Tips on eliminating nighttime bottles? (7-month-old)

alstumb@gmail.com

Okay, I'm really getting fed up, so I'm asking for help. Our 7-month-old isn't even close to STTN. At 3 months, he actually STTN for about 3 weeks. Then he slowly got worse and worse until he got to where he's at now. Last night he went to bed at 8:15pm, was up at 10:45pm, 11:45pm, 1:00am, 4:15am and then I had to wake him up at 5:45am to leave for work/daycare. He wants a bottle every time he wakes up...I seriously think he would drink one every time. Last night I knew he wasn't hungry for the first two wake-ups, so I rocked him back to sleep. He was pissed! He was hitting me, screaming, trying to get off of my lap...he wanted a bottle! When he was up again at 1:00, I did give him a 4oz bottle (he usually drinks 7oz), because I really needed to get some sleep. I know that I probably just need to let him CIO, but his room is right above ours and I can hear him perfectly...I don't like this partially because it makes me sad to hear him cry, but mostly I can't get any sleep with him screaming like that and I have to wake up at 4:45am for work.

Anyone have a similar experience? He is getting his second tooth and has had ear infections on and off, so that's another reason I feel bad letting him CIO. Also, when he cries at night he SCREAMS and doesn't stop. He is a big boy, but I don't think he needs these bottles at night. If I could even get him down to one wake-up, that'd be tolerable.

ETA: He puts himself to sleep at the beginning of the night. Any tips I've found online usually say to make sure they're able to soothe themselves to sleep, which he does just fine for naps and at the beginning of the night.

kalioury

I am in the same boat with my nearly 9 month old, except he's never STTN more than one day in a row so lucky me He takes 7 oz bottles so when he wakes up in the middle of the night (he also doesn't want to be rocked back to sleep) for the last two days I have just been giving him 2 oz. It's barely anything and I'm hoping he'll stop waking up because he'll think it's not worth it lol. Tonight will be night 3 so I guess we'll see... he uses a paci too so I know it's not that he just wants to suck. It's exhausting!

k2west

We just started the Sleep Easy Method: https://www.sleepyplanet.com/

LO was waking a lot and teething. When the 3 teeth finally came in, we started the sleep easy method. We're on day 4 and it's been going well.  I especially like it because it teaches you how to wean the nighttime feedings, which we needed help with!

DawnJM25

My DD was like this- she never STTN and was very inconsistent about nighttime wakeups.  DH and I read Ferber when she was 5 months and when she was about 6.5 mo we started his method of slowly decreasing what we fed her throughout the night until feedings were eliminated, and letting her CIO for small increments.  After 4 nights she was sleeping for 9-10 hours and has been consistent with that for about 6 weeks.  We still do an early morning feeding between 4-5AM because she scarfs 6 oz, so I figure she's hungry and needs it.  I would suggest reading Ferber or another sleep training book. 

RubyEggi

My first dd was a horrible sleeper....and did not STTN until 14 months!! She'd wake up on average 5 x a night and we'd give at least one bottle. She was a big girl too and drank a TON during the day so looking back I know I should have just stopped the bottles sooner but I was so sleep deprived and a very stressed out FTM. Finally one day I decided to stop giving her anything. When she woke up, I would offer her a straw sippy of water. The first night was really bad but I think it took about 3-4 days and she stopped waking up so much and started STTN in about 2 weeks. 

iverske9

Have you tried giving him a dream feed? So instead of waking him up give him a bottle while sleeping. We do this at 10om before we go to bed (he goes down at 7pm) and sleeps till 6:30am. We did have to let him cio a couple of times, and as hard as it was it was for the best for us. I would try to get the ear infections are gone. Do you use Advil? This worked great since it last 8 hours.  Hope it gets better.

shmoop13

my son stop getting a middle of the night bottle when he was about 1 month old. the way we did it was when he woke up we just rocked him back to sleep. it only took about 3-4 days till he was totally done with it. Hes been sleeping through the night ever since. I know its probably not going to be that easy but we started it early. Good luck

led2009

With DD 1 I knew she wasn't really hungry so I started offering a few oz of water instead of milk. In no time she realized that it was pointless to wake up if that's all she was gonna get!

monishabansal

k2west:

We just started the Sleep Easy Method: https://www.sleepyplanet.com/

LO was waking a lot and teething. When the 3 teeth finally came in, we started the sleep easy method. We're on day 4 and it's been going well.  I especially like it because it teaches you how to wean the nighttime feedings, which we needed help with!

