste of nut milks.

Just going to have to go in confident. I have an exam tomorrow morning so praying it's not a night from hell!

 

[SarahBear]

I only ever used bottles for when I was at work, so for me it's nursing at night. I stopped Violet nursing at night when she was about 2. Her latch was lazy and I was pregnant with very tender nipples. She screamed for it and eventually stopped waking up for it. Leo is 20 months old and wakes up for night nursing. I'm starting to think about when I might night wean him. I originally didn't plan to night wean either, but I had to for my own sanity with Violet and it seems that at some point it's reasonable to do the same with Leo. If I don't do it at 2, I'll probably do it over summer break (I work for schools, so get summer break, woohoo!). He would be about 2 years 3 months at that point... But then I also wanted to do potty training around that time if he didn't take to it of his own accord sooner... But maybe I'll just start that process after the night weaning is firmly established.