We did Sleep Easy at 5 months. It took a week, but she now sleeps 11 hours at night without eating or waking up. And if she does wake up, she puts herself back to sleep within 10 minutes.

noahchristopher

One of the biggest things is to make sure they're eating enough during the day, and then you will know for sure that they don't need the bottle at night.

Is your LO eating solids?  Our son is 7 mos and 3 weeks.  He gets 24 oz of formula in 4 feedings each day every four hours.  Each bottle is followed by a solid feeding about an hour later.  Breakfast is oatmeal and fruit, lunch is a large jar of veggies or 1/2 an avacado, and dinner is a large jar of chicken and sweet pot and a little more oatmeal.

A regular eating schedule during the day is the first step.  Get all those calories in during the day.  Don't let him snack on a bottle.  Space them apart so he finishes each one.

Unfortunaltely, you may have to do some sort of sleep training which will require some tears.  This is to break his waking association with eating.  It is really hard to do, but if you pick a method and stick to it hard core, with zero deviation, it will only suck for a few days and then you should be home free.

Good luck.

alstumb@gmail.com

iverske9:

Have you tried giving him a dream feed? So instead of waking him up give him a bottle while sleeping. We do this at 10om before we go to bed (he goes down at 7pm) and sleeps till 6:30am. We did have to let him cio a couple of times, and as hard as it was it was for the best for us. I would try to get the ear infections are gone. Do you use Advil? This worked great since it last 8 hours.  Hope it gets better.

I don't really want to do a dream feed, because he shouldn't be needing to eat. Our pedi said he should be able to go 10 hours without a bottle and he's barely wanting to go 3. Also, I generally go to bed right after him, so that wouldn't really work. Haha

He's had a constant ear infection for the past two months...this time, the doctor said since there's no fluid, they're just red, we're not going to do antibiotics because they don't want him to become immune to them.

Ugh. Thank you.

alstumb@gmail.com

noahchristopher:

One of the biggest things is to make sure they're eating enough during the day, and then you will know for sure that they don't need the bottle at night.

Is your LO eating solids?  Our son is 7 mos and 3 weeks.  He gets 24 oz of formula in 4 feedings each day every four hours.  Each bottle is followed by a solid feeding about an hour later.  Breakfast is oatmeal and fruit, lunch is a large jar of veggies or 1/2 an avacado, and dinner is a large jar of chicken and sweet pot and a little more oatmeal.

A regular eating schedule during the day is the first step.  Get all those calories in during the day.  Don't let him snack on a bottle.  Space them apart so he finishes each one.

Unfortunaltely, you may have to do some sort of sleep training which will require some tears.  This is to break his waking association with eating.  It is really hard to do, but if you pick a method and stick to it hard core, with zero deviation, it will only suck for a few days and then you should be home free.

Good luck.

He gets a 7oz bottle every 3-4 hours during the day and also gets 3 meals of solids, which is why I know he shouldn't need to eat in the middle of the night. He's not on a set schedule as far as times, but he always finishes a bottle, never snacks.

I don't ever rush in there when he wakes up at night, I always wait until he is crying. Once he gets going, he eventually is screaming his head off and coughing and gagging. Last night he was up at 11:30pm, 4:00am, and 6:30am. For the first wake-up, I did the same as the first night and rocked him but didn't give him a bottle. Again, he screamed his head off but eventually passed out. I don't want him to get used to getting rocked to sleep either, but since I know he is capable of putting himself to sleep, I figure getting rid of the bottles is the first step. I did give him a bottle at 4:00, because he hadn't had one since 7:30pm and I can live with 8.5 hours. And then he wakes up at 6:30 almost every morning because he poops. I'm hoping if I am consistent with not giving him a bottle at the first wake-up, he'll figure out he's not getting one and we'll go from there.

Thank you for your comment.

alstumb@gmail.com

kalioury:

I am in the same boat with my nearly 9 month old, except he's never STTN more than one day in a row so lucky me He takes 7 oz bottles so when he wakes up in the middle of the night (he also doesn't want to be rocked back to sleep) for the last two days I have just been giving him 2 oz. It's barely anything and I'm hoping he'll stop waking up because he'll think it's not worth it lol. Tonight will be night 3 so I guess we'll see... he uses a paci too so I know it's not that he just wants to suck. It's exhausting!

How's it going?

alstumb@gmail.com

Well, yesterday he wa bing crabby all day and screamed whenever I tred laying him in his crib, so we went back to the doctor. Another ear infection! So last night he fr his first dose of the Z Pack, some numbing drops for his ears, and some Tylenol before bed...he slept 8:00pm - 5:00am! I know not to get my hopes up, but it would he nice if his ears are what's been causing him to wake up...